• European Leagues is extending the scope of its complaint to the European Commission about the international match calendar to include FIFA’s abusive conduct regarding the women’s international match calendar and related women’s football regulatory decisions.
• The extension of the complaint explains that FIFA’s conflict of interest as a competition organiser and governing body, coupled with a lack of meaningful engagement with women’s professional leagues, infringes European Union competition law.
• FIFA’s conduct threatens the growth and financial sustainability of women’s professional leagues, and risks player health and wellbeing. The European Commission must now act to ensure that EU law is respected and that the future of women’s professional football is not determined unilaterally by FIFA.

European Leagues has today extended its existing competition law complaint against FIFA to its conduct concerning the women’s international match calendar and related women’s football competitions.

The detailed and evidenced extension of the complaint was formally submitted to the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission.

The submission details the same pattern of conduct identified in the original complaint: FIFA holds conflicting roles as governing body and competition organiser, which gives rise to a conflict of interest. As in men’s football, FIFA consistently uses its regulatory power to favor its own competition and commercial interests to the detriment of women’s football and of European national leagues. The recent controversy surrounding the aborted FIFA Forward Enterprise initiative has further exposed this structural conflict and vividly illustrates how profit-driven motives taint FIFA’s regulatory decisions and decision-making processes.

The case law of the European Court of Justice makes clear that, to continue serving as football’s global governing body, FIFA must exercise its regulatory functions in a way that is transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate so as to neutralise this conflict of interest. In this context, the inclusion of women’s professional league representatives in the decision-making process on calendar-related matters is legally essential.

European Leagues looks forward to working closely with the European Commission, as well as relevant public institutions and football stakeholders, as it carries out its investigation into the complaint. The European Commission must now act to ensure that EU law is respected and that the future of women’s professional football is not determined unilaterally by FIFA.

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