Legal Consequences of the Transit Transfer of a Professional Football Player

Abstract

It is impossible to imagine modern football without transfers of football players. The rights to football players are a valuable asset, and the cost of transfers sometimes amounts to tens or even hundreds of millions of euros. It is not surprising that unfair practices are being implemented in this area in order to circumvent the rules of the International Football Federation (FIFA) or national legislation, one of which is the so-called "bridge transfer" of a professional football player. The essence of the transit transition is to use an intermediate club ("bridge"), the registration of a football player in which is not justified for sporting reasons and is most often aimed at obtaining illegal benefits by participants in the chain of these transactions. Until 2020, the problem of transit crossings was not normalized in the FIFA regulations. However, the CAS practice developed criteria for this phenomenon, and specific decisions protected the rights of clubs that participated in the training of a football player, but were formally deprived of the right to receive compensation under FIFA rules due to the use of a scheme involving an intermediate club. In 2020, the ban on transit crossings was directly regulated by FIFA. Consequently, today, sports sanctions can be applied to participants in the transit (both to clubs and to the player) in accordance with the FIFA Disciplinary Code. At the same time, if an intermediate club was used to circumvent the rules on compensation for training, the relevant club has the right to apply to the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber with reference to a violation of the transit ban.