FIFA’s ban on clubs will be challenged from the Spanish soccer league of selling the transfer rights of contracted players to investors.
The Zurich-based world ruling body announced the ban on so-called third-party ownership last month, and Tebas referred to European Union rules on the free movement of capital today in an e-mail without offering more details. A FIFA official didn’t immediately return an e-mail seeking comment. The prohibition takes effect on May 1.
European soccer clubs including Spanish league champion Atletico Madrid have turned to the arrangement since the financial crisis began in 2008, raising hundreds of millions of euros to fund transfers and player wages after banks stopped their overdraft facilities.
FIFA announced the ban after European ruling body UEFA and the English Premier League said third-party ownership was a danger to the integrity of soccer because investors could interfere with player trading. In 2008, the Premier League banned the practice after West Ham ceded control of striker Carlos Tevez to investment companies domiciled in the British Virgin Islands.
The wording of the prohibition appears to stop clubs securing credit from banks in exchange for player transfer fees owed to them, which is common practice in Spain and other European countries, according to Felix Plaza, managing partner of the sports and entertainment team at Madrid-based law firm Garrigues.
“It’s restrictive and goes against the free movement of capital” regulations in the region, Plaza said in a phone interview. “FIFA has gone past what is reasonable and it’s going to create problems.”
Atletico Madrid CEO Miguel Angel Gil said in an interview last year alternative financing had allowed his club to compete with richer rivals including Real Madrid and Barcelona, which have more income and get bank loans more easily.
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