(CN) — A quota system requiring European professional soccer teams to train young players at academies they run may breach European Union competition and free movement laws, the bloc’s top court said Thursday.
In its third major sports-related ruling Thursday, the European Court of Justice told a Belgian court to take a closer look at the legality of a so-called “homegrown players” mandate.
Also Thursday, the court said major soccer and skating federations were in violation of antitrust laws by restricting rivals from setting up competing events. All combined, the rulings rocked the sports world.
Since 2009, the Union of European Football Associations, Europe’s governing soccer body better known as UEFA, has required professional teams to name eight homegrown players of any nationality in a 25-player squad. The idea was to counter a trend whereby the richest teams hoarded the best players and to foster the growth of local talent.
Under this rule, at least four of the homegrown players must have spent three years with the club between the ages of 15 and 21. Up to four players could have trained at another club from the same country. During matches, teams do not have to field any homegrown players.
But this mandate — and its adoption in 2011 by the Belgian football association — was challenged by Royal Antwerp, a Belgian club, and one of its players with a non-EU nationality in addition to his Belgian nationality.
They argued the rules violate EU laws governing fair competition and free movement of workers, in part because they favor teams and players in big countries and cities.
Belgium’s Court of Arbitration for Sport initially rejected their damage claims. But that decision was appealed to a French-speaking court in Brussels, which in turn asked the Court of Justice for legal guidance.
While not declaring the homegrown player rules unlawful, in ordering the Belgian court to proceed with the case the Court of Justice said they might violate EU laws.
“The requirement could infringe both competition rules and the free movement of workers,” the court said in a news release. “However, the national court in charge of the case will have to verify whether or not that is the case.”
In its ruling, the court said the quota systems “are likely to place at a disadvantage” non-Belgian professional players from playing in Belgium.
“Those rules are likely to give rise to indirect discrimination at the expense of players coming from another member state,” the ruling said.
It added that the rules “appear to limit or control one of the essential parameters of competition, namely the recruitment of talented players.”
Nonetheless, the court said UEFA and the Belgian football association must be given a chance to prove how the homegrown mandate is justified and encourages recruitment and training.
The court said it may be in the public interest to maintain a homegrown player system to bolster “the recruitment and training of young professional football players.”
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.