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United Athletes announces active support for ‘Justice for Players’ class action lawsuit against FIFA
Following the French professional players' union (UNFP) and the Dutch professional players' union (VVCS), United Athletes, the Belgian professional football players' union, has now announced its full support for the "Justice for Players’ class action lawsuit.
On 18 November 2025, United Athletes posted a press release on its social media accounts:
"United Athletes supports the class action lawsuit brought by Justice for Players
Following in the footsteps of the French professional players' union (UNFP) and the Dutch professional players' union (VVCS), United Athletes is lending its support to the class action lawsuit brought by the Dutch foundation Justice for Players.
On 16 October, the UNFP announced its support for the Justice for Players class action lawsuit.
On 13 November, the VVCS did the same.
As explained on the Justice for Players website (https://justiceforplayers.com/, available in French, Dutch, English, German and Spanish), the primary aim of this class action is to obtain fair financial compensation for all professional players and former players, regardless of their nationality, who have been under contract at some point in their career with a club in an EU Member State (including Belgium) or the United Kingdom between 2002 and the present day. This financial compensation is due – based on the CJEU's Diarra ruling (4 October 2024) – because of the wage deflation caused by FIFA rules deemed illegal by the CJEU. As explained on the ‘Justice for Players’ website, this wage deflation has been estimated at 8% of all wages received by each player throughout their career.
Furthermore (and this is essential!), the class action aims to get FIFA to (finally!) adopt, through genuine dialogue, the governance reforms required by EU law, which include co-decision-making power for players' unions on all issues relating to players' working and employment conditions, in collaboration with representative club associations.
It is in this context that United Athletes has decided to also lend its support to Justice for Players.
To this end, United Athletes will shortly be sending its members and former members an information email explaining in concrete terms how players and former players can register (free of charge and anonymously) for the class action in order to apply for compensation.
To familiarise themselves with this procedure, those who wish to do so can already find all the necessary information on the Justice for Players website. On this site, the registration form is available via the link https://register.justiceforplayers.com/en?ccs=111 (which corresponds to the ‘sign up’ button in the menu)".
Attached is the press release published by "Justice for Players" in response to this new show of support. "Justice for Players" is represented by the law firm “FINCH”. Our law firm, ‘DUPONT-HISSEL’, advises the foundation on European law issues and certain strategic aspects.