La Liga files lawsuit against FIFA

In a move supported by the Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A, La Liga have filed a lawsuit again FIFA and the proposed dates for the 2022 World Cup.

The Spanish Football League (LFO) have filed a lawsuit to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against FIFA to try and change the dates of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which was controversially awarded to that bastion of football, Qatar.

Three independent experts have estimated that clubs will lose money with games moved to the winter and this evidence has been submitted. Javier Tebas, the LFP President, says he has taken the action in defence of the clubs.

"In defence of the interests of the clubs, which are contributing to the international teams. In moving the World Cup to the winter we will lose €65 million."

The World Cup will be held between November 20 and December 18 to avoid high temperatures. The European Club Association (ECA) and the Association of European Football Leagues (EPFL) had put forward a proposal to hold the World Cup between May 5 and June 4. That falls just after Ramadan and would coincide with the Eid Al-Fitr festival so was rejected.

The moving of the World Cup to the winter totally disrupts all the European leagues and continental competitions. While the Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A agree with the action their names are not on the documentation submitted. Tebas explained;

"There is still much fear of FIFA. Using legal channels where there is a difference of opinion is what civilised people do. Nobody should be afraid to resort to a lawsuit claiming their legitimate rights, but there are still those who are afraid.”

The president of the French Football League (LPF) Frédéric Thiriez also supports the legal move.

“The LPF is ready to support all the legal procedures that can be performed by the leagues against FIFA. We must defend the interests of all clubs and not just those who see players go to play for national teams.”

Europe provides around 80% of the players for a World Cup and FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke demonstrated a typical FIFA stance in response.

“There will be no more compensation for the change. Why are we talking about compensation? Has it happened before? Why should we apologise to the club? We had an agreement with them, they receive part of the profits. It was 40 million dollars (€32.5 million) in 2010 and 70 million dollars (€61.6 million) in 2014.”

FIFA seems completely out of touch and with characters like Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke still within the organisation at a high level, FIFA will simply to continue to do whatever it wants no doubt. Sepp Blatter of course recently told the press he hadn't in fact resigned, now there's a man you can trust.