Footnotes #9: A new transfer window, the Diarra case and Real Madrid lost in court

Welcome to Footnotes, a newsletter on the events and stories shaping the football industry. Click subscribe above to be notified of each edition.

Here is my starting XI this week:

1?? A new transfer window

2?? What to do with St. James’ Park

3?? A new home for Luton

4?? Barcelona's legacy costs

5?? Man United should be concerned

6?? Is this an earthquake? The Diarra case

7?? Pogba will be back in March

8?? Mafia links with Milan fans

9?? Real Madrid lost in court

1??0?? Time for austerity in French football

1??1?? Mateus Mané chooses England over Portugal

1?? A new transfer window

FIFA proposed a third transfer window just before the controversial Club World Cup, featuring a new 32-team format. This exceptional window, set to open at the beginning of June and close five days before the competition, is intended to "make it easier for teams to sign players" and provide clubs with "the appropriate legal framework to strengthen themselves for the competition."

Additionally, FIFA will allow teams participating in the Club World Cup to replace players with expiring contracts by opening a window from 27 June to 3 July.

Check details in The Athletic, Sport Bible and Marca [Spanish]

These new rules will serve as a litmus test for the values seen in the transfer market. If what some football executives claim is correct—that Euro 2024 delayed transactions and disrupted the market’s flow, contributing to the decline in transfer market value last summer—then, with FIFA’s proposal, we should expect an improved market from June to August.

But will we? I would not rule out the possibility that the decrease in transfers' values is, in fact, a structural consequence of Fair Play regulations and the reduced financial power of Europe’s giants.

2?? What to do with St. James’ Park

Modernising St. James' Park or building a new stadium? That is the dilemma facing Newcastle’s owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Building an entirely new stadium would come with enormous costs, ranging from €2.4 billion (￡2 billion) to €3.6 billion (￡3 billion). However, keeping the current stadium would also carry a significant price tag, with estimates between €954 million (￡800 million) and €1.2 billion (￡1 billion), according to The Telegraph.

You can read more on The Telegraph and SportsPro Media.

3?? A new home for Luton

Luton Town FC, relegated from the Premier League last season and now sitting 21st in the Championship, is also planning a new 25,000-seat stadium.

4?? Barcelona's legacy costs

Barcelona lost €91 million last season due to a legacy problem: the Bar?a Vision platform, a subsidiary company for media rights.

The Catalan club had sold almost half of Bar?a Vision to raise money but did not collect the promised funds, and their auditors forced a loss of 141 million euros.

Had this not happened, Barcelona would have made a €12 million profit, with new records in sponsorship and merchandising, an unprecedented profit from players and a €170 million reduction in the wage bill. In addition, the Bartomeu administration says the club has lost more than €100 million by moving the first team to the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium while Camp Nou is on renewals.

You can check The Athletic for more details.

5?? Manchester United should be concerned

Manchester United's start to the season has not been promising and the problem might become much bigger than just the results—at the moment, Erik ten Hag's side is 14th in the table, 10 points behind leaders Liverpool and 6 points off fourth place (which would give them access to the Champions League).

The Times points out that if the club misses out on that competition again, it may have to deal with the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

6?? Is this an earthquake? The Diarra case

Did you feel the earth move last week?

Did you not? Well, the football industry did.

Let's talk about the Diarra case, which many are already comparing to the Bosman rule of the nineties that revolutionised the transfer market.

The European Court of Justice ruled that certain aspects of FIFA's Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players are incompatible with European Union law.

The story goes back to Russia in 2015 when some clubs were in a 'hangover' following financial excesses. Lokomotiv Moscow, one of those clubs, tried to cut Lassana Diarra's wages in the first year of a four-year contract. Diarra decided to leave the club and filed a claim with the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber for unpaid wages. At the same time, Lokomotiv countersued the Frenchman for compensation for breach of contract.

The initial ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was not favourable to Diarra, who was ordered to pay €10.5 million. The decision also had other implications, as any club interested in signing Diarra would have to share the compensation with Lokomotiv. As a result, Belgian club Charleroi pulled out of a deal to sign the French midfielder.

After waiting for the ban to expire, Diarra joined Marseille in 2016 and later played for Al Jazira and PSG, where he ended his career in 2019.

However, the legal battle continued until last week's decision, which challenged two key FIFA rules: one stating that a player who wishes to end a contract early "without just cause" must pay compensation; and another making the new club liable for that compensation.

The court decided those rules "impede the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by going to work for a new club."

The implications for the transfer system are still unclear. Will this provoke a complete overhaul of the current transfer rules? There is no consensus. As journalist Matt Slater writes in The Athletic, "It is now up to the Belgian court to apply the ECJ ruling to the Diarra case, which could clarify things slightly and certainly provide some time for the dust to settle."

You can read the full judgement here [via FFAR, in French].

But you will probably prefer Matt Slater's article in The Athletic or Paul MacInnes' piece in The Guardian; lawyer Alkis Papantoniou's brief on the case; investment executive Achille de Rauglaudre's summary; and researcher Antoine Duval's analysis.

You can also read FIFA's application to the Belgian court and the Opinion of Advocate General Szpunar (via the sports lawyer Gregory Ioannidis)

7?? Pogba will be back in March

It started as a four-year ban, but after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Paul Pogba saw the doping offence reduced to 18 months (from September 2023).

“Finally, the nightmare is over. I can look forward to the day when I can follow my dreams again,” said the French midfielder. [BBC]

Whether he will ever play for Juventus again is another matter. According to journalist Fabrizio Romano, the player and the Italian club are “expected to agree on a contract termination as he will become a free agent.”

8?? Mafia links with Milan fans

Italian police have arrested 19 people, including the leaders of the AC Milan and Inter Milan 'ultras' fan groups, accused of criminal links to the 'Ndrangheta mafia.

You can read the details in the Associated Press.

9?? Real Madrid lost in court

In 2006, Le Monde published an article about doping, suggesting there were links between Eufemiano Fuentes, a Spanish doctor accused of being part of a doping scheme, and four Spanish clubs, including Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The two clubs have always denied doping or any connection with Fuentes—who was later convicted in 2013 and cleared of all charges in 2016—but Real Madrid went further at the time and sued Le Monde.

The result? First, a Spanish court ordered the French newspaper to pay Real Madrid €390,000 in damages, but Le Monde refused to comply.

The Spanish giants then took the case to the French courts, which upheld the original ruling.

However, an appeals court overturned the decision, raising concerns about freedom of the press and expression.

That was not the end, though, as Real Madrid appealed to the Court of Cassation (the highest court in France), which referred the matter to the European Court of Justice.

And the ECJ announced the decision last week. “The enforcement of a judgment ordering a journalist and a newspaper editor to pay compensation for damages must be refused to the extent that it infringes freedom of the press,” ECJ said, according to The Athletic.

1??0?? Time for austerity in French football

After failing to meet promises of significantly higher TV revenue for Ligue 1 clubs, the French football governing body's president, Vincent Labrune, will face a 30% salary cut, reducing his earnings from €1.2 million. According to L'Equipe [in French], the LFP also plans to reduce other costs.

1??1?? Mateus Mané chooses England over Portugal

Wolverhampton Wanderers' young striker Mateus Mané, called up to both the Portugal and England U-18 squads [Reuters], has chosen to represent England, his club announced.

"Despite receiving two call-ups this month, Mané will travel to Marbella to participate in a four-team tournament with the England U-18s," the club stated on their website.

"Mané has also been named in the Portugal U-18 squad but will join the Young Lions to face Sweden before taking on the winner of a match between Ukraine and the Netherlands," Wolverhampton added.

Thank you for reading!

Vítor Rodrigues Oliveira