Cyprus ranks 2nd in Europe and 1st among EU countries in terms of the number of appeals by football players against clubs. This was highlighted during the two-day FIFPRO conference held in the Netherlands on 5 and 6 March 2025, which was attended by approximately 150 lawyers from around the world.
According to a PA.S.P. announcement, the Executive President of the Association, Spyros Neophytides, and Louis Hadjidimitriou, one of the Association's legal advisors, attended the very important conference that dealt with the main and most serious legal issues of world football.
As stated in the announcement, presentations were made on the very recent and extremely important decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Diarra case against FIFA, by which a number of regulations of the World Football Federation were deemed to be against European Law. Also, recent important decisions of FIFA and CAS in disputes between footballers and clubs were presented, as well as their implementation, issues of sexual harassment, collective agreements, anti-doping and illegal betting. In addition, a presentation was made on the regulations concerning players' representatives, while other serious and topical issues were also on the agenda.
As the announcement notes, internationally recognized and respected sports law lawyers, representatives of FIFA, UEFA and FIFPRO, as well as various football federations, developed the above issues, which will serve as a guide for the future. The thorough analysis of the issues offered the opportunity for in-depth discussion and tangible results.
Moreover, in a special section of the conference, a presentation was made of the cases of football players who appealed to FIFA over the last five years (2020-25) and "unfortunately the results were a punch in the stomach for Cyprus", as stated.
Specifically, PASP continues, Cyprus is in second place in Europe and first in the EU in appeals by footballers against clubs. As regards football federations that are members of UEFA, Cyprus is only behind Turkey, followed by Romania, Greece and Portugal. On the world football map, in terms of cases involving first-class clubs, Cyprus is in fourth place behind Turkey, Saudi Arabia and China, while in terms of cases involving clubs of all categories, the top five are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China, Romania and Cyprus, the announcement concludes.
Source: KYPE
