FIFA accused of ‘abusive conduct’ over women’s football calendar in Europe

The European Leagues collective has broadened a legal challenge against FIFA, extending a complaint first submitted to the European Commission in October 2024. That initial filing accused FIFA of misusing its dominant position by not adequately consulting national leagues when it announced the men’s international match calendar in 2023. The umbrella group represents a range of top competitions, including the Premier League and the Scottish Professional Football League.

After formally admitting 14 women’s leagues into its membership in June, European Leagues said it was adding the women’s international match calendar and related regulatory choices to the scope of the complaint. The organisation argues FIFA’s dual role as both regulator and competition organiser creates conflicts of interest and that the federation has repeatedly used its rule-making power to favour its own competitions and commercial aims.

European Leagues warned that FIFA’s conduct threatens the expansion and financial viability of women’s professional leagues and could endanger player health and wellbeing, urging the European Commission to ensure EU law is upheld and that the future of women’s professional football is not decided unilaterally by FIFA. The submission reportedly records the same pattern of conduct the group identified in its original complaint about the men’s calendar.

FIFA has previously maintained that the calendar approved at its 2023 Congress came after extensive consultations with stakeholders and has defended its authority to set parameters for competitions such as the Club World Cup so long as those events fit the agreed calendar. The move to intensify legal pressure on FIFA comes amid wider controversy over a now-abandoned proposal to seek private investment for a company called FIFA Forward Enterprise, which would have seen 20 percent owned by private investors — a plan that European Leagues says highlighted the structural conflict between FIFA’s regulatory role and commercial interests.