Football is war: the EU's limits and opportunities to control FIFA

Abstract

Legendary football coach Rinus Michels famously said that “top football is something like war. Whoever behaves too properly, is lost”. His metaphor perfectly captures the EU’s limits and opportunities to control the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). There is a strong case for controlling FIFA, certainly within a European context. FIFA is however a highly autonomous organization and the importance of football in Europe even gives it leverage over EU member states. Since FIFA aims to have a constructive dialogue with the EU institutions, particularly the Commission, in an effort to consolidate favourable regulatory treatment, the EU seems to be in a unique position to influence FIFA’s conduct. Yet it fails to exploit its potential in full. EU institutions are highly respectful of sport organizations’ autonomous regulation of sport and FIFA has important means for mitigating EU control. Only when the EU demonstrates a comparable degree of proactive behaviour can it increase its leverage over FIFA.