NYON: European federation UEFA is to ignore a ruling from a Belgian court and push ahead with implementation of the next stage in its financial fair play project.

A Brussels court has referred to the European Court of Justice a challenge to FPP led by the ‘Bosman’ lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont at the behest of a player agent, Daniel Striani.

Striani’s objection is that FFP is anticompetitive and contravenes European law. The court ordered UEFA not to reduce, as planned, the break-even limits from €45m to €30m as scheduled from next season.

However UEFA announced an intention to appeal which, it has been advised, has the effect of suspending the court order and thus permitting it to push ahead with FFP changes.

A UEFA statement said: “UEFA will appeal this decision of the Brussels Court to the Court of Appeal.

“Since an appeal automatically suspends the ruling of the lower court, it means that UEFA can proceed with the next phase of implementation of FFP, as already planned and as supported by the vast majority of stakeholders in European football as well as the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of Europe.

“UEFA remains fully confident that FFP is entirely in line with EU law, and that the European Court will in due course simply confirm this to be the case.

“UEFA is, in addition, considering further adjustments to the FFP rules in light of the substantially improved position in European football club finance which has been brought about directly as a result of the implementation of FFP.”

The European commission had earlier rejected a complaint to it brought by Dupont and Striani.

Dupont was involved centrally in the 1990s legal process launched by Belgian player Jean-Marc Bosman and which led to the ruling allowing footballers freedom of movement to another EU country without a transfer fee on the expiry of their contracts.

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