Lex Sportiva and European Community Law:Piau Case

The European Court of Justice has dealt with a number of cases of great significance concerning the sports field within the European Union (Walrave/Koch, the case Dona the famous case Bosman, Lettonen, Deliege) and through its jurisprudence has established the inferiority of Community Law against all other rules and regulations opposed to it.

In the particular cases, as listed above, the European Court has reached to the conclusion that community law, and more precise article 2 of the European Convention, is applicable to sports activity only when it's referred to an economic transaction.

According to FIFA' s regulations based on it's article of association, all managers of professional football players are bound by its provisions to attain a professional license or otherwise to accept the relative sanctions.
The present essay, concerning the case PIAU, is dealing with matters such as: in what extent can the activity of a manager of professional football players be considered an economic transaction, whether and to what extent do the EU regulations prevail and whether FIFA, as a private organization with athletic purpose, legitimately enacts provisions concerning economic transactions.

In the case concerned, it's established that the EU regulations are applicable and therefore prevail against opposite regulations made by FIFA, since it is considered to be a business union. Conclusively, it is possible to set restrictions whenever there is a conflict between these regulations and Community Law for competition.

D.P Panagiotopoulos, K. Pashou
Hellenic Center of Research on Sports Law"