About the Journal

The FIFA Legal Journal is the official legal journal of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), conceived as an international open-access publication dedicated exclusively to the study, analysis and understanding of football law on a global scale.

Its creation responds to an essential premise: world football does not thrive solely thanks to talent, passion and competition, but also through solid rules, strong institutions and a culture of integrity. The ecosystem surrounding the sport requires regulatory clarity and rigorous legal thinking in order to grow and adapt to an increasingly complex, interconnected and demanding regulatory environment.

This initiative—led by FIFA’s Legal and Compliance Division—forms part of an institutional project aimed at strengthening transparency, improving legal understanding of football, facilitating access to specialised knowledge and reinforcing a culture of legality in the sport. It complements the FIFA Legal Portal, the organisation of events such as the Football Annual Revue and various training projects.

The FIFA Legal Journal seeks to become an academic and professional benchmark and to establish a space in which the legal, sporting and academic worlds converge, promoting high-level analysis, critical reflection and accessible knowledge, useful both for specialists and for any relevant actor within the football environment.

The content of the FIFA Legal Journal is supported by the participation of specialised committees, internationally renowned academics and recognised experts in the field of sports law, whose work guarantees the quality, depth and relevance of each contribution. These bodies and professionals, who come from different jurisdictions and possess extensive experience in regulatory analysis, dispute resolution and football governance, contribute a solid, critical and comparative perspective that enriches global legal debate. Their involvement ensures that the journal maintains the highest academic and ethical standards, while reflecting the plurality and international character required by contemporary studies in football law.

2. Objectives of the journal

The central purpose of the journal is to bring football law closer to the global community by establishing a stable, rigorous and plural channel to:

  • promote the theoretical and practical study of football law;
  • foster critical reflection on regulatory frameworks;
  • reinforce the principles of legality, integrity, transparency and fairness;
  • contribute to the institutional strengthening of the sport;
  • provide updated, well-grounded knowledge for decision-making.

The FIFA Legal Journal is conceived as an international legal tool that strengthens football through the power of law. Legal knowledge ceases to be a resource reserved exclusively for specialists and becomes an essential pillar of sports governance, directly affecting the integrity of competitions, the protection of players’ rights and the fairness between clubs and federations.

3. Why a legal journal specifically on football?

Modern football can no longer be understood nor managed without a solid, dynamic and constantly evolving legal framework. Essential aspects such as:

  • transfers and contracts;
  • discipline and integrity;
  • dispute-resolution systems;
  • economic and labour rights;
  • compliance;
  • institutional governance;
  • intellectual property and audiovisual rights;
  • protection of minors;
  • contractual and financial sustainability …

are regulated by national and international legal norms that require study, interpretation, analysis and specialised debate.

4. Contents and editorial approach

The journal will address matters of great current relevance through contributions by international experts, including:

  • doctrinal articles;
  • analyses and commentaries on judicial decisions and arbitral awards (including CAS/TAS).

The approach combines academic depth and practical application, ensuring that each contribution is useful and relevant to the journal’s readership.

5. Main themes

Among its principal thematic areas, inter alia:

sports governance, intermediaries, dispute resolution, compliance, integrity, discipline, labour relations, transfers, regulatory interpretation and jurisprudential analysis.

6. Fundamental values of the project

The FIFA Legal Journal is supported by essential values:

editorial independence, academic rigour, transparency, ethics, international plurality, accessibility and scientific innovation.

7. Periodicity and formats

The journal is published in English, on a semi-annual basis, with two issues per year featuring current legal analysis.

It will be available in open access on its official website (legaljournal.fifa.com) and through a link on INSIDE FIFA Legal. Print copies will also be released.

8. Author profile

Our authors include jurists, experts in sports law, CAS arbitrators, members of federation committees, professors and professionals working in football.

9. Target audience

The FIFA Legal Journal is aimed at legal directors, compliance officers, lawyers, judges, arbitrators, academics, policymakers, journalists, students, members of institutions and national or international organisations, and all those interested in the legal dimension of football.

10. Institutional value

This project contributes to strengthening global legal debate, consolidating the professionalisation of sports law, reinforcing transparency and integrity, promoting legal education and encouraging research.

The FIFA Legal Journal is conceived as an international legal tool that strengthens football through the power of law.