INTRODUCTION

Emilio García Silvero

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

FIFA

Welcome to the FIFA Legal Journal, a new legal publication from FIFA that aims to mark a turning point in the way football law is studied, understood, and applied. This initiative, led by FIFA’s Legal and Compliance Division, is part of a broader effort to promote transparency, legal training, access to knowledge, and institutional strengthening in sport.

In an increasingly interconnected and complex environment, where legal decisions directly affect the integrity of competitions, players’ rights, and fairness between clubs and federations, legal knowledge is no longer a technical resource reserved for the few. Rather, it has become an essential pillar for ensuring governance, sporting justice, and the sustainable development of global football.

Why a legal journal specifically about football? Because modern football can no longer be understood or managed without a solid, transparent, and constantly evolving legal framework. Player transfers, contracts, dispute resolution systems, sport discipline, governance mechanisms, and compliance principles—all of these elements are regulated by legal rules that require interpretation, analysis, and debate. And for that debate to be of high-quality, pluralistic, and accessible, an institutional reference tool was needed. That tool is the FIFA Legal Journal.

This publication has a clear mission: to bring football law closer to the global community, share specialized knowledge, encourage critical reflection, and strengthen the principles of legality, integrity, and fairness in sport. Because sharing knowledge also means sharing responsibility. And an informed football community is a community that is better prepared to defend its rights, assume its duties, and build a fairer game.

The FIFA Legal Journal is an open-access publication, edited twice a year, with an approach that combines academic depth with a practical perspective. The journal is underpinned by essential values: editorial independence, academic rigor, diversity of perspectives, ethical commitment, conceptual clarity, and a pedagogical vocation.

Our objectives are multiple and complementary. First, to create a stable and rigorous channel for specialized legal analysis in sport. Second, to actively contribute to the dissemination of a culture of legality, transparency, ethics, and good governance. Third, to strengthen FIFA’s institutional role as a driver of global standards in sports law. And finally, to facilitate access to quality legal content for a truly international audience.

In addition, the FIFA Legal Journal is part of a broader FIFA strategy aimed at strengthening the legal capacity of sports institutions, improving understanding of regulatory processes, enhancing the quality of decision-making, and ensuring public access to the rules and principles governing the game. Through its pages, it offers a plural, cross-cutting, and up-to-date view of the issues that shape the legal agenda of world football.

We hope that you enjoy the first edition of the FIFA Legal Journal.