FIFA Football Tribunal 2025/26: player–club disputes hit record 2,346 as Agents Chamber stays idle

Player–club employment disputes before the FIFA Football Tribunal climbed to 2,346 in 2025/26, up 14.8% on the previous year and the highest figure ever recorded, while the Agents Chamber once again heard no cases at all. Those are the two numbers that matter most for players and their representatives in the fifth Football Tribunal Report, published on 30 September 2026 and covering 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026.

A record caseload across the board

FIFA's Disputes and Regulatory Applications Department (D&RA), the Tribunal's secretariat, received 22,417 cases, applications and enquiries in the period, described as "a new all-time high". Of these, 3,827 were disputes and 18,590 were regulatory applications.

The Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) took in 2,698 claims: 2,346 employment-related disputes between players and clubs, 205 solidarity contribution claims and 147 training compensation claims. The Players' Status Chamber (PSC), which handles coach–club disputes and club-versus-club contractual disputes, received a record 1,129 claims, up from 986 in 2024/25 and 609 in 2021/22.

Contractual and employment-related disputes as a whole rose 14.7% year on year. In contrast, claims for solidarity contributions and training compensation fell 34.1%, a direct consequence of the FIFA Clearing House, which has handled training rewards for transfers since 16 November 2022.

• 22,417 cases, applications and enquiries received (all-time high)
• 2,346 player–club employment disputes before the DRC (+14.8%)
• 1,129 claims before the PSC (record)
• 111.5 days average processing time for contractual disputes (88.5 in 2024/25)
• 17,293 minor-registration applications (+4.3%)
• 348 eligibility and change-of-association requests (+37%)
• 51 cases sent to mediation, 28 successful

The Agents Chamber remains frozen

The Tribunal is formally made up of three chambers, but the third has been dormant for the entire reporting period. On 30 December 2023 the Bureau of the FIFA Council suspended the FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR) worldwide pending a final decision by the European Court of Justice. Because article 20 of the FFAR is suspended, the report states, "the Agents Chamber (AC) currently has no jurisdiction to hear disputes", and its activity is excluded from the statistics. The chamber nonetheless keeps a full bench, chaired by Brianna Quinn (Australia/Switzerland) with Pierfilippo Capello (Italy) as deputy. The report offers no indication of when it will start hearing cases.

Slower decisions, but more settlements

The average time between a duly filed claim and its resolution rose to 111.5 days in 2025/26, from 88.5 days in 2024/25 (PSC 105.2 days, DRC 114.5 days). FIFA attributes the increase to the record volume, more complex claims, counterclaims and multi-party proceedings, and the first full year of applying the Interim Regulatory Framework (IRF).

The output side also hit records. The DRC resolved 2,171 employment claims, 20.4% more than the year before: more than 50% were decided by the chamber, 25.7% were closed for other reasons and 20.6% ended with a FIFA proposal being accepted, expressly or tacitly. The PSC closed 1,085 claims, 45.4% by decision and 234 (21.6%) through accepted proposals, up from 19.4%.

Mediation doubled, from 25 cases in 2024/25 to 51 in 2025/26, with 28 successful outcomes. The report concludes that mediation "is no longer merely an emerging tool within proceedings before the FT, but rather an established and effective means of dispute resolution."

Minors, World Cup eligibility and transfer windows

Regulatory applications still represent the bulk of the workload. Applications to register minors reached 17,293, an all-time high for the fifth consecutive period and almost twice the 9,019 recorded in 2021/22; 71.2% were first registrations. Of 17,270 resolved applications, 86.5% were accepted and 4.3% rejected. The "parents moved for reasons unrelated to football" exception underpinned 9,298 decisions (59%). Spain led with 2,632 decided applications at an 89.0% acceptance rate, while Portugal (1,860), Qatar (858), Colombia (734) and the United Arab Emirates (617) all exceeded 98%. Average decision time fell from 8.9 to 7.5 days.

The FIFA World Cup 2026 cycle drove eligibility and change-of-association requests to 348, from 254, a rise of 37%. Change-of-association requests alone hit 186 (+38.8%), led by Morocco (13) and Suriname (11); eligibility requests reached 162 (+35%), led by Thailand (12).

Of 2,119 ITC requests that triggered a validation exception in TMS, 949 led to an intervention request, 56% of them for transfers outside the registration period; 752 were authorised, more than 25% fewer than the year before. Under the simplified ITC procedure, which obliges a former association to issue the certificate within 72 hours, ITC disputes have disappeared from the caseload entirely.

What comes next

Two more national dispute resolution chambers, Venezuela and Montenegro, were recognised during the period, bringing the total to 11. The report closes by pointing to the new Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, due to enter into force on 1 January 2027.