Royal Antwerp: Legal bid to torch football’s homegrown quotas suffers shock defeat

A bid to rip up European football’s rules on homegrown player quotas – likened to the landmark Bosman ruling – has been dismissed in a surprise move by a Belgian court. The case, brought by Royal Antwerp and former player Lior Refaelov, had been expected to be upheld after the European Court of Justice gave it qualified backing in 2023. Antwerp and Refaelov argued that homegrown quotas should be deemed illegal on the grounds that they infringed European freedom of movement and competition laws. But the Court of First Instance of Brussels ruled that the rules were proportionate, justified by public interest objectives and did not excessively restrict the mobility of overseas players. The decision has been welcomed by sports law experts concerned by the reluctance of European lawmakers to recognise the specificity of sport in the Bosman and Diarra rulings.  “The judgment of the Belgium Court in the Royal Antwerp case on the legality of homegrown player rules should be welc