FIFA Wins Dismissal Of NY Antitrust Suit

A US judge on Tuesday dismissed a sports promotion company’s antitrust lawsuit accusing soccer’s world governing body FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation of blocking foreign clubs and leagues from staging competitive matches in the United States.

US District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan said Relevent Sports LLC failed to show an illegal conspiracy to restrict where teams play, despite a 2018 FIFA policy against official matches outside teams’ home territories, reported Reuters.

Caproni said that even absent a formal “meeting of the minds” there were “obvious rational reasons” for US Soccer to honor the ban, including the prospect that FIFA might otherwise exclude US men’s soccer players and teams from the World Cup.

She also rejected New York-based Relevent’s “conclusory” claim that US Soccer and Major League Soccer pushed FIFA for the ban.

“In short, plaintiff’s amended complaint is devoid of any factual allegations to support the inference that the defendants in this case agreed with anyone, let alone with all 210 other National Associations and countless leagues and teams, to do anything, including to adhere to the policy,” Caproni wrote.

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