FIFA's
FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (“the Regulations”) and specifically within Articles 3-6 of Annex 1 of the “Release of Players to Association Teams”. The general rule is that “every player registered with a club is obliged to respond affirmatively when called up by the association he is eligible to represent on the basis of his nationality to play for one of its representative teams” (Article 3). A player is only obliged to refuse the call up if they are ill or injured and said illness or injury has been approved by their national association (Article 4). The sanctions for a player refusing a call up for any other reason include their preclusion from playing for their domestic team for the duration of their national team’s inclusion in the tournament, plus an extra five days (Article 5). Prior to an amendment of Annex 1 on 1 June 2016, sanctions also included points deductions and the forfeiture of matches in cup competitions in which the player played, whilst his national team was participating in the tournament. However any additional sanctions to those stipulated in Article 5 of Annex 1 are now “to be decided by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee based on the FIFA Disciplinary Code” (Article 6), pursuant to an amendment to Annex 1 in June 2016. This potentially gives the Committee a wider range of sanctions to choose from.