A legal complaint made by players’ agents and supporters against UEFA’S break-even rule ‘Financial Fair Play (FFP)’ has been referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the lawyers who brought the case and UEFA said yesterday.

The case was referred to the ECJ by a Belgian court where the complaint was made.

The ECJ will be asked if FFP “violates the following EU fundamental freedoms: free competition, free movement of capital and freedom to invest, free movement of workers and free movement of services,” said lawyers Jean-Louis Dupont and Martin Hissel in a statement.

“As counsels for the claimants we believe this Belgian judgment is the right answer to the FFP issue,” said Dupont and Hissel following the ruling by the Court of First Instance in Brussels.

“Let’s have the highest EU court examining peacefully its EU legality.”

The court also granted an interim measure to prohibit European soccer’s ruling body UEFA implementing a second phase of FFP which involved reducing the permitted deficit for clubs from 45 million euros ($50.22 million) to 30 million euros.

UEFA said it had appealed the ruling and would be able to press on with FFP.

“Since an appeal automatically suspends the ruling of the lower court, it means that UEFA can proceed with the next phase of implementation of FFP,” said European soccer’s governing body in a statement.

The case was brought on behalf of players’ agent Daniel Striani and football supporters from several clubs including Manchester City and Paris St Germain who were both sanctioned by UEFA last season for breaching FFP rules.

UEFA is due to discuss possible changes at its executive committee meeting in Prague on June 29-30.

FFP was approved by UEFA in 2010 in an attempt to prevent rich owners from pumping unlimited amounts of cash into clubs. Clubs who take part in European competition can no longer spend more than their generated revenue.

Critics have said that it prevents smaller clubs from growing and cements a status quo in which the same teams dominate the Champions League and European domestic leagues.