EDIT: Fixed. Problem was solved with a clean reinstall. Problem details for future sufferers below.
You cannot go in game on any servers but you can "log on" to them and see/create characters. When you try to go in game you are disconnected instantly with no kick message from the server. Be smart, restart.
I'm replying this thread in order to help people who come here looking for answers to similar problems with freelancer, a clean reinstall also helped me with frequent randomic game crashes (such as crashing to desktop when launching the game or logging in) and also randomic server disconnections (which i believe were also connected to corrupted or missing files, since they haven't happened since i reinstalled).
Sometimes we don't want to go thought all the "trouble" and time of reinstalling the program (it's a pain in the [bleep] after all), but it's worth it, saves a lot of time and stress in the future...
C yall in space folks
EDIT: the game still crashes, sometimes, when logging in, after selecting the character (and the docked ship shows up), but this usually goes when the server is crowded (weedends).