- Football Legal # 18
- Football Legal # 17
- Football Legal # 16
- Football Legal # 15
- Football Legal # 14
- Football Legal # 13
- Football Legal # 12
- Football Legal # 11
- Football Legal # 10
- Football Legal # 9
- Football Legal # 8
- Football Legal # 7
- Football Legal # 6
- Football Legal # 5
- Football Legal # 4
- Football Legal # 3
- Football Legal # 2
- Football Legal # 1
Latest FL Journal Articles
30
Jun
2022
European Super League: A Case Pending before the European Court
Introduction
On 18 April 2021, after many rumors, the New York Times reported that 12 European clubs formed a Spanish limited liability company named European Super League (ESL Company) aiming to create a breakaway competition named “European Super League” (ESL).
The shareholders of the ESL Company were the following: Real Madrid, FC Barcelona...
30
Jun
2022
Selected Case-Law of the Swiss Federal Tribunal in Football-Related-Matters (June 2022)
[1] This article traditionally provides an overview on a selection of recent case-law of the Swiss Federal Tribunal (SFT) in relation to civil law appeals against arbitral awards of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) concerning football-related disputes. Sports law practitioners are, as always, well-advised to carefully follow developments...
30
Jun
2022
FIFA and UEFA’s Supension of Russian Teams from a Legal Perspective
CAS 2022/A/8708 Football Union of Russia (FUR) v. FIFA et al.
[1] FIFA and UEFA’s decisions to suspend Russian national teams and clubs from participating in FIFA’s and UEFA’s competitions, as well as UEFA’s decision to declare FUR’s bid to host UEFA EURO competitions as not eligible, raise the question of what legal basis FIFA and UEFA have for suspending national football associations and its affiliated...
30
Jun
2022
The Discretion of CAS in Awarding Compensation after the Termination of a Contract between Professionals and Clubs for Overdue Payables
CAS 2020/A/7242 Al Wahda FSC Company v. Mourad Batna & Al Jazira FSC
Whenever it is found that a player terminated an employment contract for just cause due to overdue payables in accordance with Article 14bis of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of the Players of FIFA (RSTP), the club shall pay compensation in accordance with Article 17, par.1, lit. ii, of the RSTP. The case under analysis shows how the...
30
Jun
2022
FIFA New Regulations for International Loan Transfers
After being delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the new regulations for international transfers will enter into force on 1 July 2022. The following are the main changes that these regulations will represent, while briefly commenting consequential regulatory amendments.
30
Jun
2022
Overdue Payables under Article 12bis RSTP and Recent Published Jurisprudence of the FIFA DRC
[1][2] In this article, the authors will give an overview and analysis of all the published decisions of the FIFA DRC in 2020 and 2021, in relation to Article 12bis RSTP and provide the reader with insights and background information in relation to the requirements of Article 12bis.
30
Jun
2022
A slice of Champignons League please
For an avid football fan and a pizza chef, isn’t the perfect name for your new mushroom (“champignon” in German) pizza, Champignons League? For the owner and pizza chef Sadi Souri of Pizza Wolke in Giessen, Germany, this was precisely the perfect name. UEFA, the owner of the trademark “Champions League”, however, had a different opinion on the n...
30
Jun
2022
Update on the Activities of the AFC Entry Control Body
Background to the AFC Entry Control Body
In late 2016, the AFC General Secretariat decided to exclude a Cambodian football club, Phnom Penh Crown FC, from participating in the 2017 edition of the AFC Cup. This decision was made because four individuals affiliated to the club had, earlier that same year, been found guilty of match-manipulation b...
30
Jun
2022
Domestic Club Licensing Regulations for the Australian Professional Football Leagues
Football Australia has recently announced it is implementing a national Club Licensing system for the A-League Men and A-League Women clubs (the top tiers of the Australian football league pyramid). This initiative is part of a suite of world standard measures being introduced, which include a recently announced domestic player transfer system a...
30
Jun
2022
Sport Integrity Australia refers three submissions to Australian police as part of a football investigation
In the previous edition of Football Legal,[1] the author presented an article on Football Australia’s referral brief to Sport Integrity Australia to develop a complaints process and independently handle complaints made by several Australian football women’s national team players.
30
Jun
2022
Equal Pay of Chinese Women’s Football: Where to Go?
This article introduces and sorts out the legislative framework and judicial practice of equal pay for equal work in China, pointing out that Chinese women football players can defend their right to equal pay for equal work by actively forming players’ unions and conducting collective bargaining in accordance with the law.
30
Jun
2022
General Overview of New CFA 2022 Policies for Professional Football Clubs in China
Football in China started to develop at a much later stage compared to other western countries, with the first professional league established in 1994 and the current Chinese Super League (CSL) in 2004.
Then, further factors such as the immaturity of the domestic football system, several corruption scandals and the poor performance of the Chine...
30
Jun
2022
Commercial Disputes Between French Clubs to be Submitted to Arbitration
On 8 June 2022, the French Professional Football League (LFP) Board of Directors adopted an important amendment to its administrative regulations, stating that, starting with the 2022-2023 season, French clubs will be required to submit to arbitration all commercial disputes exceeding EUR 50,000. The competent sports justice body to deal with th...
30
Jun
2022
The Italian Competition Authority found the German e-commerce Operator Zalando SE Liable for Ambush Marketing Activities related to UEFA EURO 2020
Italian Competition Authority, 29 March 2022, no. 3009, ZALANDO-CARTELLO EURO 2020
For the first time since a comprehensive set of dedicated rules was introduced at the domestic level (with Law Decree no. 16 of 11 March 2020)[1], the Italian Competition Authority has imposed a sanction on a company found liable for ambush marketing activities.
The entity affected by the decision of the Authority is the German e-commerce opera...
30
Jun
2022
Jamaica Premier League Governance Changes Begin to Display Encouraging Outcomes
Football is now the most popular sport in Jamaica and with the significant Jamaican diaspora in such cities such as Atlanta, Toronto, New York, Miami and London (including the many Jamaican heritage players in the leagues of England and the United States of America). The interest in Jamaican football players and club football is growing. Therefo...
30
Jun
2022
Professional Contracts in Japan - Unique classification of contracts for professional players
There are three kinds of contracts for professional football players in the Japanese professional football league. Generally, professional football players have to start from the Professional C Contract, which lim its the player’s salary to JPY 4,600,000 (approx. EUR 34,000), and they aim to step up to next level contracts, i.e. Professional B C...
30
Jun
2022
Dismissal of Criminal Match-Fixing Case Concerning Dutch Eredivisie Player Beugelsdijk
In 2021 following, inter alia, a report from gambling provider Unibet, the Rotterdam police unit, under the direction of the Functional Prosecutor’s Office (FP), launched a criminal investigation into unusual gambling behaviour surrounding the issuing of a yellow card during a football match in the Dutch premier league between Sparta Rotterdam a...
30
Jun
2022
Unilateral Option on the Labour Contract - Valid Clause or a Limitation on Labour Freedom?
In Portugal, work freedom assumes constitutional relevance in Article 58 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, which aims to guarantee that everyone can develop a paid activity without being forbidden or limited access to any position, work or professional category.
This workers’ constitutional guarantee is also expressed in the Portu...
30
Jun
2022
Guide to Russian Football Broadcasting Rights – Legal Framework and Current State of Affairs
The present article aims to analyze Russia’s existing legal framework regarding the distribution of broadcasting rights in football, their exploitation and protection.
30
Jun
2022
Contractual Penalty and Reimbursement of Losses under an Intermediary Contract
It is a common practice in intermediary contracts that early unilateral termination of the contract is subject to payment of a contractual penalty (liquidated damages) by the party who nevertheless terminated it.
30
Jun
2022
Crime and Labour Law in Spain: The Consequences in a Football Player’s Employment Contract of Being Convicted of a Crime
High Criminal Court of the Almería Province, 4 May 2022, Santi Mina
In the wake of the recent decision against Real Club Celta de Vigo (Celta)’s football player, Santi Mina, questions have arisen regarding the potential actions Celta can undertake to sever ties with the player as well as the protections Mr Mina has against such actions. It must be stated that, although Mr Mina’s case is the most recent one, it i...
30
Jun
2022
Conflict of Interest and Ethics in Sports: Spain and the Rubiales Case
During the month of May 2022, Spain has been flooded with audio recordings of various different meetings and calls between Luis Rubiales (ex-football player and current President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation - RFEF) and various other football figures (most famously, Gerard Piqué, current player of FC Barcelona and part-owner of FC An...
30
Jun
2022
Basque Football Federation: A Steeplechase to Official Status
The Basque Country’s desire to have its national football team made official has been reawakened in recent times.
30
Jun
2022
FC Andorra: How Tax Advantages Affect Competition in Spain
This article aims at analyzing the potential advantages FC Andorra will hold when competing in Spanish competitions given the tax advantages it holds and how these will be mitigated or can be mitigated by the Spanish leagues.
30
Jun
2022
The conflict of Defensor Sporting players against their club
On 6 November 2021, Defensor Sporting Club issued an official statement in which it informed, among other measures, that as of 7 November 2021, nine players from its main squad would train separately. This resulted from an internal conflict between some members of the main squad, the coaching staff and various club officials.
30
Jun
2022
Club Nacional de Football and Cerro Largo Fútbol Club’s legal dispute over league match
On 11 September 2021, at the Raúl Goyenola Stadium in the city of Tacuarembó, Uruguay, Club Nacional de Football and Cerro Largo Fútbol Club played the match corresponding to the first matchday of the Clausura Tournament of the 2021Uruguayan Championship. On this occasion, a dispute arose over the active role of the suspended Cerro Largo coach.
30
Jun
2022
Significant Growth for Women’s Soccer in the U.S.
Women’s soccer has grown exponentially over the last decade, inching ever closer to equality with the men’s game. The sport took its biggest, most significant step towards equality recently when, during the first half of 2022, both the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) were able to secure firstof-their-...
30
Jun
2022
The Choice of Arbitrators by the Parties’ Lawyers
This article was written by the author on the basis of his intervention on 3 September 2021, during the colloquium "Disputes before the CAS: specificity and normality of sports arbitration", organised under the scientific direction of Cécile Chaussard, David Jacotot, Clotilde Jourdain-Fortier and Gérald Simon - CREDIMI's Sports Law Lab...
30
Jun
2022
Claudia Pechstein v. Court of Arbitration for Sport : Advantage CAS?
As the read can easily guess, I was thinking of a title for this contribution while Wimbledon was in full swing. As to this short introduction, I was literally interrupted in the drafting by the news of the German Federal Constitutional Court (“Bundesverfassungsgerichts”)[1] upholding Claudia Pechstein’s claim that the arbitration agreement in f...
30
Jun
2022
Different Approaches to the Application of Art. R57 par. 3 CAS Code
Article R57 par. 3 CAS Code provides the arbitrators with a wide margin of discretion to exclude evidence if it was available or could reasonably have been discovered by the parties before the jurisdictional instances of FIFA or its confederations. This article critically assesses the extremely restrained jurisprudence of the CAS in this context...