An Unusual Case of Termination with Just Cause – When Fans’ Attacks on a Player Provide him with a Valid Reason to Opt out from a Playing Contract

CAS 2018/A/5955 Spas Delev v. FC Beroe-Stara Zagora EAD & FIFA & CAS 2018/A/5981 Pogoń Szczecin Spółka Akcyjna v. FC Beroe-Stara Zagora EAD & FIFA

Date of the decision: 2019-04-18

Arbitrator(s): Petros C. Mavroidis Michael Beloff K.C. Luigi Fumagalli

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) recently annulled a FIFA decision, which ordered the Bulgarian player, Spas Delev, severally and jointly with his new Polish club, Pogoń Szczecin, to pay compensation for breach of contract to the Bulgarian club, PFC Beroe Stara Zagora, and imposing sporting sanctions against both the player and the new club. The Panel, in contrast with FIFA, decided that the player had just cause to terminate his contract after having received no protection from the former club following incidents of harassment by the club’s supporters.

Brief facts

In June 2015, Beroe and Delev signed the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) standard form employment contract valid until 31 May 2017 pursuant to the Labor Code of Bulgaria. According to a clause in the contract, both the club and the player had the right to terminate it “under the provisions of the Labor Code.”

Under the Labor Code, an employee may terminate an employment contract by giving the employer a written notice. The period of notice of termination of a fixed-term employment contract is three months. The party, who is entitled to terminate the employment relationship with notice, may terminate the contract even before the expiry of the notice period by paying the other party compensation amounting to the employee’s gross wage for the unobserved notice period. A State Court found that such constellation is fully valid and applicable to football contracts in Bulgaria in a previous case, involving...

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