The Social Dialogue in professional football at European and National Level ( Cyprus and Italy )
By Dimitra Theodorou
Supervisor: Professor Dr. Roger Blanpain
Second reader: Dr. S.F.H.Jellinghaus
Tilburg University
LLM International and European Labour Law
TILBURG
2013
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Dedicated to:
My own ‘hero’, my beloved mother Arsinoe Ioannou and to the memory of my wonderful grandmother Androulla Ctoridou-Ioannou.
Acknowledgments:
I wish to express my appreciation and gratitude to my honored Professor and supervisor of this Master Thesis Dr. Roger Blanpain and to my second reader Dr. S.F.H.Jellinghaus for all the support and help they provided me. This Master Thesis would not have been possible if I did not have their guidance and valuable advice. Furthermore, I would like to mention that it was an honor being supervised by Professor Dr. R. Blanpain and have his full support from the moment I introduced him my topic until the day I concluded this Master Thesis.
Moreover, I would like to address special thanks to Mr. Spyros Neofitides, the president of PFA, and Mr. Stefano Sartori, responsible for the trade union issues and CBAs in the AIC, for their excellent cooperation and willingness to provide as much information as possible.
In addition, I would like to thank Professor Dr. Michele Colucci, who introduced me to Sports Law and helped me with my research by not only providing relevant publications, but also by introducing me to Mr. Stefano Sartori.
Last but not least, I want to thank all my friends for their support and patience they have shown all these months. Christo E. and Andriani C. this is especially for you.
Dimitra Theodorou
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List of abbreviations
FIFA = Fédération Internationale de Football Association (English: International Federation of Association Football)
UEFA = Union des Associations Européennes de Football (English: Union of European Football Associations)
AFC = Asian Football Confederation
CAF = Confédération Africaine de Football (English: Confederation of African Football)
OFC = Oceania Football Confederation
CONCACAF = Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football
CONMEBOL = Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (English: South American Football Confederation)
EU = European Union
EC = European Commission
ECA = European Club Association
EPFL = European Professional Football Leagues
FIFPro = “Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels” (English: International Federation of Professional Footballers)
Committee = European Sectorial Social Dialogue Committee in the professional football sector
MoU = Memorandum of Understanding
PFSC = UEFA‘s Professional Football Strategy Committee
Clubs = Football Clubs
PFPCMR. = European Professional Football Player Contract Minimum Requirements
CBA = Collective Bargaining Agreement
LAP = Legal Advisory Panel
Agreement = Agreement regarding the minimum requirements for standard player contracts in the professional football sector in the European Union and the rest of the UEFA territory.
Contract = the employment contract signed between a professional player and a Club
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CAS = Court of Arbitration for Sport
CONI = Italian National Olympic Committee
FIGC = Italian Football Federation/Federcalcio (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio)
FIF = Federazione Italiana Football (Italian Football Federation)
AIC = Italian Footballers’ Association/ Assocalciatori (Associazione Italiana Calciatori)
LNP-A /Lega Serie A / Serie A = Lega Nationale Professionisti Serie A = Italian Football League A (1 st Division)
CFA = Cyprus Football Association
CRA = Cyprus Referees Association
PFA = Pancyprian Footballers Association
Regulations = CFA’s Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Arbitration Committee 2012
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Table of Content
*List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Methodology
3. Definitions
3.1 Social Dialogue
3.2 Professional Football
4. European Social Dialogue in Professional Football
4.1 The Social Partners participating in the “ European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee in professional football”
FIFPro and FIFPro Division Europe
European Professional Football Leagues ( EPFL )
European Club Association ( ECA )
UEFA (Union of European Football Associations)
4.2 The genesis of the European Social Dialogue in professional football
4.3 The “European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee in the Professional football” and the Rules of Procedure of the Committee
5. The Minimum Requirements for the European Football Players Contract
5.1 The European Autonomous Agreement on minimum requirements for standard players Contract in professional football
5.1.0 General Remarks 5.1.1 The parties of the Agreement 5.1.2 The content of the Agreement 5.1.3 The Contract 5.1.4 Mandatory provisions of the Contract 5.1.5 Right of the parties to deviate from the current Agreement for the benefit of the players 5.1.6 Implementation and enforcement of the Agreement / Binding effect 5.1.7 Settlements of disputes regarding the implementation progress
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5.1.8 Effect and length of the Agreement 5.1.9 Obligation of renewal of the Agreement 5.1.10 Follow up of the Agreement
6. Social Dialogue in professional football at National Level
6.1 Cyprus
6.1.0 Introduction
6.1.1 The social partners participating in the Cypriot Social Dialogue in professional football
CFA (Cyprus Football Association) PFA (Pancyprian Footballers Association)
6.1.2 The national Social Dialogue in professional football
6.1.3 PFA comments regarding the Social Dialogue in professional football in Cyprus
6.1.4 The European Autonomous Agreement on the minimum standards of professional football players contracts and Cyprus- is the implementation obligatory?
6.1.4.1 The existing national Regulations regarding the contracts of professional football players - General Remarks - The Contract - Dispute Resolution between the Club and the player - Binding effect of the Regulations 6.1.4.2 Comments on regards the CFA’s Regulations regarding the Contracts of professional players
6.1.5 Conclusions
6.2 Italy
6.2.1 Introduction - The professionalism in Italian sports - Football and the employment relationship in football
6.2.2 Stakeholders of Italian Professional Football/The social Partners
FIGC (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio) LNP-A (Lega Nationale Professionisti Serie A) AIC (Associazione Italiana Calciatori)
6.2.3 The Social Dialogue in Italian professional football and the CBA of August 7 th 2012
6.2.3.1 The Social Dialogue
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6.2.3.2 The CBA of August 7 th 2012 - The parties of the Collecting Bargaining Agreement - The Context of the CBA - The duration of the CBA - The binding effect of the CBA 6.2.4 Comparison between the CBA of 2012 and the CBA of 2011
6.2.5 Comments from AIC about the Social Dialogue in professional football at Italian and European level
6.2.6 Conclusions
7. Comparison of the regulations and provisions regarding the Contracts of professional football players at European and at national level (Cyprus and Italy)
8. Final Conclusions and recommendations 8.1 The Social Dialogue at European level 8.2 The Social Dialogue at national level 8.2.1 Cyprus 8.2.2 Italy 9. Bibliography
10. Annexes
Annex 1 : Questionnaire addressed to PFA (Pancyprian Footballer’s Association)
Annex 2 : Questionnaire addressed to AIC (Italian Footballer’s Association)
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1. Introduction
It is a fact that football, or soccer as it is known in some regions, is the most popular sport worldwide. It is associated with passion, emotion, excitement and dedication considering the millions of fans around the world watching and following it.
Is football only a popular sport though?
Football- like any other sport- constitutes a spectrum, facets of which are the cultural, social and most importantly the economic ones for the professional Clubs. Millions- or better to say billions- of Euros are spent in and about football. Football is an industry, a very special and economically powerful one, which ‘sells’ a very profitable product -spectacle-. As a result, clubs nowadays run as businesses.
Parts of the football industry are the football players, who are workers. Football players are hired and paid by the Clubs in order to be part of their team and play football so they can ‘produce spectacle’. Clubs in their turn will ‘sell’ the ‘product’ to the public in many ways so as to make profit. Evidently, based also upon the fact that players are working under the club’s control and instructions, the relationship between them is an employment relationship with the players being an employee to the club they are contracted to 1.
Like any other sector of industry and labour market, the social partners in the professional football may enter into social dialogue in order to discuss issues concerning the industrial relations between them and which may also lead to the conclusion of an agreement (including a collective agreement) 2.
In this Master thesis, an attempt will be made to examine the two-level social dialogue in professional football, i.e. the European and National. The goal is to study the progress of Social Dialogue within the field of professional football and more specifically the outcomes concerning the working relationships and conditions.
At first, the paper will focus on the social dialogue concluded at European level, starting from the presentation of European social partners in the sector of professional football and their initiative to establish a sectoral social dialogue committee based on the 20 May 1998 European Commission decision.
Next, there will be an analysis concerning the work produced by the European sectoral Committee and the Agreement concluded between the European social partners. Thirdly, there will be an examination of the national Social Dialogue (in professional football) in two different countries namely Italy and Cyprus. Starting point of the national Social Dialogue will be once more the presentation of each country’s social partners and the following analysis of the level, context and outcomes of their dialogue.
1 In some eastern European countries, e.g. Czech Republic or Slovak Republic, football players are not considered employees according to the national legislation. However, there are presently attempts to be recognized as such , even indirectly, through the establishment of football player unions in order to enter into social dialogue with the clubs and their leagues. (Source: PROMOTING THE SOCIAL DIALOGUE IN EUROPEAN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL (CANDIDATE EU MEMBER STATES), November 2004 by T.M.C. ASSER INSTITUUT) 2 Article by Tomáš Gábriš , ‘European Social Dialogue in Sports’, the Article is available for downloading by SSRN (Social Science Research Network) available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1635604 (accessed 11/02/13)
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Furthermore, the subject of the Autonomous Agreement’s implementation, which was concluded on European level in the countries at stake, will be addressed. In conclusion, there will be a comparison between the structures of Social Dialogue taking place at European and national level (agendas, ways of approaching the issues, combativeness of the parties) and the effectiveness of their outcomes.
2. Methodology
The information concerning this thesis was collected from the official websites of the social partners at European and national level (national football associations, leagues, trade unions of football players and football clubs associations), a review of literature- including books, articles and research papers- and last but not least from personal interviews taken from the social partners.
The information collected from the official websites of the social partners –European and national- provided a more in-depth understanding with regard to their history, structure, internal and external relations as well as their action in the field of football. This was corroborated by data provided directly by the social partners themselves.
The literature review was utilized in order to collect as much information as possible, thus embracing a wide volume of qualitative data about the topic under examination, as well as to compare opinions and interpret the synthesis of published work. This method provides the researcher with the opportunity to result in more objective findings which will reflect the reality more accurately and from an objective perspective. Furthermore, the existing literature research provides the opportunity to explore possible “dark or even blank spots” in need of review or amendment, which can be of great value for future research.
Moreover, a very useful collection of information and data was conducted through personal interviews given to the author by the national social partners representing the football players. At this point, it is very important to make clear that attempts were made to contact and have discussions with the social partners representing both sides (i.e. employers and employees). The national social partners were contacted and informed about this thesis, its purpose and the under examination topics, through emails. In addition to this, they were kindly asked if there was a possibility for them to cooperate and provide some extra information and commendation as regards the Social Dialogue in general. Unfortunately, only the national football players’ associations (AIC and PFA) have shown interest and have accepted the aforementioned proposal. Due to this, in the present thesis, the points of view and comments of the national social partners representing the employers in professional
9 football were not possible to be included. As regards the methodology used for the interviews of the national players’ representatives, both Associations first received a questionnaire specifically designed for them which included questions and issues for commendation. Then, after they had had some time to study the questionnaires – which were sent to them beforehand in order to be fully aware what the context of the interview would be- we arranged telephone interviews. As already explained, the interviews were based to each Association’s questionnaire.
The reason why these interviews were conducted was that in several cases there were many blank spots and non-replied questions from the existing sources and literature that needed further research. To this end, contact with the relevant social partners was deemed vital with the purpose of addressing them with some questions and issues for discussion or commendation so as to obtain further (inside) information. The information acquired from the social partners constitutes primary knowledge and resulted to a more comprehensive overview and conclusions regarding the research, thus being of extreme importance.
3. Definitions
3.1 Social Dialogue
‘Social Dialogue’ is the dialogue and/or communication activity, between social partners. The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines that Social Dialogue includes all types of negotiation, consultation or simply the exchange of information between or among the representatives of employers, workers and the governments on issues of common interest relating to economic and social policy. Furthermore, the ILO refers to Social Dialogue as an instrument which promotes better living and working conditions and greater social justice, which is relevant to any effort aiming to achieve more productive and effective sectors and enterprises. 3
Social Dialogue intends to the exchanging of views and discussions on work related issues and as a result to influence the development and the arrangement of these issues. Moreover, it is considered a flexible tool that enables to social partners to manage to achieve their goals through cooperation and compromise 4.
At this point, it would be wise for a distinction between the notions of “Social Dialogue” and “Collective Bargaining” to be established. Collective Bargaining is one of the specific forms of Social Dialogue 5 and has a narrower notion compare at the latter. The reason is that Collective Bargaining denotes a process leading only to the signing of a Collective Agreement. On the other hand, the outcomes of Social Dialogue can take various forms, such as: declarations, agreements to common
3 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/index.htm (accessed 20/09/12) 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_dialogue (accessed 20/09/12) 5PARISSAKI, Marili – VEGA VEGA, Sonia: Capacity building for social dialogue at sectoral and company level in the new Member States, Croatia and Turkey, page 1, available at ( http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2007/91/en/2/EF0791EN.pdf accessed 20/09/12 )
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3.2 Professional football
Primarily, football is a sport and complementary results to an economic activity. Because of this dual effect of football, it therefore exhibits many peculiarities that must be pointed out in order to facilitate an approach to the topic of ‘Social Dialogue in professional football’.
Like any other sport, football is special. This is due to the fact that it includes culture, competition, special sporting rules as well as autonomy 7. Thus, it is treated as a special branch of industry which simply cannot be compared with ordinary industries.
The autonomy of sport -and football in particular - serves many functions. However, for the purposes of this paper focus will be given only on the autonomy regarding the organization of sports and the self-regulation.
Football governance resembles a pyramid 8, in which FIFA dominates the apex. Descending from the top to the lower layers of pyramid we meet FIFA’s confederations-which one of them is UEFA 9-, the National Football Associations, the National Leagues and at the bottom the Clubs.
The layers of the pyramid are interdependent. These layers represent the stakeholders in the game of football as well as the ‘rivals’ of the professional footballers’ associations when they are participating on a Social Dialogue. Depending on the level that the Social Dialogue is taking place, the ‘relevant layer of the pyramid ‘will have to will have to be activated so as to commence a dialogue with the representatives of footballers in order to discuss with them (i.e. if the social dialogue is taking place on the international level, FIFA will have to converse with the footballers representatives whereas on a national level it is the national football associations that assume the aforementioned FIFA's role).
FIFA is the international governing body of football10 . Among FIFA’s responsibilities is to draw up regulations and provisions based on which the game of football is played and to ensure their enforcement.
6 Article by Tomáš Gábriš, “European Social Dialogue in Sports” , the Article is available for downloading by SSRN (Social Science Research Network) available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1635604 (accessed 11/02/13) 7 ‘The specificity of sports’ this phrase which recognizes that sports are special in many ways can be found in many documents such as; the ‘White paper on Sports’ paragraph 4.1, in the TFEU Article 165 and in References in CAS case law. 8 See the pyramid at the end of the Chapter 9 Article 20 paragraphs 1 and 3, FIFA Statutes Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes Standing Orders of the Congress-July 2012 edition, available at http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/01/66/54/21/fifastatutes2012e.pdf (accessed 30/10/12) 10 http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/associations.html (accessed 30/10/12)
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At this point, a brief analysis will be provided concerning the interdependence of those organizations will be provided.
According to FIFA’s statutes, FIFA has- as affiliated members-the national associations which are responsible for the organizing and supervising football in their individual countries 11 . The statutes of FIFA’s members’ should comply with the Statutes, Regulations and Decisions of FIFA 12 .
FIFA has six continental confederations 13 , which are the umbrella organizations of the national football associations in each continent. Namely the 6 FIFA confederations are; the UEFA in Europe, CAF in Africa, OFC in Oceania, AFC in Asia, CONMEBOL in South America and the Football Confederation (CONCACAF) in Caribbean and North and Central America. All confederations provide support to FIFA and raise the profile of football further by a range of activities. One of their activities is staging their own competitions at Club and International level 14 .
Each confederation should also comply with the Statutes, Regulations and Decisions of FIFA 15 . As a result, national associations of football are members both to FIFA and the relevant confederation of their continent. The national associations in order to be members of the confederations should also comply with their statutes, regulations and decisions made under them 16 .
National associations as the governing bodies of football in their individual countries also have their own statutes that the national participators of the game (i.e. national leagues and clubs) are obliged to comply with. The same situation exists in national leagues. Last but not least, Clubs also have some internal regulations that their members (i.e. players) should comply with.
11 Article 10 paragraph 1, FIFA Statutes Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes Standing Orders of the Congress- July 2012 edition, available at http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/01/66/54/21/fifastatutes2012e.pdf (accessed 30/10/12) 12 Article 10 paragraph 4 (a), FIFA Statutes Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes Standing Orders of the Congress-July 2012 edition, available at http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/01/66/54/21/fifastatutes2012e.pdf (accessed 30/10/12) 13 Article 20, FIFA Statutes Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes Standing Orders of the Congress-July 2012 edition, available at http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/01/66/54/21/fifastatutes2012e.pdf (accessed 30/10/12) 14 Official website of FIFA http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/confederations/index.html (accessed 30/10/12) 15 Article 20 paragraph 3(a), FIFA Statutes Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes Standing Orders of the Congress-July 2012 edition, available at http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/01/66/54/21/fifastatutes2012e.pdf (accessed 30/10/12) 16 -Article 7bis, UEFA Statutes- Rules of Procedure of the UEFA Congress, Regulations governing the Implementation of the UEFA Statutes, Edition 2012 ‘http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/WhatUEFAis/01/80/54/03/1805403_DOWNLOAD. pdf (accessed 31/10/12) -Article 5(1), CAF Statutes http://www.cafonline.com/userfiles/file/Regulation/CAF%20STA%20ENG%202010%5B1%5D.pdf (accessed 31/10/12) -Article 5(a), CONCACAF Statutes(edition 2006) http://www.concacaf.com/staticFiles/af/41/0,,12813~147887,00.pdf (accessed 31/10/12) -Article 8, paragraph 8(b), AFC Statutes(edition 2011) http://www.the-afc.com/en/resources/regulations-a-guidelines/general- regulations/88-the-afc-statutes (accessed 31/10/12) -Article 11 paragraph 1(a),OFC Statutes (edition 2011) http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/Portals/0/Images/Articles/OFC%20Statutes%20English%20Nov%202011.pdf (accessed 1/11/12) -Combination of Article 6 paragraph 2 and Article 8, CONMEBOL Statutes (edition 2000) http://www.conmebol.com/export/sites/conmebol/pages/descargas/Estatuto_de_la_Conmebol.pdf (accessed 1/11/12)
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On the basis of the above, it is clear that the players are obliged to conform to all the chained Statutes and regulations in order to be able to play/ perform their jobs. In the process of making all these regulations players as workers can rightfully participate to the social dialogue with the relevant ‘regulation making authority’. Consequently, the Social Dialogue in football can exist at many levels.
Depending on the level of the Social Dialogue, the social partners participating into it can be differentiated. On the International level, the consultations and negotiations can take part between FIFPro, the international trade union for the professional football players, FIFA (playing the role of the ‘government’) and (if applicable) the international football Clubs organizations as employers. On the European level (which is also of interest in this paper), the players are represented by FIFPro Division Europe, the employers by ECA and EPFL (representing the clubs and the leagues respectively) supplemented by the presence (and contribution?) of UEFA as a governing body. As far as the Social Dialogue at national level is concerned, the social partners are; the football players associations representing the workers/employees, the national football associations/federations and the Leagues (where applicable) representing the employers (Clubs).
Pyramid of Football Governance
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4. EUROPEAN SOCIAL DIALOGUE IN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL
4.1 The Social Partners participating in the ‘European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee in professional football’
FIFPro and FIFPro Division Europe
FIFPro stands for “Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels” (International Federation of Professional Footballers). The Federation is the representative organization worldwide and exclusive collective international voice of all professional footballers 17 , recognized also as such by FIFA 18 . It was established in 1965 by an initiative taken from representatives of the French, Scottish, English, Italian and Dutch players’ association and its mission is to provide professional football players with support 19 .
FIFPro is currently comprised by 50 member associations, which in total represent more than 50.000 footballers around the world, (including the associations that will be examined in another chapter), 6 candidate members and 9 observers 20 . Each FIFPro member is the national representative organization/association of professional football players and only one member per country is permitted to be represented in FIFPro 21 . Whereas, the national organizations (members) affiliated with FIFPro remain independent 22 they should conform to the FIFPro’s Articles of Association and Regulations. This also implies that their own Articles of Association and Regulations are not in conflict with those of FIFPro 23 .
Among the Federations’ objects, which are clearly stated in FIFPro’s Statute, are the:
1. increase of solidarity between professional football players within the leagues,
17 FIFPro is an umbrella organization of trade unions for professional association football players 18 Memorandum of understanding between FIFA and FIFPro, signed in Barcelona in the 2 nd of November 2006 (http://www.rdes.it/RDES_3_06_FIFPRO.pdf , accessed 20/09/12) page 1/5 19 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFPro and http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/FIFPro/Lastoria/tabid/97/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed 25/11/12) 20 On the 15 th of October during the General Assembly in Washington DC 4 new players unions were added to FIFPro. The new members are the professional footballers’ associations of Croatia (HUNS), Czech Republic (CAFH), Montenegro (SPCFN) and Ukraine (All Ukrainian Professional Footballers’ Association) . http://www.fifpro.org/about# and http://www.fifpro.org/division/news_details/1/2046 (accessed 9/11/12) 21 FIFPro Statue, Article 3 22 According to FIFPro Statue, Article 3, FIFPro members should have the status of legal entities. (except in cases of countries which do not have a representative national organization of professional football players) 23 FIFPro Statue, Articles 4,6(1) and 7(3)
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2. Offer of help in case of necessity to the professional players to establish their leagues,
3. formation of interest groups and other organizations worldwide which will pursue the achievement of Federations’ objectives,
4. the promotion of the professional interests of its members either directly or indirectly and,
5. Most importantly, to pursuit and defense of the professional players rights.
In order to achieve the above, FIFPro fights for labour conditions most favourable to the players both by maintaining relations with the governing bodies of football (such as FIFA and UEFA) so they can have an extended cooperation and consultation on issues concerning professional football as well as by entering collective bargaining agreements. Other important actions toward this purpose provided by the Federation to its affiliated national unions are consultation, support and encouragement in order to establish and/or maintain players’ organizations and strive for their rights on a national level 24 .
According to FIFPro Statute, article 1(4), the Federation has four (4) distinctive divisions which serve the same interests as FIFPro. Namely the four divisions are; Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia 25 . Whilst each division has its own board, it is nevertheless obliged to comply with the regulations, decisions and Articles of Associations of FIFPro as well as to cooperate and consult with FIFPro in order to discuss and find solutions concerning any issues related with the interests of the Union 26 .
FIFPro division Europe 27 is the trade unions’ umbrella organization of professional football players in Europe and deals with issues regarding European professional football by representing the interests of its members. As the competent division of FIFPro, FIFPro division Europe participates in the Committee as the social partner representing the players (workers). According to official website of FIFPro, FIFPro division Europe consists of 24 Associations. 28
24 FIFPro Statue, Article 2 25 FIFPro Statue, available at http://www.fifpro.org/img/uploads/file/FIFPro_Articles_eng.pdf , (accessed 21/09/12) 26 FIFPro Statue, Article 1(5), available at http://www.fifpro.org/img/uploads/file/FIFPro_Articles_eng.pdf , (accessed 21/09/12) 27 http://www.fifpro.org/division/index/1/show:details (accessed 9/11/12) 28 This number of members is the one indicated in the official website but taking into account the fact that in October 15 th 2012 during the General Assembly in Washington DC 4 new players unions were added to FIFPro then the new number of members is supposed to be 28. The new members are the professional footballers’ associations of Croatia (HUNS), Czech Republic (CAFH), Montenegro (SPCFN) and Ukraine (All Ukrainian Professional Footballers’ Association) . http://www.fifpro.org/about# and http://www.fifpro.org/division/news_details/1/2046 (accessed 9/11/12)
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FIFPro division Europe preserves good relationships and cooperation with UEFA 29 . The two associations have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding between them acknowledging and recognizing each others’ status and roles 30 .
Based to the latest Memorandum of Understanding signed between UEFA and FIFPro Division Europe on March 22 nd of 2012 the two parties agreed to reinforce their cooperation and dialogue on the current issues in football. 31 This MoU is consisted by an agreement and 3 Annexes. By the agreement the two parties declared their similar values and concerns based to which they had set their cooperation and defined their objectives of this cooperation. Within the examples of those similar values and concerns which the parties included as the basis of their cooperation are: the values of solidarity, equality and fraternity which underpinned the development and growth of both the trade union movement and sporting movement; the commitment to democracy; the collective exploitation of resources; the respect of professional football players to unionize and respect of their right to collective bargaining; the importance of the link that binds all levels of football and the protection and development of a large and healthy professional football sector in Europe. Furthermore, the parties agreed to seek solutions to the major issues in football together with all the other football stakeholders involved (FIFA, the other confederations, national federations, Leagues, Clubs and players) within legitimate structures, favoring consultation and resolving disputes within the football framework and making use of the methods of Social Dialogue such as Collective Agreements. According to their agreement the objectives of this cooperation between FIFPro Division Europe and UEFA are:
The promotion of their friendly relations, unity and cooperation. To foster the development of professional football in their territory (i.e. Europe) The monitoring of professional football developments on national level in Europe, including the relations between the parties’ members, in all professional player related matters. The fight against doping and in doping matters the defend of the ‘principle of individual case management’. The fight against racism and other forms of discrimination in football by coordinating and supporting each other’s initiatives in this respect. The common support of the implementation of proper arbitration procedures and dispute resolution chambers by associations (operating on the bases
29 http://www.uefa.com/uefa/stakeholders/playersunions/news/newsid=1803085.html (accessed 9/11/12) 30 FIFPro Division Europe and UEFA originally signed a Memorandum of Understanding in October 2007, under which FIFPro Division Europe recognized UEFA as the European governing body for association football at all levels, and UEFA recognized FIFPro Division Europe as the only umbrella organization of trade unions for professional association football players in Europe. A new Memorandum of Understanding was signed by UEFA and FIFPro Division Europe at the XXXVI Ordinary UEFA Congress in Istanbul on 22 March 2012. The Memorandums of Understanding between UEFA and FIFPro are available at http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/uefa/others/601340_download.pdf (edition 2007) and http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/Players'unions/01/78/06/85/1780685_DOWNLOA D.pdf (edition 2012)—both accessed 9/11/12 31 http://www.uefa.com/uefa/stakeholders/playersunions/index.html (accessed 10/02/13)
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defined by FIFA Circular no. 1010) 32 in order to deal with disputes within football. To work towards the protection of minors. To fight the phenomena of match-fixing in European football. To promote Respect as the key principle of football. (Respect for the game, for the participants(referees and opponents), the rules, the diversity, integrity and dignity, the players’ health, the supporters etc) To support the implementation of the rules of the financial fair play in order to improve the financial situation of the European Clubs and the players. In respect of player contracts, to follow the implementation of the minimum contract conditions and to finalize an autonomous agreement in order to implement those minimum requirements and To support, promote and enhance the development of Social Dialogue.
As already stated the MoU is consisted also by 3 Annexes which are integral part of the parties’ agreement. The 1st Annex contains:
i) the European Professional Football Player Contract Minimum Requirements (as were elaborated by the UEFA, EPFL and FIFPro working group); ii) the agreement between UEFA and FIFPro on the European Social Dialogue. (By this agreement the parties accepted the Social Dialogue as a valid instrument for the implementation of agreements on labour matters reached within the PFSC. On the one hand, FIFPro recognized UEFA’s involvement in any formal EU Social Dialogue, even though the latter’s primary role is not that of a social partner, and on the other hand, UEFA recognized the representativeness of FIFPro for the players in the Social Dialogue. Furthermore, the parties declared that the PFPCMR as agreed and included in this MoU will be the theme discussed within the European Social Dialogue in football. Finally, the parties agreed on the procedure for additional themes for discussion within the European Social Dialogue 33 and stated that they both encourage the development of CBAs on a national level.); iii) The Rules of Procedure for the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee in the professional football sector which were signed on 01/07/08 (analysis of these rules will be followed); iv) The PFSC agreement on (EU) Social Dialogue, signed on 14/05/08. (Agreement among EPFL, FIFPro Division Europe, ECA and UEFA, based to which all the parties mutually recognize the role and representativeness of each party and they accepted the Social Dialogue as the valid instrument for the implementation of agreements on labour matters reached by the PFSC. In addition, the parties declared that the PFPCMR as agreed would be the item to be discussed within the European Social Dialogue in football. Furthermore, they agreed on the procedure for addition to the Social Dialogue extra items for discussion. Finally, based to the aforementioned,
32 The FIFA Circular no.1010 is not published by FIFA’s website (accessed 24/01/13) but information about its context can be found in the article under the title “The FIFA Regulations on Labour Status and Transfer of players” by Michelle Colucci and Felix Majani available at http://isjd.pdii.lipi.go.id/admin/jurnal/5408681710.pdf (accessed 24/01/13). 33 For more information about this procedure see Annex 1 of MoU between UEFA and FIFPro Division Europe, “FIFPro-UEFA agreement on (EU) social dialogue” paragraph 5 available at http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/Players'unions/01/78/06/85/1780685_DOWNLOA D.pdf (accessed 10/02/13)
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they agreed to start the ‘European Sectoral Social Dialogue in professional football Sector’ and declared their encouragement of the development of CBA’s on an national level-where appropriate and with respect to the general principles of subsidiary.); v) The Addendum to the Rules of Procedure for the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee, signed on 27/10/08. (These amendments concerned the role of ECA and its formal establishment in the Committee as social partner representing the Clubs.) and vi) The Work Program 2011 and 2012 for the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the professional football Sector. (The working program includes 3 tasks: the implementation of the Autonomous Agreement, the contractual stability/respect of the contracts and the career funds.)
The 2nd Annex of the MoU includes the Agreement between FIFPro Division Europe and UEFA on the definition of the Specify of Sport (as regards Football). Within it the parties agreed on a list of points which cover the specificity of sports in football and set out the practical outlines for the different aspects of the specificity of sport. Those different aspects were categorized under 3 groups, namely: regularity and proper functioning of competitions, integrity and competitive balance.
Finally the 3rd Annex concerns the Operational plan of the MoU between UEFA and FIFPro Division Europe. The parties of the MoU in order to coordinate their activities have elaborated and agreed on an ‘operational plan’ for the period 2012-2015 which is concerning working sessions on a regular basis. According to the Annex itself, its role is to outline the subjects, which have been prioritized, and specify the working procedure between both organizations in order to achieve a fruitful cooperation and an improved dialogue. 34
On the FIFPro Division Europe’s priority list there are several important topics to be promoted. The most important ones are the application of European legislation in professional football and the completion of the Social Dialogue in European football. The main goal that FIFPro division Europe aims to achieve is the collaboration with the other social partners in the Social Dialogue Committee in order to reach an agreement for signing a European Collective Agreement.
Furthermore, it is clear that by participating in the Committee, FIFPro gradually gains more and more power as a trade union/representative instrument of the football players, due to the recognition acquired from the EU institutions, which further results in a stronger voice to exert pressure on the other European football stakeholders 35 .
FIFPro, according to its official webpage, is comprised of 6 Committees, the majority of which are appointed by the board of FIFPro. Namely, the Committees are: the
34 For more detailed information see the document of the MoU available at http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/Players'unions/01/78/06/85/1780685_DOWNLOA D.pdf (accessed 10/02/13) 35 The ‘Social dialogue’ in European professional football, By Michele Colucci and Arnout Geeraert , published by The International Sports Law Journal, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, (the latter is also available at http://www.playthegame.org/fileadmin/documents/AGGIS_article_-_social_dialogue_in_european_professional_football.pdf - accessed 2/11/12)
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Financial Committee; the Technical Committee; the Strategic Committee, the Women Football Committee, the Regulations and Articles Committees and the Social Dialogue Committee. The Financial Committee, which consists of 4 members elected by the Congress, has as major tasks to check the annual account of FIFPro and advise the board on issues concerning the budget, the investments, the strategy for payment of royalties and the funding of projects .Regarding the funding of projects, there are 6 funds that can be used. In order for a project to be financed by one of them, the members of FIFPro can make a request. After a request has been made, the Financial Committee will examine the financial justification of the plan and will advise the board accordingly.
The Technical Committee consists of former professional football players who discuss, within the Committee, matters which are directly linked with the game of football. The aim of this Committee is to make the opinions and positions of the players known, in particular at discussions with the International governing body of football, FIFA, and its Confederations. One of the Technical Committee members is also appointed as the representative of FIFPro in FIFA’s Technical Committee 36 . The Strategic Committee, regardless if it was requested or not, provides the Board of FIFPro with advice concerning various topics with which FIFPro is involved, especially within the area of politics. Further tasks of the Committee are to find solutions for the strategy of FIFPro and carry out the preparatory work for the Board when the latter is determining the opinion of FIFPro about important topics. The Board has the discretionary authority to accept or not the Committee’s opinion as well as to amend it. The Women Football Committee deals with the professional female football and its objective is to identify the challenges, problems and chances in this field of professional football. The task of the Committee is to find and suggest solutions with the contribution of the female professional players. The Regulations and Articles Committee task is to supervise that all divisions and members of FIFPro act in accordance with the Statutes of the latter. 37 The Social Dialogue Committee deals with the preparation, execution and further development of the social dialogue in professional football.
European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL)
The Association of European Professional Football Leagues 38 (EPFL) was founded in 2005, because of the need for an organization which would represent the views of leagues and clubs in areas of mutual interest concerning football 39 . The EPFL is
36 Emilio Butragueño (Spain) is the current representative on behalf of FIFPro in FIFA’s Technical Committee. Base to http://www.fifpro.org/about -under the title Committees/Technical Committee (accessed 11/01/13) 37 The information regarding FIFPro’s Committees were taken from the official website of FIFPro available at http://www.fifpro.org/about under the title ‘Committees’. (accessed 11/01/13) 38 ‘League’: a combination of clubs within the territory of a Member Association and which is subordinate to and under the authority of that Member Association. (definition taken from UEFA Statutes edition 2012-article 1(4)) 39 http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/chairman_foreword.htm (accessed in 8/11/12)
19 based in Nyon, Switzerland and, as an association, is governed by Swiss law 40 . Its origins are traced back to the founding of the EUPPFL (Association of European Union Premier Professional Football Leagues) in 1997. 41 The Association has as a mission to act as the common voice of Professional Football Leagues in Europe on all matters of common interest. Nowadays, since the 2011 enlargement of the Association, EPFL is composed of 22 members and 8 associate members and represents more than 900 Clubs across Europe 42 . The composition of EPFL is based on 4 bodies, namely; the Legislative body (i.e. General Assembly of Members), the executive body (i.e. the Board of Directors), the EPFL administrative body and the Advisory Bodies (i.e. EPFL Committees).
The EPFL’s main role and objectives are; a) to be the strategic lead for professional football in Europe, b) to promote and encourage cooperation, friendly relations and unity between its members and associate members, c) to act as a social partner and participate in social dialogue at the European football level along with the other relevant stakeholders in the field , d) to support and protect the identity, specificity and autonomy of professional football within Europe and internationally and e) to facilitate the collection and exchange of information between the member and associate member leagues in order to promote professional football 43 .
The EPFL, in order to achieve the aforementioned objectives and promote its interests and its purpose, maintains relationships with several entities and institutions not only within the sport but also the political sector. The association has close relationships with FIFA, UEFA, the EU constitutions and the other stakeholders of Football industry, 44 e.g. FIFPro 45 .
As far as the relationship between UEFA and EPFL is concerned, the EPFL was acknowledged as an official partner of UEFA based on the Memorandum of Understanding that both associations signed in 1998 and revised in 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2012 46 . Through these memorandums of understanding both organizations recognize each other’s role and mutually agreed to cooperate for the development of professional football domestically and internationally (mostly in Europe). Furthermore, there was an agreement on the objectives of the cooperation and the obligations that each association had towards its other.
With regard to the services provided by EPFL to its members, the association offers the opportunity not only to exchange information between them and the other relevant stakeholders but also to stay informed and updated for issues concerning professional football. In order to achieve that, EPFL organizes Conferences, elaborates surveys and researches, provides consulting services and has created an
40 http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/who_we_Are.htm (accessed in 8/11/12) 41 http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/history.htm (accessed in 8/11/12) 42 More information about the members and associate members of EPFL can be found at http://www.epfl- europeanleagues.com/member_leagues.htm (accessed 4/11/12) 43 http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/who_we_Are.htm and http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/vision_mission.htm (accessed in 8/11/12) 44 http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/chairman_foreword.htm and http://www.epfl- europeanleagues.com/international_cooperation.htm (accessed in 8/11//12) 45 FIFPro and EPFL through a constructive dialogue they decided together to launch the European Social Dialogue in Professional Football Sector. 46 http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/Leagues/01/78/06/83/1780683_DOWNLOAD.pdf and http://www.uefa.com/uefa/stakeholders/leagues/news/newsid=1803753.html (both accessed in 8/11//12)
20 archive which includes relevant legislations, sport regulations, jurisdictional decisions and publications related to football 47 . It is also of importance at this point to note that EPFL has also its own publications 48 .49
European Club Association (ECA)
The European Club Association (ECA) was founded in 2008, in replacement of the ‘G14’ Group 50 and the European Club Forum 51 . ECA is the sole independent body which directly representing football clubs and their interests at European level and is recognized by FIFA and UEFA as such. The full recognition of ECA from UEFA and FIFA took place with a Memorandum of Understanding signed between UEFA and ECA in 2008 52 .
It currently represents 207 European football clubs, drawn from each and every one of the 53 national associations within UEFA. Out of these 207 member clubs, the 103 are ordinary members whereas the other 104 are associate members. This separation/differentiation between the ECA members is very important for the internal operation and functioning of the Association. Only ordinary members have the right to vote in the ECA General assembly and only their representatives have the right to be elected for the Executive Board of ECA 53 . Moreover, it is important to note that, according to ECA’s organizational Regulations, an ECA membership cycle lasts two years and the precise number of ordinary member Clubs from each member association is established every two years at the end of UEFA season on the basis of the official UEFA country ranking. According to membership regulations, national associations ranked 1st -3rd place are allowed to have 5 ordinary member Clubs, associations ranked 4 th - 6th place are allowed 4, associations ranked 7 th -15 th place 3,
47 http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/information_research.htm and http://www.epfl- europeanleagues.com/conferences.htm (both accessed in 8/11//12) 48 http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/publications.htm (accessed in 8/11//12 49 For Further Information about EPFL and its structure you can read the Constitution of the Association available at http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/files/EPFL_Constitution_2007.pdf (accessed 8/11/12) 50 G14 informally was founded in 1997 but constituted in 2000. It was composed from 18 leading professional football Clubs in Europe and founded as a pressure group against UEFA and FIFA and used as mediators for its conflicts whit the aforementioned organizations the EU institutions. Further information about G14 can be found in the article; The ‘Social dialogue’ in European professional football, By Michele Colucci and Arnout Geeraert , published by The International Sports Law Journal, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, (the latter is also available at http://www.playthegame.org/fileadmin/documents/AGGIS_article_-_social_dialogue_in_european_professional_football.pdf - accessed 2/11/12) 51 Both groups were dissolved in the beginning of 2008. 52 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA) and the European Club Association (ECA) available at http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/Clubs/69/20/31/692031_DOWNLOAD.pdf (accessed 10/11/12) On the 22 nd of March UEFA and ECA signed a new MoU. The renewed MoU is available at http://www.ecaeurope.com/PageFiles/5542/UEFA%20MoU%202012.pdf (accessed 10/11/12). The recognition of ECA from UEFA, after the two signed Memorandums of Understanding, had strengthened and enforced its representative power. Now ECA is represented by 4 members at the UEFA Professional Football Strategy Council (PFSC), appoints half of the members of the Cub Competitions Committee (CCC) of UEFA and have two Board Members invited to attend meetings and make direct representations to UEFA ExCo on matters concerning the clubs. 53 For more information about ECA membership and the separation of ECA members in two categories can be found in the official website of ECA. http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/eca-membership/ (accessed 10/11/12)
21 associations ranked from 16 th - 26 th place 2 and associations ranked from 27 th -53 rd place only 1 ordinary member association 54 .
Clubs that usually face each other as rivals on the field are organized under ECA in order to work together and jointly promote their interests not only as sporting associations but also as businesses in the field of European football. The association declares that its aim is to create a new governance model which will be more democratic and will truly reflect the key role of the Clubs in the game. ECA’s mission is to act in a way that will strengthen each of the Clubs for the benefit of all and to ensure that Club football will be recognized by decision-makers as the most direct link to the fans of the sport and their communities. 55
The main objectives of ECA, as stated in their official website, are 56 ;
a) To safeguard and promote the interests of the European football clubs and football clubs in general
b) To represent the interests of the clubs as employers in professional football and ,where is appropriate, to act as social partners
c) To contribute to the healthy development of European Club competitions organized by UEFA (i.e. Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup), by taking part in the relevant decision making progress
d) To contribute to the good governance of European football, by participating in the appropriate bodies established within UEFA
e) To foster the exchange of information and expertise between clubs and other football stakeholders
f) To support and uphold the sporting values and principles on which European football is based and
g) To maintain cooperation, contacts and negotiations with any relevant public and private institutions as well as with non-members clubs.
In order to achieve its objects as an association, ECA provides services, information and representation to its members. Numerous representatives of ECA participate in several committees and working groups at FIFA (for example FIFA Strategic Committee, Football Committee, Players status subcommittee), UEFA (ex. PFSC, UEFA’s Club Competition Committee) and EU level (Social Dialogue Committee) in order to make the positions and opinions of Clubs heard and taken into account in several matters of great importance in the field of football 57 . Legal services comprise an essential part of the totality of services provided by ECA to its members. Thus, in order to provide the optimum legal advice and information, ECA established a Legal Advisory Panel (hence forth LAP) within the association. LAP aims to help the Clubs exchange knowledge, share expertise and join legal forces in order to be better
54 http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/eca-membership/ (ordinary members), accessed 10/11/12 55 http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/eca-vision-mission/our-mission/ (accessed 10/11/12) 56 http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/ (accessed 10/11/12) 57 http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/eca-representation/ (accessed 10/11/12)
22 aware of and informed on legal problems and decisions concerning their field. For that reason, legal experts and arbitration members from the Member Clubs were brought together in the LAP. Furthermore, a Mediation Platform has also been created, competent to help members solve their financial disputes arising between them 58 .
As far as the organizational structure of ECA is concerned, the most important organs are the General Assembly, the Executive Board and the working groups 59 .
UEFA (Union des Associations Européennes de Football or Union of European Football Associations-in English)
UEFA is the governing body of football -one of the six continental confederations of world football’s governing body of FIFA 60 - at European level and it was founded in 1954 in Basle, Switzerland. Since its foundation, UEFA became the cornerstone of football in Europe, working with and acting on behalf of the European national associations and other game stakeholders in order to promote football.
UEFA’s mission, since its foundation, was the support and promotion of unity and solidarity among the football community members in Europe. Throughout the years, the mission of UEFA extended to the responsibility of being the ‘guardian’ of football in Europe. Nowadays, the European association has, as a responsibility, to protect and nurture the well-being of football at all levels, ranging from the professional football of men and women to the amateurs that play the game just for the fun of it. Moreover, UEFA is responsible for the organization of football competitions in Europe .There are four (4) kinds of competitions organized by UEFA, namely: national associations/teams (e.g. UEFA EURO), European Clubs (UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup), Youth &Amateurs and finally Women.
UEFA currently numbers 53 national associations as members61 and its administrative headquarters are located in Nyon, Switzerland 62 .According to UEFA’s Statutes, Article 11, UEFA may act through four (4) organs, namely: the Congress; the Executive Committee; the President and the Organs for the Administration of Justice 63 . Another very important body of UEFA that amplifies the work of the aforementioned organs is the Professional Football Strategy Council (hence forth PFSC). The PFSC reports directly to the Executive committee and has a very important influence on decision-making. PFSC is responsible for both being in charge of the promotion and identification of solutions in order to improve collaboration
58 http://www.ecaeurope.com/eca-legal/ and http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/legal-advisory-panel/ (accessed 10/11/12) 59 The working groups participate in committees and working groups at UEFA, FIFA and EU level. There are 5 working groups in ECA and among them is the Institutional Relations Working Group whose members are participating in the EU Social Dialogue Committee for football. For more information go to http://www.ecaeurope.com/about-eca/eca-working-groups/ (accessed 10/11/12) 60 http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/confederations/index.html (accessed in 27/09/12) 61 http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/index.html (accessed 8/11/12) 62 http://www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/organisation/history/index.html (accessed 8/11/12) 63 For more information concerning the organs and their role can be found in the Statutes of UEFA , edition 2012, available at http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/WhatUEFAis/01/80/54/03/1805403_DOWNLOAD. pdf .Also very helpful on understating the structure of UEFA’s organization is the figure available at http://www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/organisation/index.html (both accessed at 9/11/12)
23 between the various stakeholders of European football and dealing with the problems concerning the social dialogue in European professional football as well as with questions related to UEFA club competitions and their calendars 64 . The PFSC is composed of 4 different, equal-number interest groups, namely: 4 representatives of UEFA as the governing body of football in Europe; 4 representatives of the European professional football leagues(EPFL); 4 representatives of the clubs participating in UEFA’s competitions (ECA); and 4 representatives of professional players in Europe(FIFPro Division Europe) 65 .
As it was previously mentioned, the social partners agreed upon inviting UEFA not only to participate in the Social dialogue Committee as an associate partner but also to be the chairman. This had to do with the fact that UEFA, according to the notion of ‘specificity of sport ‘, holds a dominant position as the governing body of football in Europe. Before the establishment of the Committee, UEFA was taking all the decisions about European football unilaterally and the other stakeholders of football (i.e. FIFPro and the employers representatives) in order to be heard and show their opposition had to go to courts. So the social partners took the opportunity to invite UEFA to the committee in order to bring them to the ‘negotiation table’ with the other stakeholders 66 .
4.2 The genesis of the European social dialogue in professional football
The European social dialogue, according to European Commission, can take two main forms; a tripartite dialogue involving the public authorities or a bipartite dialogue between the European employers and the trade unions organizations. The bipartite dialogue takes place at cross-industry level and within sectoral social dialogue committees 67 .
Through a decision taken on May 20 th 1998, the European Commission opened the door to social partners and the official commencement of Social Dialogues on European level 68 . With the aforementioned decision, the Commission established Sectoral Dialogue Committees in order to facilitate the sectoral social dialogue on European level between the social partners (bipartite social dialogue) 69 .
64 Article 35, UEFA Statutes, edition 2012 available at http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/EuroExperience/uefaorg/WhatUEFAis/01/80/54/03/1805403_DOWNLOAD. pdf (accessed 9/11/12) 65 http://www.uefa.com/uefa/stakeholders/professionalfootballstrategycouncil/index.html (accessed 9/11/12) 66 Article by Richard Parrish; “Social Dialogue in European Professional Football” Published by ‘European Law Journal’, Vol.17,No.2 March 2011, pp.213-229) 67 http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=329&langId=en (accessed 1/11/12) 68 98/500/EC: Commission Decision of 20 May 1998 on the establishment of Sectoral Dialogue Committees promoting the Dialogue between the social partners at European level, Official Journal L 225 , 12/08/1998 P. 0027 – 0028, available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31998D0500:en:HTML (accessed 2/11/12) 69 More information about the Sectoral Dialogue Committees can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=480&langId=en (accessed 2/11/12)
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Taking into account the decision above and the fact that Commission encouraged the social dialogue in the sport sector by its White Paper on Sport (2007) 70 71 , the European social partners of the professional football decided to take the opportunity given to them in order to launch Social Dialogue on the European level 72 .
On December 10 th 2007 FIFPro and EPFL jointly submitted a request to the Commission for the establishment of a Social Dialogue Committee in the Professional Football sector (the "Committee"). Few months later, after the Commission had confirmed that the conditions for the creation of the Committee existed 73 , the Committee was launched for the first time (in Paris) on the 1 st of July 2008 74 .
In the next subchapters, a more detailed reference to the Rules of Procedure of the Committee, the presentation of social partners, their ambitions/scopes/interests from the participation to the Committee and the outcomes of the social dialogue as a result of the existence of the Committee will be presented.
4.3 The “European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee in the professional football” and the Rules of Procedure of the Committee
Based on the aforementioned Commission Decision, article 5.1 75 , the Committee established and adopted its own Rules of Procedure 76 . With this document the social partners agreed upon many important subjects/functions concerning the modes and operational conditions of the Committee. A short analysis of the important points concerning the context of document, signed by all involved parts, will follow.
70 White paper on Sports (2007) Title 5.3 Social Dialogue paragraph 53 available at http://ec.europa.eu/sport/documents/wp_on_sport_en.pdf (accessed 2/11/12) 71 In this point we have to note that before the existence of the White Paper on Sports preceded already the European Union made two Declarations on Sports, Amsterdam (1997) and Nice (2000), attached to the Treaty of Functioning European Union (TFEU). By these Declarations Member States noted the importance of sports and its social and economic function in European Union. Furthermore, they encouraged the cooperation and dialogue between sports organizations and the European Institutions. (Also see Article By Michele Colucci and Arnout Geeraert, “European Social Dialogue in Sports” available at http://www.playthegame.org/fileadmin/documents/AGGIS_article_-_social_dialogue_in_european_professional_football.pdf - accessed 2/11/12) 72 More details on the legal basis of the creation of the Committee can be found in the above articles; - “European Social Dialogue in Sports” by Tomáš Gábriš , Article available by SSRN (Social Science Research Network), July 6, 2010 and - The ‘Social dialogue’ in European professional football, By Michele Colucci and Arnout Geeraert , published by The International Sports Law Journal, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, (the latter is also available at http://www.playthegame.org/fileadmin/documents/AGGIS_article_-_social_dialogue_in_european_professional_football.pdf - accessed 2/11/12) 73 By a letter dated 13 March 2008 74 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/dsw/public/actRetrieveText.do?id=8679 , http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=89&langId=en&newsId=371&furtherNews=yes and http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=480&langId=en&intPageId=57 ( accessed 2/11/12) 75 Same with footnote no17 76 Rules of Procedure for the European sectoral social dialogue Committee in the professional football, available at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/dsw/public/actRetrieveText.do?id=8679 ( accessed 2/11/12)
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FIFPro and EPFL stated that they agreed to involve UEFA in this Dialogue, as an associate party in First of all, in the preamble of the document of the Rules of Procedure of the Committee, the Committee. Furthermore, they agreed that ECA could also participate as an associate party until the time it could be formally recognized as a social partner 77 . (Later on, the European Commission fully recognized ECA as a social partner which participated in the Committee as a party representing the employers. 78 ) Next, the objectives of the Committee were stated. According to the document, the Committee has 3 objectives; 1) to deliver opinions to the Commission on labour matters on initiatives with regard to social and employment policy and the development of European policy having consequences in the professional football sector, 2) to reach agreements with regard to aforementioned areas in accordance with the articles 138 and 139 of the EC Treaty (now articles 154 and 155) and 3) encourage and develop the social dialogue at sectoral level 79 .
Furthermore, between the activities agreed in the article 2 of the document, which would have contributed to the achievement of its objectives, they agreed to adopt a multi-annual work program. The program they adopted for the years 2008 and 2009 was set out in the Annex 1 80 of the Rules of Procedure and concerned the discussion of the concept of ‘The European Professional Football player contract minimum requirements’ (hereafter PFPCMR.)81 . As it was stated in the Rules, there would first be a discussion of the concept of the PFPCMR and, if an agreement were to be reach, its’ promotion and development. It is important at this point to note is that there was a specific declaration on the Annex of the document for the Rules of Procedure of the Committee, according to which there was no intention (by the partners) to reduce the existing level of minimum employment conditions that existed in the different European Member States. By that we can conclude that the social partners aimed to set the minimum standards, whereas it would be in the discretion of the national competent authorities to opt for more favorable (but under no circumstances less favorable) terms for the players.
The Committee is composed of maximum 54 representatives equally derived from both sides of the football industry (employers and employees) and it was decided to convene at least once a year. The meetings will be facilitated by the European Commission which organizes and finances them and at least one European Commissioner shall be present at the Committee meetings82 .Lastly, the social partners agreed to invite the UEFA president to chair the Committee 83 .
77 See Preamble of Rules of Procedure of the Committee available at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/dsw/public/actRetrieveText.do?id=8679 ( accessed 2/11/12) 78 See below where ECA is introduced. 79 Article 1 of the Rules of the Procedure 80 Available at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/dsw/public/actRetrieveText.do?id=8679 (accessed 3/11/12) 81 In 2006-2007, FIFPro, EPFL and UEFA already had an agreement upon the minimum requirements as guidelines and as recommendation to national football federations. On that basis had the Committee to take over and develop that concept. Also see; http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/uefa/others/601340_download.pdf (accessed 16/11/12) 82 Articles 2 and 3 of the Rules of the Procedure 83 Article 4 of the Rules of the Procedure
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5. The Minimum Requirements for the European Football Players Contract
The concept of ‘PFPCMR.’ was already agreed upon 2006-2007 between the leagues, FIFPro and UEFA, as guidelines and recommendation to national football federations 84 and, as already stated; the Committee had to develop that concept. More importantly, the social partners in the Committee had to agree on how these minimum requirements should be implemented.
The minimum requirements concerned the type of the contract, which had to be written, the applicable legislation, the requirements of the contact (such as the signing parties, the starting and ending time of the contact, the reasons of termination with the notice that had to be given to the other party) the obligations by both parties, as well as the salary and other benefits of the players and the relation between the parties.
On the one hand, FIFPro was hoping that, if the social partners achieved to conclude an agreement on the ‘PFPCMR.’ and on the implementation method, it would be the beginning of a new era for the European cooperation and social dialogue in the field of professional football. They were confident that they would soon be led to the signing of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (hereafter CBA) between the social partners on several important labour issues that had to do with the European professional football. On the other hand, the employers’ representatives (EPFL and ECA) as well as UEFA were more skeptical about the legal effects of an agreement 85 .
For that reason, the signing of an agreement on the ‘PFPCMR.’ between the parts came into an impasse in many stages. The initial problems arose because of the fact that FIFPro wanted to promote a binding agreement that would include not only the national associations from the Member States of the EU but also all the national associations within UEFA. The other stakeholders were reluctant to agree on that because they were in favor of a voluntary agreement. As a result of that disagreement, the social dialogue ‘froze’. Subsequently, the Commission intervened, as a mediator, and proposed to the parties to sign a voluntary agreement that would be implemented via the ‘voluntary route’ 86 (which meant that the burden of the implementation of the agreement would be transferred to national associations based on their national industrial relations)but the agreement would extent to all the members within UEFA. This second attempt for agreement was also ’plunged into the void ‘since, whereas FIFPro was willing to sign, on the scheduled date for the meeting (on the 28 th of February 2011) ECA, EPFL and UEFA refused to sign,
84 See Annex 1 of the MoU between UEFA and FIFPro available at http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/uefa/others/601340_download.pdf (accessed 16/11/12) 85 The ‘Social dialogue’ in European professional football, By Michele Colucci and Arnout Geeraert , published by The International Sports Law Journal, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, (available at http://www.playthegame.org/fileadmin/documents/AGGIS_article_-_social_dialogue_in_european_professional_football.pdf - accessed 2/11/12) 86 More information about the ‘voluntary route’ of implementation and its legal consequences can be found in the article ; The ‘Social dialogue’ in European professional football, By Michele Colucci and Arnout Geeraert , published by The International Sports Law Journal, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, (the latter is also available at http://www.playthegame.org/fileadmin/documents/AGGIS_article_-_social_dialogue_in_european_professional_football.pdf - accessed 2/11/12 ) see especially context under the title 5.3 The implementation.
27 arguing that they needed more time to considerate and study the legal consequences derived from such an agreement and to have the agreement approved internally 87 . Following that incident, the social dialogue fell into an impasse once again until the July of the same year when ECA, EPFL and UEFA approached FIFPro with a new proposal for an agreement. After FIFPro agreed on the new proposal, only a few details remained so that the social partners would be able to sign 88 .
Finally, on the 19 th of April 2012 in Brussels, the social partners signed the autonomous agreement on the minimum requirements for standard player contract. This was saluted by all social partners and the involved stakeholders in European professional football 89 .
5.1 The European Autonomous Agreement on minimum requirements for standard player contracts in professional football
5.1.1 General Remarks
The Agreement which resulted from the Social Dialogue Committee and was signed by the social partners in Brussels on April 19 th 2012 is titled: “Agreement regarding the minimum requirements for standard player contracts in the professional football sector in the European Union and the rest of the UEFA territory”.90
5.1.2 Parties of the Agreement
The parties negotiated and signed the Agreement are:
UEFA due to its role as governing body of football in Europe-representing 53 national federations (member associations);
87 http://www.fifpro.org/news/news_details/1469 and The ‘Social dialogue’ in European professional football, By Michele Colucci and Arnout Geeraert , published by The International Sports Law Journal, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56- 67, available at http://www.playthegame.org/fileadmin/documents/AGGIS_article_- _social_dialogue_in_european_professional_football.pdf ( both accessed 16/11/12) 88 http://www.fifpro.org/news/news_details/1659 (accessed 16/11/12) 89 http://www.fifpro.org/news/news_details/1912 , http://www.epfl- europeanleagues.com/epfl_eca_fifpro_uefa_agreement.htm , http://www.fifpro.org/news/news_details/1908 (accessed 16/11/12) 90 The text of the agreement is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/sport/news/documents/agreement_football_contracts_en.pdf (accessed 03/01/13)
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EPFL representing the European professional leagues and consequently their Clubs (employers), which at the moment of the signing of the Agreement represented its 30 members and associate members;91 ECA representing Clubs from all UEFA member associations 92 (also the employers), which at the moment of signing of the Agreement represented 201 members and associate members 93 and FIFPro Division Europe representing football players in Europe, which at the moment of the signing of the Agreement represented its 24 members (national associations of football players) 94
5.1.3 Content of the Agreement
The Agreement is composed of the introduction (or a preamble), the main body of the Agreement, which consists of 21 articles, and 8 Annexes (which are also included as part of the agreement 95 ), all signed by two representatives of each party 96 .
Preamble
At the preamble of the Agreement there is a brief presentation of the signing parties (i.e. UEFA 97 , EPFL, ECA and FIFPro Division Europe)-which includes their role in the Agreement- and a statement of mutual recognition among them concerning their representativeness. A statement of European Commission is also included, which declares that EC had recognized the social partners of the Agreement (i.e. ECA, EPFL and FIFPro Division Europe) as the European Social partners in the EU in accordance with the Commission Decision 98/500/EC 98 . Moreover, there is a statement of the parties that they agreed to transform the ‘PFPCMR’99 into a European autonomous agreement in the framework of the European Social Dialogue Committee in the professional football sector and that this agreement is the outcome of collective bargaining among the social partners. In conclusion, the parties agreed
91 These members are listed in the Annex 1 of the Agreement. 92 Clubs which have the best individual coefficient ranking(s) in their respective association or have obtained membership due to other sporting merits or play in UEFA’s Champions League (for more information about ECA and its membership see previous section) 93 These members are listed in the Annex 2 of the Agreement. 94 These members are listed in the Annex 3 of the Agreement. 95 Article 2.1 of the agreement 96 On behalf of the EPFL signed the Deputy-Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the ESD Committee Frederic Thiriez and the CEO Emanuel Macedode Medeiros. For FIFPro Division Europe signed the President Philipe Piat and the General Secretary Theo van Seggelen. For ECA signed the President Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and the General Secretary Michele Centerano. Lastly, on behalf of UEFA signed the President Michel Platini and the General Secretary Gianni Infantino. 97 UEFA even though is not a social partner in this agreement, is signing according to its role as the governing body of European Football and member of the Social Dialogue Committee that concluded the Agreement as an associate party. - See also the text of the Agreement article 21 and preamble point (i). 98 The EC decision is available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:1998:225:0027:0028:EN:PDF (accessed 03/01/13) 99 At point (j) of the Agreement the parties declared that they will be using the abbreviation ‘MR.SPC’ in the context of the Agreement when they referred to the European Professional Football Player Contract Minimum Requirements. ( The Agreement is available at http://ec.europa.eu/sport/news/documents/agreement_football_contracts_en.pdf , accessed 03/01/13) Despite the aforementioned abbreviation used in the context of the Agreement, for the purposes of this paper the abbreviation used will remain the one listed in the list of abbreviations (i.e. PFPCMR.)
29 to promote the Agreement not only through the EU member states but also the rest of the UEFA territory (this had also been made clear by the title of the agreement) 100 .
Main body of the Agreement
-Objective of the Agreement
The Agreement begins with its objective, which is nothing else than the establishment of the minimum requirements necessary for the professional football player contracts in Europe. Subsequently, there is an explanation of the definitions used in the Agreement, namely; the Agreement, the Club, the player, the Contract and the territory of the Agreement 101 .
5.1.4 The Contract
-Elements of the Contract
According to the Agreement, the employment contract signed between the professional player and a Club (hereafter referred to as “Contract”) must be in written form, duly signed by the parties-with the necessary legal binding power of signature- and embody the elements of the place and date of the signing of the contract.
Furthermore, it must indicate the personal details of the player (i.e. name, surname, nationality/-ies, date of birth and residency address), the full legal name and registration number of the Club 102 , in addition to its address, and the personal details of the person who is legally representing the Club. Also, it must explicitly state its starting and ending dates. 103
Furthermore, based to article 3.7 of the Agreement, (if it is applicable) the Contract must also indicate further persons involved in the negotiations or the conclusion of the Contract. Regarding this provision the Agreement gives as examples the parent or guardian of a minor, the name of a legal representative of the player, a licensed players’ agent and an interpreter.
-Contract with a minor player
Regarding a Contract signed with a minor player, the Agreement indicates that the parent/guardian should also be mentioned accordingly (with all his/her personal details) and sign the Contract too. 104
100 Points (k) and (l) of the (preamble of the )Agreement. 101 Article 2 of the Agreement 102 Note: a contract can only be concluded by a Club and its legal entity (see article 3.3 of the Agreement) 103 Combination of articles 3.1, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5 of the Agreement. 104 Article 3.3 of the Agreement
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-Equal rights of the parties to negotiate the extension and/or termination of the Contract
The Contract should states the equal rights of the parties to negotiate its extension or/and termination. These equal rights of the player and the Club, according to what the social partners agreed upon, would be defined by the national implementation of the Agreement in accordance with the legal framework as established by collective bargaining agreements, labour law and common law at the national and international level. 105
-Just cause for an early termination of the contract
In case of early termination of the Contract, a just cause must be founded either on the grounds of prolonged periods of injury/illness or on permanent incapacity of the player. In each case, the Club may serve a reasonable notice (reference is made to the FIFA Regulations for the status and Transfer of players). 106
-Copies of the contract - obligation for deposition
The Contract should be made into 3 copies. One copy for each party (player and Club) and one copy which has to be forwarded to the professional league and/or national football association for registration according to the provisions of the competent football body 107 .
-Terms and definitions of the Contract
Article 4 of the Agreement makes reference to the terms and definitions of the Contract. Base to the aforementioned article the terms and definitions of the Contract should be duly explained. If not, they will be interpreted in accordance with the definitions included in the Statutes and Regulations of FIFA’s and UEFA’s as amended from time to time.
-Contract of employment
According to article 5, the Contract regulates the employment contract (employment relationship) for a professional player. The Club employs the player as professional
105 Article 3.5 of the Agreement 106 Article 3.5 of the Agreement 107 Article 3.2 of the Agreement
31 player on the terms set out in the Contract and the Contract must contain all rights and duties between the Club and the player.
-Legislation applicable in relation with the contract
The legislation applicable in relation to the Contract –if not otherwise explicitly agreed upon- is the national legislation of the country where the Club is duly registered, including national mandatory labour law provisions which have to be taken into account.
The parties have the right, if they want to do so, to choose a different legislative regime (other than the national) to govern the Contract. The only restriction would be that their choice should not deprive the player of the protection afforded to him by provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement under the law of the state where the Club is established. 108
-‘Principle of one and unique Contract’
No further Contract should exist and cover the employment relationship between the Club and the player.
In case it does (or is signed at a later stage), the parties have the obligation to make explicit reference to it and send it to the relevant professional league or national football association as they are obliged to do with the first contract 109 .
5.1.5 Mandatory provisions of the Contract
-Financial obligations of the Club
According to article 6.2 of the Agreement, the Contract should define all Club’s financial obligations towards the player such as for example:
a) Salary (regular or performance based) b) Financial benefits (for example bonuses, experience reward, international appearances) c) Other benefits non-financial (such as car, accommodation etc) d) Medical and health insurance for accident or accident or illness (as mandatory by law) and payment of salary during incapacity 110 e) Pension fund / Social security costs (as mandatory by law or CBA) f) Reimbursements for expenses incurred by the player
108 See Article 5.1 and 5.4 of the Agreement 109 Article 5.2 of the Agreement 110 Based to the Agreement the definition of incapacity is to be determined including its consequences with regard to salaries paid. (article 6.2 (d) )
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-Details regarding the payments of the player
Based to article 6.3 of the Agreement the Contract must define the currency, the amount, the due date for each amount and the way of payment (i.e. cash, bank transfer, etc).
-Financial impact on the player in case of Clubs’ major changes of revenue
The Contract must also regulate the financial impact in case of major changes of revenue of the Club (for example in case of promotion or relegation). 111
-Paid leave (holidays)
The paid leave should also be defined in the Contract and its minimum length should be 4 (four) weeks in each 12-month period, from which the 2 weeks must be consecutive.
The periods of paid leave must be agreed between the player and the Club in advance and must be taken outside the regular football season. 112
-Player’s working time
The Contract must define the length of the player’s working time per day or per week. 113
-Health and safety policy of the Club
The Article 6.9 states that the Clubs’ health and safety policy should be explained within the Contract. The aforementioned policy must includes the mandatory insurance coverage for the player for illness and accident and regular medical/dental examination as well as medical/dental treatment with qualified personnel during football duties.
In addition, , the Council Directive 89/391/EEC 114 also applies, particularly the provisions on risk assessment, preventive measures, as well as information, consultation, participation and training of the players.
111 Article 6.4 of the Agreement. 112 Article 6.7 of the Agreement. 113 Article 6.7 of the Agreement. 114 The Directive is available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31989L0391:en:HTML (accessed 03/01/13)
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-Records of injuries
The keeping of proper record of injuries (by the Club), including those incurred for the player while he was on national team duty, must also be regulated by the Contract, whilst respecting the confidentiality.
Furthermore, the Agreement states that if the (national) law does not provide otherwise, as a principle the records on injury shall be kept by the responsible team (Club) doctor. 115
-Provisions of human rights, non-discrimination and against racism
The Contract shall include provisions regarding the protection of human rights of the player, for example this right of free expression, as well as provisions of non- discrimination against him.
In addition, the contractual parties must be committed by the Contract to act against racism or any other discriminatory acts in football. 116
-Youth player/ Development program
As far as a youth player is concerned, his Contract should ensure that by its youth development program has the possibility to follow mandatory school education in accordance with the national laws. In addition, it must be ensured that he is not prevented from continuing his non-football education. (Note: the last provision can also apply to prepare a second career for the player after his retirement of football)
Moreover, the Agreement states that the Council Directive 94/33/EC of 22 June 1994 117 on the protection of young people at works shall also applies regarding the youth players. 118
-Obligations of the player towards the Club
The player’s obligations towards the Club should also be defined in the Contract. As the article 7.2 of the Agreement states, the contract should define all the player’s obligations to fulfill 'vis-à-vis' the Club, which are:
115 Article 6.10 of the Agreement. 116 Combination of Articles 6.8 and 16 117 The summary and the full text of the Directive can be found in the following links respectively: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/employment_and_social_policy/health_hygiene_safety_at_work/c11205_en.htm and http://eur- lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!DocNumber&lg=en&type_doc=Directive&an_doc=1994&nu_doc =33 (both accessed 14/02/13) 118 Article 6.5 of the Agreement.
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a) to play matches to the best of his best ability (when selected); b) to participate in training and match preparation according to the instructions of his superiors/head coach; c) to maintain a healthy lifestyle and high standard of fitness d) to immediately notify the Club in case of illness or accident and not to undergo any medical treatment without prior information of the Club’s doctor (except in emergencies); e) to undergo regularly medical examination and treatment upon request of the Club’s doctor; f) to abstain from participating either in other football activities or other activities potentially dangerous-except if he has a prior approval on behalf of the Club- g) to attend events of the Club-not only the sporting but also the commercial ones- ; h) to behave in sporting manner both towards people involved in matches as well as during training sessions; i) to learn and observe the laws of the game; j) to accept the decisions made by match officials; k) not to bring the Club or football into disrepute (for example by media statements); l) not to gamble or undertake other related activities within football; m) to take care of the property of the Club and return any withheld equipment (property of the Club) after termination of the Contract; n) to comply with the terms of any association, league, player’s union and/or Club anti-discriminatory policy and o) to obey the Club’s rules, including –where applicable- the disciplinary regulations.
-Right of the player for a second medical opinion
Regarding the medical treatment and examination of the player, if he contests the opinion of the Club’s specialist, he has the right of a second opinion by an independent medical specialist.
In case that the two opinions are still differing, then the player and the Club should agree upon accepting a third independent medical opinion which will be binding 119 .
Common obligations of the contractual parties
Apart from the above analyzed individual contractual obligations on behalf of the parties, the Agreement additionally delegates them with some common obligations which will be analyzed below.
119 Article 7.4 of the Agreement.
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-Compliance with the national CBAs
Both parties are obliged by the Agreement to respect and comply with the national collective bargaining agreement (where applicable) in case it is duly agreed upon by the national organizations representing employers/ Clubs and employees/players 120 .
Note: By this provision it is understood that in case where a national CBA exists and within it there is a provision regarding minimum wage, the parties will have to comply with that provision also.
-Compliance with Football Regulations
Based to article 13 of the Agreement both parties have to comply with the Football Regulations. As Football Regulations are defined (by the Agreement itself) the Statutes, Regulations and Decisions of FIFA and UEFA, the national association and if exists the professional League. Furthermore, the Agreements states that those Football Regulations form an integral part of the Contract and the contractual parties acknowledge them by their signature. 121
-Compliance with anti-doping regulations
Both the club and the player are obliged to comply with all the (relevant) anti-doping regulations.
The article 11 of the Agreement explicitly states that doping is forbidden and anyone who either administers or encourages doping by any way will be referred to the disciplinary bodies of the national association or the international governing bodies as it is appropriate. Furthermore, based to article 6.9 an anti-doping prevention should also be included in the Contract.
-Right of the Club in case of doping practices by its player to take additional measures
The Agreement by its article 11.3 provides the Club with the right to take additional measures against its player (apart from the ones that the disciplinarily bodies of the national association or international governing bodies are authorized to take) in case where the latter is found guilty of using illegal substances (doping practices). In such cases, the Club must be taking into account the principle of individual case management.
120 Article 14 of the Agreement. The same article in its second paragraph sets as example that in cases where within the national CBA are agreed minimum wages then the Club (as the employer) must respect those minimum wages. 121 Article 13 of the Agreement
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Provisions of the Contract which must be jointly agreed by the parties
-Payment of taxes
The parties should agree on the payment of the taxes according to national legislation (i.e. who is liable/responsible to pay those taxes). 122
-Loan of the player to another Club
In order for a player to be loaned to another Club, both the player and the Club (which the player is contracted to) must agree. 123
-Image rights of the player
On how the players’ image rights are going to be exploited, the Club and the player have to jointly agree upon.
The Agreement, as a recommendation and principle, states that the (individual) player can exploit his rights by himself (if that is not conflicting with the sponsors/partners of the Club) , whilst the Club can exploit the players’ image rights as part of the whole team. 124
-Final provisions of the contract
According to article 15 of the Agreement the Club and the Player will have to finalize the content of the final provisions of the Contract which namely are:
a) the applicable law; b) the jurisdiction; c) the authoritative version of the contract (if it’s translated and exists in more than one languages); d) the issue of confidentiality (if it should or not exist); e) the responsible ‘organ’ for interpretation of the contractual clauses; f) the number of copies of the Contract produced and to whom must be distributed; g) the case of invalidity of a single clause which should not affect the remaining part of the Contract; h) the definition of the Annexes of the contract, which are composing an integral part of it and must be distributed to the player and
122 Article 6.6 of the Agreement 123 Article 9.1 of the Agreement 124 Article 8 of the Agreement
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i) the validity of any amendments/additions/deletions of the Contract, presupposition of which is the written form.
-Annexes
Regarding the Annexes of the Contract they have to be agreed by the Club and the player and be duly signed by both of them. 125
-Players’ Discipline
With regard to players’ discipline the article 10 of the Agreement states that the Club must establish in writing the appropriate internal disciplinary rules along with the sanctions/penalties provided and the necessary procedures, to which the player is bound. In addition to this, the Club is obliged to explain such rules to the player (in order to be fully aware of these rules are about) and notify him regarding those rules before signing the Contract. 126
The provided sanctions by the Club, which can be applied to the player in case of violation of his contractual obligations, must be proportional to the severity of the offence. For that reason there should be a range of penalties within the disciplinary rules.
-Rights of the player in case of disciplinary actions against him by his Club
The Agreement provides the player with two rights in cases where he is facing disciplinary actions. Firstly, he is provided with the right to appeal against any sanctions applied to him and secondly, with the right to be represented or accompanied by the Club captain or a union representative. 127
-Dispute Resolution between the Player and the Club
Regarding the dispute resolution, article 12 of the Agreement states that on issues not covered by the Contract, the latter must determine the process in case of arising disputes between the player and the Club.
Next, the Agreement provides that any disputes subject to national legislation and national CBA between the Club and the player concerning the Contract must be submitted to impartial and independent arbitration (composed of equal representatives of each party) under the statutes and regulations of either the
125 See Article 15.2 of the Agreement 126 Article 7.2 point (f) in combination with article 10.4 of the Agreement. 127 Article 10.4 of the Agreement.
38 national association or CAS 128 - when no national arbitration process which is deemed to be finale applies.
Moreover, the Agreement (in the same article) refers that ‘under the conditions mentioned in the FIFA Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players 129 , disputes may be settled by the Dispute Resolution Chamber, with an appeal possibility to CAS’.
5.1.6 Right of the parties to deviate from the current Agreement for the benefit of the players
The parties of the Agreement, as already declared in the Annex of the document of the ‘Rules of Procedure of the Committee’ 130 , included in the Agreement provisions which state that the Agreement sets the minimum protection level for the players and that more favorable provisions are allowed. If more favorable provisions towards the benefit of the player/s existed prior to the enactment of this Agreement-either in a national Collective Bargaining Agreement or in individual contracts- , they remain unaffected 131 .
5.1.7 Implementation and enforcement of the Agreement/ Binding effect
Followed by article 18: “the parties (in the context of article 155 of TFEU) are committed by the Agreement to use the best endeavors to ensure its implementation at national level where possible, using the most appropriate legal instruments as determined by the relevant parties at national level in the EU and the rest of the UEFA territory”.
What in practice that means is that the Agreement per se (by itself) is not legally binding and that the national associations will have to implement it. Due to the fact that the signatory parties (the European social partners) agreed to follow the ‘voluntary route’ offered by the article 155 of the TFEU paragraph 2, the Agreement will have to be implemented in accordance with the procedures and practices to each of the 53 UEFA member countries by their respective social partners. Based to their declaration, the signatory parties will use the best endeavors to ensure its implementation at national level . That means that they will try to promote the implementation of the Agreement to their national members but they cannot actually enforce them to do so.
128 For more information about Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) see its official website available at http://www.tas-cas.org/ (accessed 06/01/13)
129 Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players 2012- all amendments to the regulations came into force on December 1st 2012 available at: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/01/95/83/85/regulationsstatusandtransfer_e.pdf (accessed 06/01/13) 130 Rules of Procedure for the European sectoral social dialogue Committee in the professional football, available at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/dsw/public/actRetrieveText.do?id=8679 ( accessed 05/01/13) 131 Combination of Article 17 and 18.6 of the Agreement, available at http://ec.europa.eu/sport/news/documents/agreement_football_contracts_en.pdf (accessed 03/01/13)
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Annex 8 of the Agreement provides detailed instructions regarding its implementation.
In particular, it states that the members of the social partners will (have to) implement the Agreement as follows;
a) in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, England, North Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Switzerland and Norway within 1 (one) year after its signing date; b) In Bulgaria, Cyprus 132 , Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia within 2 or 3 years after its signing date and c) In the remaining countries (of UEFA territory) no later than 3 years after its signing date.
In addition to this, it is stated that the Parties of the Agreement have individually the right to postpone the deadlines for the countries mentioned in the points b) and c) above. In order for a party to postpone the implementation of the Agreement, it must first consult the remaining parties and all of them jointly agree on the duration of the postponement.
Furthermore, the members of the social partners, when implementing the agreement, must take into account (if applicable) the role of other relevant parties of the national football industry.
As far as the way of implementation is concerned, the provisions of the Annex 8 provide that;
1) In cases where a national CBA exists, the Agreement must be implemented in the national CBA and 2) In cases where no national CBA exists, then the parties at national level have to evaluate the most appropriate and effective implementation method and implement the Agreement accordingly.
In order for the implementation of the Agreement to be facilitated, the parties agreed for a “European Professional Football Social Dialogue Taskforce” (henceforth taskforce) to be formed. This taskforce would be comprised of experts from each of the 4 signing parties of the agreement (i.e. UEFA, ECA, EPFL and FIFPro Division Europe) plus FIFA (if FIFA accepts the invitation of the parties to join this taskforce).
The taskforce will have the assignment to coordinate the promotion and implementation of the Agreement in close cooperation with the parties of the Agreement on a country-by- country basis.
The taskforce will also visit selected individual countries in order to meet with national representatives from each of the 4 signing parties (where existent) in order to discuss and agree the optimum way to implement the Agreement in that particular country. 133
132 Republic of Cyprus- excluding the occupied areas 133 Annex 8 of the Agreement also for further information.
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5.1.8 Settlements of disputes regarding the implementation process
Any disagreement concerning the implementation process at national level must be resolved through negotiations at national level involving, where appropriate, input from the Contact Committee (which has as a task to assist the parties at national level to achieve effective implementation of the Agreement) 134 .
5.1.9 Effect and length of the Agreement
Pursuant to article 20.1 the Agreement takes effect from the signing date (i.e. 19/04/2012) and shall remain in force for 4 years. After the completion of these 4 years, the Agreement will expire without any further notice.
Obligation of renewal of the Agreement
According to Article 20.2, the parties have the obligation to negotiate the renewal of this Agreement and the negotiations have to start the latest 1 year before its’ expire. Furthermore, they should make best endeavors to have a new agreement, for a new period, to be signed 3 months before the expiry of this Agreement.
Follow up of the Agreement
According to FIFPro, a large number of countries, mainly Western-European, already have standards that meet the minimum requirements of the Agreement.
For the countries that need to implement the Agreement, its parties scheduled 3 meetings in total at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon (Switzerland), the so called ‘kick- off meetings’. The purpose of these meetings is to inform the national social partners of each country about the Agreement and the work that needs to be done to for its enactment. In order for each country to enact the Agreement in its own territory, each one of them has to establish a taskforce with representatives of all their national football stakeholders to lead the implementation progress. When the taskforces of each country are established (after these ‘kick-off’ meetings), the social dialogue will start at national level in order for the national social partners to start negotiations on how the Agreement should be implemented. The “European Professional Football
134 Article 18.4 of the Agreement . The Contact Committee compromise 2 representatives from FIFPro Division Europe; 1 representative from EPFL; 1 representative from ECA and 1 representative from UEFA. The members of the Contact Committee are drawn from the Steering Committee of the European Social Dialogue Committee. See also articles 18 and 19 of the Agreement, available at http://ec.europa.eu/sport/news/documents/agreement_football_contracts_en.pdf (accessed 03/01/13)
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Social Dialogue Taskforce” of the 4 signing parties of the Agreement will also assist in the progress of the implementation by travelling to all these countries.
The first ‘kick-off meeting’ took place on January 17 th 2013, when all the European social partners (i.e. UEFA, ECA, EPFL and FIFPro Division Europe) met with representatives of the national football associations, player unions, Leagues and Clubs of 5 countries namely; Croatia, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. This first meeting was characterized as very successful due to the fact that all countries which were present understood and accepted their role in the process of the implementation. 135
What remains now is for the other two kick-off meetings to be completed and for the national dialogues in each country to aim towards the initiation of negotiations regarding the implementation of the Agreement.
135 http://www.fifpro.org/news/news_details/2173 (accessed 26/01/13)
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6. Social Dialogue in professional football at National Level
6.1 Cyprus 136
6.1.1 Introduction
Football is the most popular sport in Cyprus. It was introduced by the British 137 in the beginning of the 20 th Century and it was initially played in schools. Soon enough, it became very popular resulting in the foundation of a number of Clubs, which started organizing friendly matches among them.
Throughout, the following years the popularity of football continued to expand and resulted to the establishment of the national football association (CFA), in 1934, which started to organize official championships and competitions 138 .
The football players in Cyprus are classified into amateurs and professionals 139 . The main stakeholders in the organization of professional football in Cyprus are the CFA, the Clubs, the association of the Referees (CRA) and the football players’ association (PFA). All the aforementioned organizations/associations of professional football are autonomous and independent having their own Statutes but they always have to operate according to the regulations and the rules of the CFA, which have to be in conformity with the ones of FIFA and UEFA 140 . A League does not exist in the island at the moment, even though it seems that there are some (unofficial) discussions among the CFA and the Clubs regarding a future establishment.141
136 All the data and the information reported in this paper concerning football in Cyprus, pertain to the activities in the controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus (Government controlled areas), excluding the areas under Turkish occupation since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 20/7/1974. 137 Cyprus was a Colony of Great Britain from 1878 until 1960 when it was granted independence. 138 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Cyprus and http://www.cfa.com.cy/En/page/131 (accessed 24/11/12) 139 The CFA is also using the notion non-professionals in some points of the “Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Dispute Resolution Committee 2012” published 01/04/2012. The aforementioned Regulations is available in Greek at http://www.cfa.com.cy/images/DownloadsGr/120726%20EOM%20KANONISMOI%20EGGRAFON%20METAGRAFON%202012% 202013.pdf (accessed 08/01/2013) 140 “Study on the representativeness of the social partner organizations in the professional football players’ sector” ,project No VC/ 2004/0547. Universite Catholique de Louvain, Institut des Sciences du Travail. February 2006. Research project conducted on behalf of the Employment and Social Affairs DG of the European Commission. Pages 49-53. 141 Several articles in national press make reference to meetings between the Clubs and the CFA or between the big Clubs in order to exchange views regarding this issue even though officially there no announcements or comments about it. For example http://www.ant1iwo.com/athlitika/2013/01/10/syskech-twn-mikrwn-me-koytsokoymnh-gia-t/ , http://www.balla.com.cy/3/14_Protathlima_a_katigorias/36434_Skepsis_gia_dimiourgia_Ligas (accessed 24/01/13)
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6.1.2 The social partners participating in the Cypriot Social Dialogue in professional football
CFA (Cyprus Football Association)142
The Cyprus Football Association (henceforth CFA) was founded in 1934 143 after an initiative of 8 Clubs 144 . It is the sole and exclusive responsible association in Cyprus for the organization and supervision of football activities and competitions as well as for the representation of the Cypriot football in FIFA, UEFA and the other recognized federations and associations 145 .
CFA is responsible for establishing the rules of the game, for determining the status of the players (amateurs and professionals football players), for the registration of the players, for the scheduling and organization of the national football competitions (i.e. championships and cups), for refereeing the matches and for the disciplinary matters which concern not only the football players but also all the Clubs and Officials 146 .
It has, as affiliated members, the 56 Clubs participating in the championships organized by it (which are classified in 4 different Divisions according to their dynamics 147 ) and the Cyprus Referees Association (CRA). Special members of CFA, which are registered in a special record within CFA, are the Futsal Clubs from 1 st to 3rd Division and the Clubs of women football. The association itself is a direct member of FIFA and UEFA since 1948 and 1962 respectively 148 .
The association since its foundation had registered 42,793 football players, from which approximately 12,000 are still in action participating in the championships of the 4 separate divisions and to the Championships of youngsters 149 .
The purposes of the foundation of the CFA are, as stated in the official webpage of the Association, are:
a) the transfusion of sporting spirit, and more particularly of football activity, towards the society;
142 Kipriaki Omospondia Podosferou (KOP) in Greek 143 CFA was established in 23/9/1934 even before Cyprus becomes an independent state (in 1960). 144 The founding Clubs of CFA were: AEL, Anorthosis, Apoel, Aris Limassol, Enosis Pezoporikou-AMOL(EPA) Larnakos, Olympiakos Nicosia, Turkish Club (LTSK) Nicosia and Trust Nicosia. The information given are available in Greek at http://www.cfa.com.cy/Gr/historyevents (accessed 24/11/12). 145 http://www.cfa.com.cy/Gr/page/132 the information given here is taken by the official website of CFA available in Greek (accessed 24/11/12). 146 “ Study on the representativeness of the social partner organizations in the professional football players’ sector”, project No VC/ 2004/0547. Universite Catholique de Louvain, Institut des Sciences du Travail. February 2006. Research project conducted on behalf of the Employment and Social Affairs DG of the European Commission. Pages 49-53. 147 In total there are 56 affiliated member Clubs within CFA, 14 from each Division from the 1 st to the 3 rd and 15 from the 4 th Division. Information available in Greek at http://www.cfa.com.cy/Gr/page/132 (accessed 09/01/13) 148 A small amount of information can be also found in the English version of the official website of Cyprus Football association available at http://www.cfa.com.cy/En/ (accessed 25/11/12) 149 The numbers stated here about the are taken from the official webpage of CFA available in Greek at http://www.cfa.com.cy/Gr/page/132 (accessed 24/11/12) but they have a differentiation from the numbers that are available at FIFAs’ official website http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=cyp/countryInfo.html (accessed also in 24/11/12).
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b) the protection of football from any actions which are contrary to the athletic spirit; c) the organization and supervision of the game in Cyprus ; d) the representation of national football in FIFA and UEFA; e) the organization of championships and other competitions under its Statutes and Rules; f) the supervision of friendly games and other competitions organized by the Association or the Clubs; g) the participation in international matches and the organization of friendly matches between the Cypriot national team and other national teams; h) the fostering of friendly relationships between its member Clubs and i) the protection of the interests of its member Clubs 150 .
CFA acts through its internal bodies which are: the General Assembly, the President of CFA, the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee and the permanent Committees. The supreme body of the association is the General Assembly which is gathered once a year. The General Assembly has many responsibilities among which is the amendment of the Statutes and Regulations of CFA, the approval of the acts of the Board of Directors (when their term of office expires), the election of the President of CFA -when needed according to its Statute-, the approval of the members of the Board of Directors, the designation of the Auditors and the decision making when there are applications from new Clubs for registration in the association 151 .
Furthermore, the CFA has 4 different judicial bodies, namely: the Judicial Committee, the Appeal Body of CFA, the Special Dispute Resolution Committee and the Dispute Resolution Committee for Players’ Agents.
In brief, the Judicial Committee is the (primary) Disciplinary Body of the CFA and is responsible to adjudicate for any disciplinary offences and breaches of: (i) the Disciplinary Code and (ii) the Regulations and the Statutes of the CFA (actions) made by the players, Clubs and Clubs’ officials imposing sanctions where this is deemed appropriate.
The Appeal Body is responsible to adjudicate for all the appeals regarding the decisions of the other 3 judicial bodies (i.e. the Judicial Committee, Dispute Resolution Committee and the Dispute Resolution Committee for Players’ Agents).
The Dispute Resolution Committee is responsible to adjudicate for: (a) the disputes (financial or other) arising between: Clubs; Clubs and the CFA; professional football players and the CFA; professional football players and Clubs concerning employment relations and contracts; Clubs and their technical staff/employees such as managers/coaches, doctors, physiotherapists etc and (b) disputes regarding the status of the players and their registrations, transfers or loan transfers. Furthermore, the Committee has the responsibility and authority to: (i) interpret terms and provisions of the Contracts signed between the Clubs and the players; (ii) deliver opinions regarding issues or questions concerning the provisions of the CFA’s
150 http://www.cfa.com.cy/Gr/historyevents (accessed 24/11/12) 151 http://www.cfa.com.cy/Gr/page/132 (accessed 25/11/12)
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“Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Arbitration Committee“, which are addressed to it by the General Assembly / Board of Directors / Executive Committee; (iii) impose penalties on the Clubs, players and other parties who have breached/violated the aforementioned CFA’s Regulations; (iv) determinate irrevocably the amount of compensation that Clubs have to pay for the player’s training and development to his former Club(s); (v) set the payment methods regarding the agreed payable amounts and (vi) adjudicate on appeals against CFA’s decisions regarding the status of the players (i.e. if a player is amateur or professional).
Finally, the Dispute Resolution Committee for Players’ Agents is adjudicating for disputes concerning players’ agents. 152
According to UEFAs’ current ranking coefficient (for the season 2012/13), the Cypriot Championship for Division 1 is the 13 th most competitive championship in Europe 153 .
PFA (Pancyprian Footballers Association)154
The Pancyprian Footballers Association (henceforth PFA) was originally founded in 1987 due to an initiative taken from a number of top footballers of their time 155 . The aforementioned football players decided that, in order to be heard and protect their rights as semi-professional football players 156 , the foundation of the association was ‘mandatory’. The official registration of the association as such at the Republics’ official register archives took place on 28 th of March 1995. In addition to this, the Association has been a member of FIFPro since September 20 th of 2005.157
The Association represents all professional football players and currently numbers 1200 players registered as members, from which approximately 70 are women. According to the President of PFA Mr. Spyros Neofitides158 , this number equals approximately to 85-90% of the total amount of professional players in Cyprus. Members of the association are professional players playing at the 4 different divisions/ championships organized in the island and some former professional players, who although are now playing football as amateurs, continue to pay their
152 Information taken from the official website of the CFA ( http://www.cfa.com.cy ), the Disciplinary Regulations of the CFA (http://www.cfa.com.cy/images/DownloadsGr/120725%20EOM%20PEITHARXIKOI%20KANONISMOI%202012%202013.pdf ) and the “Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Dispute Resolution Committee 2012” published 01/04/2012 (http://www.cfa.com.cy/images/DownloadsGr/120726%20EOM%20KANONISMOI%20EGGRAFON%20METAGRAFON%202012% 202013.pdf ) available all in Greek , accessed 12/01/13 (article 22.1) 153 http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/index.html (accessed 25/11/12) 154 Pagkiprios Syndesmos Podosferiston (PA.S.P.) in Greek 155 Some of the names of the footballers involved in PFAs’ foundation are: Giagkoudakis, Ioannou, Tsigkis, Petsas, Serafim, P. Andreou. 156 Back then football players in Cyprus were considered semi-professionals due to the fact that their income from football activities was not their only source of income-mainly because the remunerations were not so high. 157 Information taken from the official website of PFA available in Greek at http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/ (accessed 25/11/12) 158 Mr. Neofitidis is a former professional football player (goalkeeper) who played in many Cypriot football Clubs during his career(such as: Aris Limassol, Apollon Limassol, Olympiacos Nicosia, PAAEK Kerinias etc) and he is the president of PFA almost for 5 years now)
46 membership fees and are active as far as the association is concerned. The association maintains excellent relationships with the professional football players in Cyprus regardless of their nationality.
The organs of the PFA are: the General Assembly of the members, the executive committee, the board of directors, the Judiciary Committee of PFA 159 and the President. The General Assembly convenes once a year for its regular meeting and, when is needed, can be also extraordinarily convened. In addition to this, every 5 years the General Assembly elects the Board of Directors, from which the President is subsequently elected.
The contemporary objectives of the PFA, as stated in its official website are:
a) To bring all the football players together in order to jointly address the problems of Cypriot football; b) To protect the members of the Association from any arbitrary acts arising either from the Clubs or the leadership of football in Cyprus; c) To promote the development of relations with similar associations abroad not only with the aim of exchanging information and cooperation regarding issues of mutual concern but also of informing them about the national problem of Cyprus; d) The elevation of the moral, spiritual and social level of the players and the utilization of their virtues; e) To secure that the necessary terms and conditions for the progress of Cypriot football exist; f) to promote the issue of the mandatory health and injury insurance (coverage) of the players and to ensure that the players and their families will be compensated in the events of serious threatening injuries and loss of their careers due to a serious injury ; g) The creation of a Provident Fund which will provide financial aid to the players either when their ending their careers or for the event that they need financial support (like a benefit); h) The create the national military football team and to take efforts so as to ensure that the young players who are servicing in the National Guard (national military force) are facilitated in order to continue their trainings; 160 i) To attract as many youngsters as possible in sporting activities, which at the same time would serve as prevention from switching to other activities with unpleasant consequences; j) The organization of conferences and seminars with topics relevant to football and sports in general such as doping substances, drugs, violence in stadiums etc and k) The organization of events, excursions and other recreational, social and sporting events
159 The purpose of the Judiciary Committee is to take disciplinary measures for the members in case of need and more specifically has the right to delete a member. This Committee has never been convened since the establishment of the Association. 160 According to the Laws of the Republic of Cyprus every male citizen of the Republic (when he reach 18 years old) is obliged to service in the national army for a period of 24 months, except for cases where the Laws are allowing reduced military service.
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In accordance with its role to protect and safeguard the rights of the football players, the Association provides its members and the football players in general with information and legal advice concerning their employment contracts, their rights as professional players and other relative issues (regarding their status as professional football players). Furthermore, as Mr. Neofitides stated, the Association takes care of the necessary documents and fees for the registration of its members at the relevant committee of CFA (which deals with the criteria for players registrations).161
The relations between the Association and its members were described by Mr. Neofytides as excellent. A high percentage of PFA members (over 90%) are active in the events and activities organized by the Association. Mr. Neofitides added that: “The Association is making a continuous effort to maintain close relations with its members and a spirit of cooperation. We do not only consistently try to be informed about the problems of our members and help them to the best of our potential, but we also try to inform them about anything that might be of interest to them regarding the professional football. Every two months the PFA publishes a magazine 162 which is distributed for free to every player. Its aim is to keep them informed about the news of the Association and the ways that they can contact us. Moreover, we hold very often campaigns against doping and illegal substances – the goal of which is to inform and protect the players- and distribute various leaflets and brochures translated in 3 languages (i.e. Greek, English and Portuguese 163 ) to all players.”
In its attempt to be close with its members and stay informed about their problems, the Association has adopted a dual approach: it has a representative in every Club (usually one the teams’ Captain) and has introduced the institution of the PFA representatives in every district of the island.164
As already mentioned above, the PFA was founded in 1987 but became a full member of FIFPro only a few years ago, in 2005. According to what Mr. Neofitides stated, the Association has faced a lot of administrative and ‘internal’ problems during the past years. Even though the Association had existed before 2005, this existence was more typical rather than substantial as it was sub-functioning without any substantial work taking place. There was a tremendous lack of interest on behalf of the members and the previous Board of Directors, which led the Association to a severely disadvantaged position. Particularly, Mr. Neofitides revealed that when he and his Board of Directors were first elected (in 2007) and took over the leadership of the Association, the PFA had only 15 registered members and was even threaten with deletion from FIFPro. For that reason, the Association was under probation by FIFPro and the new administers of PFA had to reinstate its status nationally and internationally.
During the last 4-5 years, the Association has become ‘stronger’ and has adopted a new image through serious and organized work. The relations in all levels (i.e.
161 Information also available in the announcement of PFA which was posted in their official website (in Greek) http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=789 (accessed 13/01/13) 162 In this point Mr. Neofitides added that the 1 st issue of PFA’s magazine (published in 2009) was voted by FIFPro as the best football association magazine of the month. 163 Due to the fact that there is a high percentage of foreign players employed in Cyprus from which many of the them speak Portuguese as a native language. 164 Information taken by from Mr. Neofitides.
48 nationally and internationally) were restored and now PFA and FIFPro have an excellent cooperation. On the one hand, PFA participates in all of FIFPro’s events and meetings and on the other hand, FIFPro is supporting PFA by providing guidance and information when needed.
In addition, PFA was present through its representatives both at the opening of the Social Dialogue Committee on July 1 st of 2008 as well as at the signing of the agreement concerning the Minimum Requirements for the contact of professional players (PFPCMR.) between the social partners of the Committee on April 19 th of 2012.
Subsequently, Mr. Neofitides was also asked to comment on the relations between the PFA and CFA. Regarding this matter, he stated that their relationship had many ups and downs. After many and severe disputes and conflicts they have lately started to have closer contact and dialogue. He also clarified that PFA is always more than willing to cooperate with CFA but unfortunately in many occasions the latter is lacking the interest act accordingly. However, it is beyond any doubt that they have made a lot of progress and PFA, through its actions, has won the recognition and respect of CFA. There is of course much room for improvement with reference to the relations between them, which PFA is determined to achieve through dialogue. 165
6.1.3 The national Social Dialogue in professional football
-General remarks
Before analyzing this issue, it is of major importance to state that the collection of information regarding this chapter was quite hard. In Cyprus there are no specific laws regarding the professionalism in sports and more particularly the professionalism in football. The organization of the professional football is in the discretionary power of the participants 166 .
Furthermore, there were no specific academic articles or bibliography regarding this matter and all the information was collected from the official websites of the social partners, the magazine that PFA is publishes every two months (since 2009)167 , from the discussion and interview with the president of PFA, Mr. Neofitides, and the Cypriot newspapers.
Important here is also to define that in order for this thesis to be as objective as possible and to gather as many information as possible, attempts were made to get in contact also with the CFA. Unfortunately, even though at the beginning it was shown some interest on behalf of the CFA to contribute to the research and also give their own point of view and comment regarding the social dialogue, in the end they never replied the questionnaires sent to them.
165 Information taken by Mr. Neofitides. 166 See also the “Study on the representativeness of the social partner organizations in the professional football players’ sector“ project No VC/ 2004/0547. Universite Catholique de Louvain, Institut des Sciences du Travail. February 2006. Research project conducted on behalf of the Employment and Social Affairs DG of the European Commission. Pages 49-53. 167 The Magazine is titled “Profession: Footballer” and is in Greek, with the exception of some articles in English which are used to address the foreign players of the island and keep them informed.
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The findings of the research conducted for this part of the paper revealed –and was also confirmed by Mr. Neofitides- that the concept of Social Dialogue in Cypriot professional football is a relatively a new concept which is now in its infancy. The relations between PFA and CFA had undergone severe impasses throughout the years until they reach the point of commencing a dialogue in order to exchange opinions and start to cooperate on issues of mutual interest. 168
-The Social Dialogue
The beginning of the dialogue started timidly due the efforts of the PFA, which was officially addressing the CFA through letters and was requesting meetings in order to discuss some suggested –on behalf of the PFA- topics. During these meetings, the PFA was presenting its views and concerns on issues that its members and professional football in general were facing.
Some of these discussed issues were concerned the request on behalf of the PFA to the CFA for cooperation and dialogue, the problems regarding the young players who were serving in the National Guard at the time, the schedule of the matches, the absence not only of the insurance coverage provision on behalf of the Clubs towards the players per se but also the absence of a mandatory regulation concerning this matter , the change of regulations as regards the CFAs’ Dispute Resolution Committee (immediate effect of decisions and participation of PFA representatives in the Committee), the proposal for no football matches during the Christmas holidays and the protection of the national football players’ rights.169 For a long time this had constituted the status quo.
The two parties were gathering, each time after PFA’ s initiatives, outcome of which was the CFA’s commitment for future cooperation and examination of the issues discussed. 170 However, despite these commitments, no progress was taking place regarding neither the official establishment of the social dialogue nor the from time to time discussed issues.
The big reversal of the landscape, that led to the initiation of a more substantive and formal dialogue took place, according to the statements of Mr. Neofitides, 3 years ago. It was then that the General Assembly of the PFA, in a meeting held on 14/12/09, unanimously decided to take collective measures (i.e. strike action) and to postpone the matches of Divisions 2, 3 and 4 of the national championship, which were programmed to happen within the weekend 02-03/01/2010.
The Board of Directors stated that they were deeply disappointed with the lack of cooperation on behalf of the CFA in matters concerning the Association and the greater good of national football in subjects repeatedly discussed between the social
168 Information taken from Mr. Neofitides and the official website of the PFA (under the title archive of news) the website is available in Greek at http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=147 (accessed 13/01/13) 169 Announcements of the PFA concerning the meetings between them and the CFA (in Greek) http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=147 and http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=155 (accessed 13/01/13) 170 Announcement of PFA about the results of their meeting with representatives of CFA (in Greek) http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=155 (accessed 13/01/13)
50 partners during their meetings. They further supported that, even though CFA was repeatedly reassuring PFA that those (problematic) issues would improve, the former failed to do so. After many letters that had been sent to the Federation on behalf of PFA with its proposals, they neither received any reply nor saw any gesture on the part of the CFA. 171
As a result, they resorted to strike declaring the 5 main reasons which had driven them towards such a decision. According to their reasoning, the strike concerned: a) the very poor planning and scheduling for the Divisions 2, 3 and 4 championships as well as CFA’s decision to terminate them very early (i.e. in the middle of March of the season 2009-2010); b) the continuous violation on behalf of CFA of the agreement between the parties regarding changes that had to be made to the Regulations of the Dispute Resolution Committee; c) the CFA’s indifference to promote a health insurance plan for all the Clubs in order for the players to be protected; d) the CFA’s indifference regarding the problems that the young (professional) football players, who are serving in the army, are facing and e) the CFA’s violation of their agreement to stop planning matches during the Christmas holidays for the Divisions 2 nd , 3 rd and 4th . 172
After the announcement of strike, a great controversy erupted between PFA and CFA. The situation deteriorated when the CFA decided to refer the president of the PFA (Mr. Neofitides) to the Judicial Committee of the CFA, in connection with an interview at a national radio station where he was summoned to comment the reasons of the strike. The ‘accusation’ was that, according to his status as a person who is engaging in football, he made statements which negatively affect the sport. 173 As part of his response to this action, the president of PFA took civil actions against the CFA on the grounds of the Constitutional right of the freedom of speech. 174
After these incidents, which took major publicity and created even more tension between the parties, it seemed that both parties decided to defuse the situation. The first step towards this direction was made by the PFA’s president who stated in a press conference, among other things, that his statements were never meant to offend or disrepute the CFA and, in case that had been interpreted in such way he would be willing to withdraw them 175 . CFA’s reply was also consistent with this ‘ diffusion tactic’ according to which it was announced that the ‘charges’ against the president of PFA would be withdrawn and the PFA was officially invited to a meeting
171 Press release regarding the strike action by PFA (in Greek) http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=236 (accessed 13/01/13) 172 Press releases on behalf of the PFA regarding its decision to take collective action (in Greek) http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=236 and http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=235 (accessed 13/01/13) 173 Press release of the PFA regarding the referral of its president to the Judicial Committee of the CFA for his statements when he was asked to comment the decision of the General Assembly for a strike action in Divisions 2, 3 and 4 . http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=242 (accessed 13/01/13) 174 Articles from a national newspaper referring to the great controversy between the two Associations. http://www.sigmalive.com/sports/football/cyprus/a%20league/221869 , http://www.sigmalive.com/sports/football/cyprus/a%20league/221606 , http://www.sigmalive.com/sports/football/cyprus/a%20league/224687 (accessed 13/01/13) 175 http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=252 (accessed 13/01/13)
51 on 05/01/10 in order to discuss the pending issues. 176 Due to this announcement and the following meeting, PFA postponed the strike 177 .
This meeting officially launched the social dialogue in the sector and constituted the foundation for cooperation between the parties.
The most important issues that were discussed and (fully or partially) settled through this meeting concerned the change/ amendment of the provisions of the Regulations of the CFA’s Dispute Resolution Committee and the Regulations of Registration and Transfer of Professional Players as well as the better planning of the matches and championships organized by the CFA, which involved the pause of the matches during Christmas holidays.
The social partners, in order to deal with the issue of the better planning of the matches and championships organized by CFA, agreed that a functional solution would be the inclusion of a PFA representative into the CFA Technical Committee – responsible for these issues-. Thus, the CFA agreed to grant PFA with a permanent position in its Technical Committee, in order for the latter to be able to express its opinion and participate in the planning of all competitions. 178
As far as the Regulations of the Dispute Resolution Committee and the Regulations on Registration and Transfer of Professional Players is concerned, there were amendments (in order for the national Regulations to comply with the Regulations of FIFA) regarding the element of time in conjunction with the Clubs’ obligation to pay the arrears of the players’ wages and relevant compensations. The provision that allowed the payment of the delayed salaries in 24 monthly installments was replaced by a new one, according to which the payment should be concluded in 6 monthly installments. In addition to this, an extra provision stated that, in case an installment would delay over 40 days, then the whole amount would be due immediately. 179
Moreover, there was also an amendment regarding the members of the Dispute Resolution Committee. The new provision states that the Committee will be constituted by 5 members from which the 3 (i.e. the president, vice-president and 1 of the members) will be elected by the Board of Directors of the CFA and the other 2 members will be elected by PFA. 180 At this point, it is of importance to state that PFA was not completely satisfied by this amendment due to the fact that their request was for the Committee to be comprised by 2 members elected/chosen by CFA, 2 elected/chosen by PFA and the president to be mutually agreed upon, which was consistent with FIFA’s Standards.181 Indeed, the CFA’s Committee of Dispute Resolution is not in conformity with the FIFA’s Standards and more specifically with
176 http://www.cfa.com.cy/Gr/news/1809 (accessed 13/01/13) 177 http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=253 178 http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=255 (in Greek- accessed 17/01/13) 179 Based to the circular no.221 of the CFA which came into force from 01/01/2011. See also http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=255 and PFA’s magazine, issue 10 available at http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/pdfs/magazine10.pdf (in Greek- accessed 17/01/13) 180 Article 22.3 (3) of the ) “Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Dispute Resolution Committee 2012” 181 Information given by President of PFA in combination with his statements in PFA’s magazine issue 5.
52 the standards set out at the FIFA’s Circular No.1010 182 regarding the establishment of the national Arbitration Committees (i.e. Dispute Resolution Committees).
Finally, as far as their cooperation is concerned, they agreed that, when PFA requests for a meeting, this will have to take place within two weeks.
This meeting was the first real step forward as far as the existence and launching of the national social dialogue in the field of football is concerned and the first time that the social partners achieved to cooperate and jointly find solutions. The following years, the social dialogue started to stabilize even though its progress can be characterized as very slow. Relevant to this point is to refer that, even though meetings and discussions (about several issues) between the social partners were taking place through the following years (after the first ‘official meeting’ that was analyzed above), the initiative of the CFA to establish within its structure a Committee to facilitate the contacts and discussions with PFA and of course the social dialogue, took place only a year ago. This Committee, which is composed of CFA’s 3 Vice-Presidents, is the “Standing Committee for Contacts with PFA” and its purpose is the continuous contact with the PFA and the between them discussion on issues regarding professional football in order to jointly find solutions.183 Undoubtedly, this action facilitates the social dialogue and constitutes another step forward regarding its development but still the progress of social dialogue remains slow.
An analysis of the two most important topics that the national Social Dialogue dealt with, in accordance with their progress, will follow.
The first, and one of the most severe topics that has been discussed, is the health insurance issue. The players have been struggling for years through their representatives to establish the provision of health insurance coverage on behalf of the Clubs as mandatory. In Cyprus, many players are not currently provided with medical and health insurance, not even for injuries or other accidents which arise while performing their work (i.e. during training or matches). In many cases, football players faced serious injuries and health problems and in some cases their career also ended. This lack of insurance put them in a very difficult financial position. There were also cases where players got injured during their working activities and, in the absence of such coverage, they were sued by hospitals in order to pay their medical expenses which the Clubs refused to pay 184 .
Due to this situation, PFA has repeatedly raised this issue in the social dialogue discussions. It was requesting from the CFA to put an end to these phenomena by establishing a clear provision to its regulations which will oblige the Clubs to provide health insurance to their players and also cover their medical expenses. Furthermore, PFA had also made a proposal to CFA to establish a uniform insurance plan including all players. Unfortunately, there has been no real progress regarding this issue, even though the CFA in every discussion on this matter reassures that it
182 This Circular is not published by FIFA’s website (accessed 24/01/13) but information about its context can be found in the article under the title “The FIFA Regulations on Labour Status and Transfer of players” by Michelle Colucci and Felix Majani available at http://isjd.pdii.lipi.go.id/admin/jurnal/5408681710.pdf (accessed 24/01/13) 183 Information provided by Mr. Neofitides in combination with the official website of CFA. 184 Information based to the PFA’s magazine issue 5. The relevant article within the magazine publishes the events and the names of players that they were forced paid their medical expenses-after injuries during matches- by their own.
53 will be settled and they will find a solution to eliminate this problem. A year ago, the CFA also promised to add a provision in its Regulations which would explicitly state that, whenever a Club does not present documents which prove that all Club’s players have been insured, it would not be allowed to participate in the tournaments organized by CFA. 185 Again, nothing happened regarding the aforementioned promise and thus the problems remain.
The paradox in this situation is the fact that in the current CFA’s Regulations, there is a provision which states that: “the Club, to which a player is registered to, is responsible for the insurance of the player against illness, accidents or disability (permanent or temporary, partial or total) during his release for the purposes of the national team. The insurance coverage must be extended also during the matches or trainings of the national team.” 186 As it is clear, this provision has not solved the problem due to the fact that the aforementioned obligation refers to the releases for the national team and does not extend to a general obligation of the Clubs to insure their players. 187
The second issue concerns the protection and promotion of the Cypriot (national) players whose position and existence is compromised.188 The majority of players participating in the Cypriot tournaments and championships are not nationals of Cyprus. Since the Bosman case 189 , which banned any restrictions on the number of EU nationals permitted to be in the rosters of the European teams, the numbers of non-national football players participating in the national championships (especially the one of 1 st Division) have greatly increased.
This has been corroborated by published researches which have shown that the Cypriot 1st Division Championship exhibits the highest foreigners’ employment percentage and the highest age average 190 . Those study results militate in favor of the fears and worries of the PFA that the position of national players is compromised.
The PFA supports that the national players are not given the chances to participate in the official matches at national championships and are consequently deprived of the chance to gain experience and help the progress of the national team of Cyprus in international matches. Due to these reasons, the PFA has taken the initiative to add this issue to the social dialogue. In many meetings the social partners exchanged
185 Magazine of PFA issue 14. 186 Article 24.1 (2) “Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Dispute Resolution Committee 2012” published 01/04/2012 187 Combination of the announcements of PFA and the Associations magazines issues 5, 6,9,11,13,14,16 available at http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/pdfs/magazine13.pdf , http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/pdfs/magazine14.pdf , http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=561 and http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/magazine.php (accessed 24/1/13) 188 http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/pdfs/magazine13.pdf , http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/pdfs/magazine14.pdf , http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=631, 189 For information about the Bosman Case of ECJ you can read the following : http://eur- lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=en&numdoc=61993J0415 (accessed 24/1/13) 190 The PFA in its magazines issues 11 and 15, are making reference to the “Demographic studies of footballers in Europe” contacted by CIES- football observatory and the results shown that Cyprus is coming first in Europe having the percentage of 72.3% of non-nationals employed in top football division in 2011 and 70.3% in 2012 respectively. In addition as far as the average age of footballers Cyprus has again the highest record which is 28.02 and 28.23 for the years 2011 and 2012 respectively. Unfortunately, these studies are not available online but the study of 2013 is available at http://www.football- observatory.com/IMG/pdf/DS2013_excerpt-2.pdf (accessed 24/01/13) and indicates again Cyprus in the first place for both aforementioned areas of study. The 2013 study shows that in Cypriot 1 st division the percentage of non-nationals reaches the 74.2% and the average age of the players of that Division is 28.23 (see pages 21 and 12 of the study respectively.)
54 views in order to find ways to empower and protect the national football players in general as well as their participation in the national championships. Despite arising disagreements between the parties on how they should proceed, their discussions seem to have paid out in the end, at least to some degree. The two parties agreed on a national plan for football development. They also involved UEFA, which had meetings with the social partners and other relevant stakeholders of football and sports in general (i.e. the Cyprus Sport Organization, the Clubs, the coaches of national football team, the private football academies and the Ministry of Education) in order to exchange views on the potential plan. The role of UEFA would be to design this plan and help with its implementation. After the European governing body of football in Europe concluded the discussions, it announced that it will design the plan and present it to the social partners.
According to UEFA, this plan will focus on the young national talents and will be based on 4 pillars: (a) the quick identification of talent; (b) the determination of the proper educator-coach. (c) the quality coaching and (d) the provision of opportunities for these talents to compete in a high level.191 Due to the fact that this plan has not yet been ready, it is not known exactly what its context will be and is impossible for any comments to be made about it or for its success to be predicted. The only certain thing is that the outcomes of this plan will not be visible within a short time period after its implementation. Furthermore, it has to be understandable that this plan will hardly constitute a panacea for the problem. In order for the problem to be solved, the first thing that has to change is the mentality of the Clubs. They must understand that the national players can be equally good and the only thing that they need in order to prove their abilities and talents is support and chances. For that reason they should start giving more chances to the nationals to play in their teams and realize that their behavior to exclude them from the rosters is part of the problem.
-National Collective Bargaining Agreements
Due to the fact that the social dialogue is still in its infancy, there are no CBAs concluded in the industry yet. However, PFA is optimistic that this situation is soon to change, something that has been explicitly stated to constitute one of the Association goals. In addition to this, Mr. Neofitides revealed that in November 2012, the PFA addressed the CFA with a list of 18 subjects including all the issues that the players’ Association wants to promote and settle through social dialogue the following years. Furthermore, the PFA provided CFA with a time limit to examine the list and reply. This list also included the proposal for a future conclusion of a CBA.
191 Information taken by the official website of the PFA ( http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/ ), its’ magazines issues 4,9,10,11,12,14,15 and 16 and also from the website of a national media organization available at http://www.sigmalive.com/sports/football/cyprus/a+league/459235 (all accessed 24/01/13)
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6.1.4 PFA comments regarding the Social Dialogue in professional football in Cyprus
The president of PFA, during the interview, was asked to comment on the social dialogue in Cyprus and its outcomes. Mr. Neofitides underlined the importance of the social dialogue and that the Association believes that it is the way to make the conditions of football and the football itself better. The PFA managed through social dialogue to have some very important achievements as the Christmas 2 weeks pause of the championships and the change of CFA’s Regulations as regards the payments of delayed salaries of the players by only 6 monthly installments. In addition to this, he expressed his optimism that in the future, the national social dialogue will be strengthened and that they can see some progress already. However, he considers the fact that the health insurance issue has not yet been settled, even though there were countless discussions between the partners and proposals for solutions on behalf of the PFA, to be a failure.
As far as the level of the social dialogue is concerned, he stated that it constitutes a new institution which resulted after many ‘adventures’ and disputes and which evolves over time. Definitely, he said, there is plenty of room for improvements. Meanwhile, Mr. Neofitides expressed a complaint on behalf of PFA as regards the social dialogue and the relevant Committee of CFA (for Contacts with PFA). Unfortunately, according to Mr. Neofitides’ statements, this Committee, due to heavy workload on behalf of CFA, is underactive and the time schedules, which are agreed from time to time, are not kept/ followed. Another problem with regard to this Committee and the social dialogue in general, according to the statements of PFA’s President, is that on many occasions several issues and proposals that are discussed and agreed with the CFA Committee representatives are failing to get approval from the Executive Committee of CFA. This is a problem stemming from the internal modus operandi of the CFA which constitutes a major obstacle regarding the progress of the social dialogue and the arising agreements. 192
6.1.5 The European Autonomous Agreement on the minimum standards of professional football players’ contracts and Cyprus- is the implementation obligatory?
As already explained before, in Cyprus there are no CBAs concluded in the field of professional football and in order to make a connection with the possible implementation of the European Agreement as well as to examine the necessity of
192 Information given by Mr. Neofitides-president of PFA.
56 such implementation, it is deemed necessary to first to examine the existing national provisions regarding the Contracts.
6.1.5.1 The existing national Regulations regarding the Contracts of professional football players
-General Remarks
The regulations regarding the Contracts of football players in Cyprus are drawn by the CFA and can be found among the provisions of the “Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Dispute Resolution Committee 2012” (henceforth Regulations). These Regulations were originally approved from the CFA’s Board of Directors in 2005 and amended several times with the latest to be in 2012. 193
- Guidelines / terms / provisions of the Contract which even if they are not included in the Contracts will be considered as an integral part
Pursuant to Article 1.2 (5) of the Regulations, the CFA has the right from time to time to adopt guidelines/instructions regarding provisions that must be included in the Contracts and those guidelines should necessarily be applied.
In addition to this, the same article states that guidelines or provisions or terms which must necessarily be included in Contracts are also included in the (present) Regulations. These guidelines or provisions or terms will be considered as integral part of a player’s contract even if there is no specific provision in it (regardless of the existence of a specific provision in the Contract). 194
-The Contract
Given definitions (Contract, professional and amateur player)
a. Contract-Financial Agreement
According to these Regulations, the Contract of a football player 195 (henceforth Contract) is “the written financial agreement between a Club member of CFA and a football player, which has predefined and fix-term duration”. 196
193 See preamble of the Regulations 194 Based to the fact that the under examination Regulations are very bad written with not a very transparent structure we have to state that there are difficulties in order to determinate with certainty which provisions can be considered to be an integral part of the Contracts. Despite that very important fact there will be an attempt to examine each and every one article of the Regulations with special attention in order to enter into safe conclusions. 195 Football player, pursuant to the Regulations, means the amateur or/and the professional football player Cypriot and/or European Citizen and/or Foreigner.
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By this definition we can see that the Regulations choose to define the Contract as a financial agreement between the Club and the player than an employment agreement. However, the fact that they define it as a ‘written’ agreement it means that there is the obligation for the Contract to be written.
b. Professional and Amateur player
The Regulations make a distinction between a professional and an amateur football player. This distinction is based on the remuneration that the player receives from its Club. If a player receives, as remuneration, only amounts corresponding to his real expenses regarding his football activity (i.e. the expenses regarding his football equipment, his transportation, accommodation as a result of his participation in a match and whatever expenses can be accepted to be in relation with the player’s football activity), then he is considered to be an amateur. Consequently, in case he receives remuneration exceeding in any way his real expenses, then he is considered to be a professional player. Competent authority, according to the Regulations, to determine the status of a player (i.e. amateur of professional) is the relevant Committee of the CFA. 197
Obligation for concluding a Contract
Pursuant to the articles 7 and 8 of the Regulations, the obligation of concluding and signing a Contract concerns the professional football player and the Club to which he is registered to or/and he is playing football with.
However, Article 7(2) states that a Club which is concluding a Contract with a player is obliged, within 30 days of the signing, to inform in writing the CFA and include all the relevant documents in order for the CFA to determine the status of the player. In addition to this, the Club that omits to conclude a Contract, contrary to its obligation, is referred to the CFA’s Judicial Committee in order to be imposed with penalties. 198
Duration of the Contract
The Regulations define that the minimum duration of a Contract can be one football season 199 , except in cases of registration or transfer (of a player) after the beginning of the football season, where the Contract can have as a minimum duration the
196 “Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Dispute Resolution Committee 2012” published 01/04/2012. Article 1.2 (1) (http://www.cfa.com.cy/images/DownloadsGr/120726%20EOM%20KANONISMOI%20EGGRAFON%20METAGRAFON%202012% 202013.pdf ) available all in Greek , accessed 12/01/13 197 Articles 3,4 and 5 of the Regulations 198 Article 7(5) of the Regulations 199 Football season, pursuant to the Regulations, is the period which begins from the official starting date of the CFA’s Championships until their finishing date.
58 remaining period of the football season. The maximum duration of a contract can be 5 (five) years. 200
In addition to this, the Regulations state that the Contracts which have as expiration (ending) date any date after the expiration of the second window transfer 201 deadline, during the football season, will be considered automatically extended until the 31 st of May which follows the ending of the current football season. In such automatically extensions the Contracts will maintain the same financial terms that were in force before of their expiration. 202
By this regulation indirectly the Regulations also state that the Contracts must explicitly define their ending and starting day.
Obligation for deposition of the Contract
The Contract must be deposited to the CFA within 21 days from the date that the decision regarding the status of the football player was communicated by the relevant Committee. 203
However, according to the Regulations, in case that the Contract has not been deposited to the CFA or in case of a dispute between the player and the Club regarding the Contract, the player will not be allowed to participate in official matches organized by CFA. Starting point of this prohibition will be the next match date that follows the last day of the deadline for the Contract’s deposition to CFA. 204 In order for the player to regain the right to participate in official matches, a deposition of his Contract must take place.205
Moreover, pursuant to articles 8(6) and 8(9) of the Regulations, the Contract, which has been deposited, creates an irrefutable presumption for the purposes of the legal procedure before the CFA’s Special Committee of Dispute Resolution. In cases where the Contract has not been deposited, the Dispute Resolution Committee will not have jurisdiction on disputes arising from it.
However, according to article 8(11), the deposition of the Contract does not create a presumption of validity.
200 Article 1.2 (2) of the Regulations 201 The second transfer window starts from the 1 st of January and ends on the 31 st of January, including those dates (article 1.4(5) ). Transfer windows Article 1.4 202 Article 1.2 (3) of the Regulations 203 Article 8(4) of the Regulations. The given deadline for the deposition of Contract does not apply in cases where a player and a Club are having disputes regarding the terms of the Contract before its signing. In such cases the Contract will have to be deposited within 21 days of the date that the Dispute Resolution Committee of CFA had delivered its decision, except in the cases were the aforementioned Committee had decided that the player is an amateur. Combination of Articles 8(4) and 8(13). 204 Article 8(7) of the Regulations 205 Article 8(8) of the Regulations
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‘The principle of one and unique contract’
Prohibition of double Contracts
The Regulations define that any additional agreements or documents or any references to documents or agreements made within the Contract must also be deposited to CFA as an integral part of the Contract, given that these are influencing or referring directly or indirectly either to the financial provisions or to additional financial provisions of the Contact or to obligations of the Club or the player. All the aforementioned additional documents must be also signed by the contracting parties. 206
In addition to these, article 8(10) states that: “any complimentary agreements or double agreements or any type of agreements which are based on the same period as the Contract, cannot be deposited and have no effect before the CFA’s Dispute Resolution Committee, which Committee has likewise no jurisdiction to deal with them if they are not also deposited within 15 days of the deposition of the basic Contract.”
Prohibition of double Contracts which their duration is coinciding
Furthermore, the article 19(5) explicitly states that “a football player who for any reason has concluded more than one Contract with a Club or Clubs and the duration or part of the duration of which coincides at any time, will be forbidden from participating in any football activity until the CFAs’ Dispute Resolution Committee or the relevant organ of FIFA (in case where one of the contractual parties being a non- national Club) address the issue.” A proportional provision exists for the Clubs which sign a Contract with a player by time or way that is against the Regulations. Based to article 19(9) the Club will be faced with financial penalties up to the amount of 17.000 euro and score points deduction. Additionally the Club will be forbidden to register any players to its team for 3 years.
Amendment of a Contract
In the event that a Contract has been amended during its term, after an agreement between the (contracting) parties, the Club (member of the CFA) is obliged to deposit the new Contract or/and any amendments. These documents must be duly signed in order to be accepted by CFA. 207
206 Article 8(5) of the Regulations 207 Article 8 (12) of the Regulations
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Procedure for deposition of the Contract
The procedure for the deposition of a Contract is defined also by the Regulations, which provide that the deposition must be done by the Club (member of CFA) and/or the player and the envisaged fee must be paid simultaneously.
The Contract which will be deposited must be the original, duly signed and including the required duty stamps. The deposition of the Contract is not allowed to be done either by fax or with a photocopy of the original Contract.208 The CFA, after receiving it, will make copy and then certify it in order to keep it in its records and will return the original to the sender. This procedure, pursuant to article 8(10) applies to all professional football players.
In order for a contract to be accepted by CFA, the Regulations impose two requirements. Firstly, it must include the entire mandatory ‘stamp duty’, as the relevant law provides, and secondly it must be duly signed according to the statute of the Club 209 .
Conclusion of Contract with a minor
As far as the conclusion of a Contract with a minor football player (i.e. under the age of 18) is concerned, the Regulations state that it is allowed in cases where the minor is not younger than 15 years old and provided that: (i) the contract has a maximum duration of 3 years expiring when the football player reaches the age of 18; (ii) it is signed by the Club, the player and his legal guardians, whose (guardians’) signature must be certified by a relevant authority, and (iii) there is also an additional agreement of education between the player and the Club. 210
The Education agreement is deemed mandatory (by the Regulations) and must also be signed by the Club, the player and his legal guardians, exactly as it is provided for the Contract. 211
Moreover, the Regulations provide that the Education agreement shall have as a date of expire the date of the players birthday which he turns 18 years old. In case where the date of those birthdays occurs in the middle of the football season then the Education agreement will automatically extended until the 31 st of May which follows the end of the current football season.
Finally, based to the Regulations the CFA has the right to issue instructions regarding provisions that must be included in the Education agreement or regarding the regulations of registration of a player under 18 years old and those instructions would be obligatory to applied and executed. A relevant provision it is mandatory to be included in the Education agreement. In addition to that, the CFA can also include
208 Article 8(10) of the Regulations 209 Article 1.2 (7) of the Regulations 210 Article 1.2 (6) of the Regulations 211 Article 1.3 of the Regulations. The education agreement expires at the date which the player becomes 18 years old, except in cases where that date falls within the football season. In the latter cases the agreement will be automatically extended until he 31 st of May of the current football season.
61 relevant terms to its players’ registration forms which terms will be an integral part of the players’ Contract.
Unilateral exercise of choice for extension or renewal of the Contract
Article 1.2 (4) of the Regulations states that: “provisions regarding the unilateral exercise of choice (note: the word used by the Regulations is choice and not right) for extension or renewal of the Contract can be included in the Contract’s provisions, provided that the initial Contract, along with all the possible unilateral ‘choices’, are not exceeding the maximum limit of 5 (five) years”.
This regulation gives the right to the parties to include in the Contract provisions regarding the unilateral exercise for extension or renewal of the Contract if they decide so but they do not make any reference about their equal rights to negotiate either the renewal or the termination of the Contract.
Taxation
Based to the Regulations, all new contracts must be deposited by the Club to the relevant tax authority (i.e. to the so called ‘Department of Inland Revenue). In cases where the Club neglects or omits to deposit the Contract to the tax authorities, CFA will do so. There is also a provision included in the same article which states that, by these Regulations, the Club irrevocably authorizes the CFA to do the relevant deposit. 212
Mandatory provision which must be included in all Contracts
Pursuant to article 15 (2) of the Regulations, the Contract must include provisions for cases where the Club is dissolved with the prospect of uniting with another Club or where the Club is transferring the football department to another Club or relevant legal entity. This article provides that the parts should agree if the Contract will remain in force in such events or not. Nevertheless, if such provisions are not included in the Contract, then there will be the presumption that the parties have agreed for the Contract to remain in force.
Mandatory provision for the Contracts of foreign players
Also, in a special provision the Regulations state that there is a mandatory term that must be included in all the Contracts of the foreign players 213 which play in the 1 st
212 Article 1.2 (8) of the Regulations 213 The regulations define as ‘foreign player’ the non Cypriot football player who holds a nationality from a country outside the European Union. Article 1(5)
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Division. This term should define that, in case of relegation of the Club from the 1 st to the 2 nd Division, the Contract will be automatically terminated and the player will remain free until the 1 st of June (of the same year), following the end of the 1 st Division Championship. 214 The reason why this provision is mandatory for the Contracts of foreign players in Cyprus is because, according to the same Regulations, it is explicitly prohibited for foreign players over the age of 18 to participate in matches other than those in Division 1. 215
Disputes regarding the Contract’s terms before its signing
Moreover, the Regulations define in article 8 (13) that, in case of a dispute between a Club and a player regarding the terms of Contract, while its signing is still pending, the dispute will be resolved by the CFA’s Dispute Resolution Committee according to the following:
A. If the dispute concerns the duration of the first professional Contract, the duration will be determined based on the Club’s offer. The duration of the Contract though, cannot be over 5 years; B. If the dispute concerns the financial terms of the Contract, these terms will be determined by the Dispute Resolution Committee. However, the (Dispute Resolution) Committee, in order to determine these terms, must take into account with order of priority: (i) the remuneration that football players of equivalent experience and age are receiving from the same Club; (ii) the remuneration that football players of equivalent experience and age are receiving in general and (iii) the prior remuneration of the football player ; C. It lies within the discretionary power of the CFA’s Dispute Resolution Committee to decide upon disputes of any other nature.
Invalid Contract and Invalid terms of a Contract
The Regulations in their Article 21 define when a Contract or its terms are valid. In the first paragraph, is stated that the validity of a Contract cannot be subject to any term regarding positive medical examination results or the acquisition of work permit by the relevant authorities for the player. The Club is obliged to fully honor the Contract that has signed as well as its obligation regarding the ‘compensation for training and development’ towards the previous Club(s) of the player (where applicable). Nevertheless, the Club is allowed to make any kind of research regarding the player’s health or his capacity to obtain a work permit either before the signing of the Contract or before includes the player to the Club. In case, though that there are terms in the Contract which are conflicting with this paragraph they will be consider to be invalid.
In the second paragraph, on the other hand, it is stated that any Contract or agreement between a football player and a Club will be considered to be invalid in
214 Article 20.1 (3) of the Regulations 215 Article 20 of the Regulations
63 cases where a non authorized person was involved during its conclusion. As it is further defined, the CFA does not recognize as authorized person any person who acts as a players agent or representative, except if the person has obtained relevant permission by FIFA or if is a lawyer and active member of the (Cypriot) Bar Association. What we can conclude by this provision is that indirectly the Regulations state that the persons which are involving into the conclusion of a Contract must be defined within it.
Forbidden agreement
In general the Regulations by their article 24.1 (2) explicitly prohibit any agreement between a Club and a player which limits by any way the player to participate in trainings or matches (either friendly or official) with his national team. So, under this prohibition we can conclude that indirectly is also prohibited to include such term in the Contract. Furthermore, we can also conclude that in the event that a Contract includes such a term, it will be considered to be null.
Mixed income of the player
Based to article 22.36 of the Regulations, the Dispute Resolution Committee when is calculating the compensation for training and development of (young) player that a Club has to pay to the player’s previous Club(s), must also include the mixed income of the player. The next article (22.37) is analyzing what the mixed income can include –but as states those elements are not exhaustively- and what cannot include.
According to the latter article, in the player’s mixed income are included: the salaries of the player; the bonuses or other ex gratia payments for matches and or educational purposes and any other payments made to the player.
In my opinion, this article is also indirectly is determining some the obligations of the Club, financial and non financial, which can be also included in the Contract as contractual obligations.
Promising transfer (Loan of a player to another Club)
Based to the Regulations ‘promising transfer’ is the temporary handing of a player from a Club to which the player has a Contract or Education agreement to another national Club (member of CFA).
Regarding the promising transfer the Regulations define that in order to be performed must exists a written agreement between the two Clubs and the relevant players’ consent.
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In addition to this, it is also stated that the Club that acquires a professional player through a promising transfer is obliged to conclude a Contract with him and deposit it to the CFA. Minimum requirements of this Contract should be its financial terms and its duration. 216 217
Based to this provisions and the provisions of article 1.2(5), which as analyzed before state that some provisions will be considered as integral part of the Contracts even if there are not included in the Contract we can enter into two conclusions. First, is that for loan of a player to another Club is consent (agreement) it is necessary and second that the financial terms and the duration of a Contract are considered by the CFA as the most important (minimum) terms that a Contract must have.
Conclusion of a new Contract
Based to CFAs’ Regulations ‘a professional football player can conclude a Contract with Club other than the one his already contracted to only in cases where:
a) His Contract with his current Club had expired or is expected to expired within 6 months 218 ; b) His Contract in force gives the right of unilateral choice to the Club to extend or/and renew the existing Contract by specific terms and the Club had inform the player in writing form that will not use that right of choice. In such case, the written information has to take place within the minimum of one month previous the expiration date of the Contract or within the period that the Contract itself provides. c) His Contract has been terminated, by any contractual party, for any legitimate reason and the termination has been communicated to the CFA with all the necessary documents and d) His Contract has been terminated after mutual agreement of the parties and the termination has been communicated to the CFA with all the necessary documents “219
Analyzing the aforementioned provision we can deduct that a Contract can be terminated upon its expiration date or by mutual agreement of the parties or by any legitimate reason. However, the Regulations do not precisely indicate or define what the legitimate reasons are. Due to this, we can assume that responsible for the definitions of this term are the relevant organs of CFA but this does not serves the general principle of the ‘contractual stability’ that the Governing Bodies of football (FIFA and UEFA) are trying to promote. When the contractual parties are not sure
216 Combination of articles 13.1 (1), 13.1(4) and 13.3(5) of the Regulations. For more information about promising transfer and its conditions see articles 13.1, 13.2, 13.3 and 13.4 of the Regulations. 217 In case of a minor player in order to be loaned to another Club, except of the agreement between the relevant Clubs an agreement on behalf of his legal guardians is also mandatory. (article 13.4(2)) 218 Note: The new Contract that the player is allowed to conclude with another Club shall concern starting date after the date of expiration of his Contract in force. 219 Article 19(1) of the Regulations
65 what a legitimate reason for termination is then a lot of misinterpretations of this term are endangered.
Forbidden terms in cases of a new Contract with a different Club while the previous Contract (with the old Club) has not been expired
As analyzed above a player is allowed to conclude a new Contract with a different Club if his current Contract is expected to expire within 6 months. 220
In such cases, the new Contract cannot include any terms which either can influence by any means the regular continuation and respect of the terms/ contractual obligations that are included in the players’ Contract in force nor the players’ football performance. 221
Termination of a Contract
In continuity with the above provisions, the Regulations state that in case of termination of a Contract based to the fact that it has expired or after a mutual agreement of the parties, the Club will be entitled to compensation for training and development, unless it renounces its right in written form. 222
However, in case of termination of a Contract by any of the contractual parties (unilaterally), the other party can refer the termination to the Dispute Resolution Committee of CFA within 30 days from the day that was notified for the termination (in order for the Committee to examine the legitimacy of the termination).223
Termination of the Contract on behalf of the player
In case that the termination took place on behalf of the player, the latter cannot be registered to another Club for a period of 30 days following the termination and in the case where his Club referred the termination to the Dispute Resolution Committee (of CFA) he cannot be registered until the decision of the aforementioned Committee is issued. 224
Based to that provision it can be concluded that even if the contractual parties agreed differently in the Contract that will not have any effect because the CFA’s Regulations mandate that a new registration cannot take place before the expiration of a 30days period.
220 See footnote no.217. 221 Article 19(3) of the Regulations 222 Article 19(1)C of the Regulations 223 Article 19(1)B, second paragraph, of the Regulations 224 Article 19(1)B, second paragraph, last sentence, of the Regulations
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Termination of a Contract with culpability (liability) of one of the parties 225
On the one hand, in the case where the Contract was terminated with liability of the Club, then the latter will not be entitled to compensation for training and development, unless the terminated Contract was stating otherwise. 226
On the other hand, in the case where the termination of the Contact was because of the players’ culpability, then based to the Regulations the Club will be entitled for compensation for training and development and/or reasonable compensation if that compensation is not provided by the Contract and/or the internal regulations of the Club. 227
Based to the aforementioned it is obvious that it is allowed in a players’ Contract to be included a term which will state that the Club will be entitled to compensation of training and development even if it is liable of terminating the Contract unilaterally. Furthermore, the Clubs are also entitled to reasonable compensation in cases where the players are unilaterally terminating the Contract even in cases where the Contract and/or their internal regulations do not provide such right. However, the Regulations do not clarify if the players are also entitled of compensation in cases where their Contracts are terminated by culpability of the Clubs.
Determination of the amount of the training and education compensation within the Contract
The provisions of the Regulations are permitting the amount of the training of the education compensation (which the next Club will be obliged to pay to the previous Club) to be determined within the Contract of the player. In such determination the amount agreed in the Contract cannot be challenged by the new Club and that amount would be the one that would be owned (unless the entitled for compensation Club renounced its right in a written form).228
Furthermore, in case were in the players’ Contract there is a provision regarding the training and education compensation then the player based to the Regulations the player will not be liable to pay that amount himself but responsible for the payment would be the Club to which the player it is transferred. However, within the Regulations there is another provision regarding the same issue which complicates the liability regarding the aforementioned compensation. A different provision states that in case where the terms of a Contract provide any pre-determined compensation then liable for the payment of that compensation would be jointly the Club (to which the player has been transferred) and the player unless the Club to which the player has been transferred agreed differently or in case where the issue of compensation
225 In case where there is a dispute between the Club and the player in relation with the culpability then the dispute will be solved by the CFA’s Dispute Resolution Committee. Article 19(2)B, last sentence of the Regulations. 226 Article 19(2) A of the Regulations 227 Article 19(2) B of the Regulations 228 Article 19(11) of the Regulations
67 referred to the Dispute Resolution Committee and that Committee decides differently. 229
Details regarding the payment of the player
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Financial impact on the player in case of Clubs’ major change of revenue
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Paid holidays
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Health and safety policy of the Club
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Mandatory health and injury insurance of the players
Regarding this issue was an extensive analysis in a previous chapter of this thesis. The Regulations by the article 24.2 state the following paradox: “the Club, to which a player is registered to, is responsible for the insurance of the player against illness, accidents or disability (permanent or temporary, partial or total) during his release for the purposes of the national team. The insurance coverage must be extended also during the matches or trainings of the national team.” In addition to this, reference for health insurance is made in the provisions where make a distinction between the amateur and the professional player. More specifically the expenses of a player regarding an insurance coverage regarding any dangers during his participation in matches or trainings there are considered real expenses of the player that the team has to reimburse in any case. Once again, nowhere in the Regulations can be find an obligation for the Club (per se) to provide to its players health and medical insurance coverage.
Minimum wage
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
229 Articles 19(14) and 19(15) of the Regulations
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Players working time
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Records of injuries
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Provisions regarding human rights, non-discrimination and against racism
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Obligations of the player towards the Club
The Regulations by their provisions do not clarify this issue.
Image rights of the player
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Right of the player for second medical opinion
The Regulations by their provisions do not clarify this issue.
Disciplinary regulations of the Club/ Discipline of the player
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Rights of the player in case of disciplinary actions against him by his Club
The Regulations do not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Annexes of the Contract
Based to the Regulations, if any annexes exist must be also deposited as an integral part of the Contract, if there are concerning or/and influence the obligations of the
69 parties or the Contracts’ duration or the financial terms of the Contract. In addition to this, all annexes must be also signed. 230
Legislation applicable for the Contract
The Regulations do not define by their provisions something regarding this issue.
There is only one provision within the Regulations regarding the issue of the applicable law and that is concerning the applicable law during the proceedings before the Dispute Resolution Committee. 231
Compliance with national CBAs, football regulations and anti-doping regulations
No relevant provision exists within the Regulations regarding this issue.
-Dispute Resolution between the player and the Club
As already mentioned regarding any disputes between the player and the Club either for issues concerning their employment relationship or the Contractual stability the Regulations provide that competence has the CFAs’ Dispute Resolution Committee. 232
-Binding effect of the Regulations
The Regulations are legally binding and both the Clubs and the players are obliged to comply with the Regulations.
6.1.5.2 Comments on regards the CFA’s Regulations regarding the Contracts of professional players
To begin with, it is important to underline once more the fact that there are no separate regulations regarding the Contracts of football players in Cyprus. As already made clear, all the provisions regarding the Contracts can be found/ are included in the context of CFA’s ‘Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Arbitration Committee 2012’. However, the provisions about the Contracts cannot be easily detected within the Regulations due to the fact that are scattered in different sections of the Regulations.
230 Article 8(5) of the Regulations. 231 Article 22.2 of the Regulations. 232 Article 22.1 of the Regulations. For further details about the Dispute Resolution Committee also see previous chapters of this thesis, especially under the title ‘social partners- CFA’.
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Despite the fact that, in the Regulations, there is a specific section which is referred to Contracts under the title “football player’s contract or Contract” this section does not includes all the relevant provisions. Due to this, anyone interested or concerned to detect and examine the aforementioned provisions has to be very careful and read the whole context of the Regulations otherwise she/he might miss out important requirements/provisions regarding the Contracts. Moreover, the existing provisions are very general, include only a minimum amount of information and in many cases even the information provided is not transparent.
Furthermore, the provisions on the Contracts (and the Regulations in general) are very bad written, confusing and unclear which make it very complicate for the reader to understand their meaning. In combination with the fact that some of the provisions are contradictory, it is easy to understand that can be given many interpretations regarding the meaning and the substance of these provisions. This can led to many misinterpretations and insecurity as far as the legality of the Contracts and there terms.
As far as the Context of the Contracts concerns, it is left almost ‘blank’ by the Regulations. The Regulations determinate mostly the requirements for deposition of the Contract and the settlements of the disputes arising from it but they are not dealing substantially with issues beyond these. No provisions exist in order to determinate at least some basic terms which a Contract must include in order to safeguard the employment relationship, the contractual obligations between the parties and the employment rights of the players. The lack of such regulation means that the Context of any Contract it is left in the discretion of the Contractual parties. As it is logical the ones who can be benefit more from this situation are the Clubs. The Clubs are the powerful employers and in cooperation with their legal teams can ‘tailor’ the Contracts in a way which they can benefit as much as possible. Based to the principle of the contractual freedom and in combination with the absence of any regulatory legislation in this field, the Contracts instead of protecting the employment relationship in many cases can lead to misuse of the employment rights of the players. 233
In order for this situation to cease existing, measures should be taken especially by the CFA. The best solution would be for the CFA to rewrite and re-establish its Regulations regarding the Contracts in more clear and sufficient way in order to be understandable by any interested party as well as transparent. Furthermore, the implementation of the European Agreement is considered mandatory due to the inadequacy of the present provisions to regulate the basic context and the minimum requirements of the football players Contracts.
233 Meanwhile, the PFA, which is well aware of this problematic situation, is constantly warning its members to be cautious when there signing a Contract with a Club. The Association published many announcements indicating several situations where Contracts were including inadmissible terms for the employment rights of the players and advised its members before signing a Contract to seek for a legal advice either through the Association or a lawyer. In addition, the Association provides, to its official website, a sample of Contract, ( http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/pdfs/eniaioSimbolaio.pdf ) including all the necessary terms that a Contract should contain in order to determinate the employment relationship and the employment terms between a Club and professional player. See announcements of the PFA available in Greek at http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=598, http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=594 http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=427 (all accessed 22/01/13)
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6.1.5.3 The implementation of the European Agreement in Cyprus
The PFA recognizing the importance of the Agreement 234 , in combination with the aforementioned analyzed situation regarding the national regulations about the Contracts, considers imperative the need of its adoption and implementation in Cyprus. Due to this, the PFA, addressed the issue of the adoption and implementation of the European Agreement on minimum requirements of professional player contracts to CFA shortly after the signing of the Agreement by the Social Partners. Furthermore, they invited the CFA to start discussions and negotiations regarding the details of the adoption and implementation of the Minimum Requirements in Cyprus. However, even though the CFA appeared to be positive about the implementation no further discussion took place afterwards. 235
Based to the last issue of the PFA’s magazine (issue 16) and the gathered information, the CFA appeared to be positive about the implementation of the Agreement. However, there is no progress (yet) regarding this matter and no official announcement on behalf of the CFA 236 .237
6.1.6 Conclusions
The social dialogue in the Cypriot professional football was established few years ago. After many disputes the social partners manage to establish it and through it they have already found some joint solutions. In general, due to the fact that the social dialogue is in its infancy, has no major outcomes to show and no CBA was ever negotiated and signed between the social partners.
Even though progress has been made through social dialogue for some discussed issues, the progress of social dialogue in general is slow. Several issues, such as the mandatory health insurance coverage of the players, are still pending although have been discussed repeatedly through the years.
234 It is important to remind here that the PFA -through its representatives- was present throughout the whole procedure until the adoption of the European Agreement by the European social partners. PFA was present during all the meetings and the negotiations, including the opening of the sessions of the Social Dialogue Committee in 2008 and the signing of the Agreement in 2012. 235 See PFA’s magazine issue 16. 236 Announcements of PFA available in Greek at http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=867 and issue 16 of the PFA’s magazine available at http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/pdfs/magazine16.pdf (accessed 25/01/13) 237 The PFA, very recently, issued an announcement criticizing the attitude of CFA and accused them for idleness (and indirectly for indifference). Announcement available in Greek at http://www.pasp.org.cy/pasp09/NewsInside.php?id=879 (accessed 25/01/13)
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The PFA, on the on hand, seems to be trying to promote and discuss several national issues and problems that its members and the Cypriot football in general are facing; but the CFA, on the other hand, sometimes gives the impression that is disinterest for a progress to be shown.
Meanwhile, the regulations and provisions regarding the Contracts of professional players are very bad written, complicated and insufficient as regards the context of Contracts and its requirements. There is an attempt on behalf of the PFA to include the issue of implementation of the European Agreement on Minimum Requirements professional football players’ contract into the agenda of social dialogue, but at the moment this was not feasible.
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6.2 Italy
6.2.1 Introduction
-The professionalism in Italian sports
The legal basis in Italy for professionalism in sport is laid down by Law No.91/1981. This Law provides a special set of regulations for professional athletes and their legal position in the Italian Legal system suited to the specificity of sport. 238 In short, the Law No.91/1981 distinguishes professional sportsmen and women from the amateurs and states that the general rule for the type of employment relationship for the athletes carrying out sporting activity is considered work under employment contract. Furthermore, it characterizes the employment relationship in sport as ‘special’ resulting from the fact that some of the labour provisions which apply to all Italian workers with regard to some fundamental rights do not apply to professional athletes (for example fixed term contracts, provisions relating to dismissal law, monitoring the health and private life and activities of the worker) because of their status as athletes and the peculiarities of the sports. 239
Professional sportsmen and women in Italy, in order to work, need to obtain authorization from the relevant national sport federation, in accordance with the rules laid down by them and provided for by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). Moreover, for the establishment of the employment relationship in the sport sector a written contract is required, in the absence of which the contract is null and void 240 .
As professor Colucci explains 241 , the Law No.81/91 is of great significance because with its article 4, it delegates important powers to the federations or the Leagues. The aforementioned article states that every athlete’s contract must be drawn up in accordance with the standard contract drafted by the relevant national sports federation and the representatives of the athletes in the interested categories. Subsequently, every athletic organization/association that signs a contract with an athlete has the obligation to file it with the relevant sports federation for approval. Hence, due to the fact that the Law No.91 establishes the ‘standard contract’, it also indirectly enshrines and establishes the Collective Bargaining in the sports field.
238 A more detailed analysis on the Law No.91/81 and the status of Italian athletes can be found in the book: ’ CONTRACTUAL STABILITY IN FOOTBALL’, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, Issue 1-2011, Sports Law and Policy Center, Edited by Michele Colucci, pages 199 and following 239 Articles 1-4 of Law No.91/81 on Professionalism in Sport –Analysis of articles by Michele Colucci in the book: ’ CONTRACTUAL STABILITY IN FOOTBALL’, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, Issue 1-2011, Sports Law and Policy Center, Edited by Michele Colucci, pages 199 and following . 240 ’ CONTRACTUAL STABILITY IN FOOTBALL’, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, Issue 1-2011, Sports Law and Policy Center, Book edited by Michele Colucci, pages 202 and following . 241 ’ CONTRACTUAL STABILITY IN FOOTBALL’, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, Issue 1-2011, Sports Law and Policy Center, Book edited by Michele Colucci, pages 203 and following . (Sport and Contractual Stability: The Italian Case by M. Colucci)
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- Football and the employment relationship in football
Football in Italy is the most popular sport and has a long tradition with the modern variation of the game dating back to the 1880s. 242 According to the official website of FIFA, there are 1,513,596 registered players in Italy and 16,697 Clubs 243 , numbers that prove the popularity of the sport in the country. The first step concerning professionalism in Italian football was made in the 1930s when football players were granted for the first time reimbursement for their expenses. 244
The employment relationship in football between the players and the Clubs is regulated by the Law No.91/81 and by the Collective Bargaining agreement that is concluded each year by the association of Italian football players (Assocalciatori/AIC), the Italian League of Serie A (Lega Serie A) and the Italian Football Federation(FIGC) 245 . The most recent CBA was concluded on the 7 th of August of 2012 246 .
6.2.2 Stakeholders of Italian Professional Football/The social Partners
FIGC (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio)- Italian Football Federation
The Italian Football Federetion, also known as Federcalcio, (hence forth FIGC) was founded in 1898 in Turin, under the name of ‘Italian Football Federation’ (Federazione Italiana Football- FIF) and kept that name until 1909. FIGC is the governing body of football in Italy which promotes, regulates, directs and organizes the game of football in the country, from professional Clubs to the national team and the amateurs. It also promotes tournaments and activities with regard to women and youth sector. It is based in Rome and has its technical department in Florence 247 . In particular, FIGC establishes the rules of the game, exerts directly the guarantee functions through the football justice bodies, surpervises the financial matters of football bodies, guarantees sports-medical assistance and provides anti-doping regulations and technical facilities. Furthermore, FIGC has two important sector bodies: (i) the Youth and Scholastic Sector, which promotes, regulates and organises the activities of young players from 6 to 16 years old and (ii) the Technical Sector
242 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Italy (accessed in 11/10/12) 243 http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=ita/countryInfo.html (accessed 20/11/12) 244 http://www.figc.it/en/187/2055/Storia.shtml (accessed in 15/10/12) 245 ’ CONTRACTUAL STABILITY IN FOOTBALL’, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, Issue 1-2011, Sports Law and Policy Center, Book edited by Michele Colucci, pages 204 and following . (Sport and Contractual Stability: The Italian Case by M. Colucci) 246 The Collective Agreement is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12) 247 Information taken from the official website of the FIGC available at http://www.figc.it (accessed 20/11/12)
75 responsible for carrying out research and qualifying activities for the development of football techniques. 248
FIGC was recognised by FIFA in 1905 and it is one of the founding members of UEFA 249 . It is also affiliated with the ‘Italian Referees Association(AIA), which designates the referees and assistant refeeres for the matches organised by the Federation 250 . FIGC is one of the 45 national sports federations affiliated with CONI 251 . Organs of the FIGC are the General Governing Bodies (or Central Steering Bodies), the Precidential Committee and the Federal Council. 252 It is important to note here that the law bestows upon AIC the right of representation in the boards of FIGC with a percentage of 20% (of the total amount of members of each board) along with a right to vote, 253 as Mr. Stefano Sartori (responsible for the syndicalist issues of AIC 254 ) defined.
LNP-A (Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A /Serie A/ Lega Serie A)
Lega Nationale Professionisti Serie A (LNP-A) is the professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of Italian football league system and is officially called “Serie A TIM” for sponsorship reasons. Serie A has operated since the 1929- 30 season and until 2010 had been organized by Lega Calcio 255 -which was the governing body of the two highest football divisions in Italy (the serie A and the Serie B). From July 1 st 2010 Lega Calcio ceased to exist, following the agreement between the clubs of the first division to split Serie A from Serie B. The split led to replacement of the Lega Calcio by two newly formed leagues, Lega Serie A and Lega Serie B 256 .
Serie A, as the premier League of Italian football, has been organizing the tournament for the top professional level of Italian football championship since the
248 Information taken from; “Study on the representativeness of the social partner organizations in the professional football players’ sector”. Project No VC/ 2004/0547. Universite Catholique de Louvain, Institut des Sciences du Travail. February 2006. Research project conducted on behalf of the Employment and Social Affairs DG of the European Commission. Pages 111 and forward. 249 http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/association=ITA/index.html (accessed 20/11/12) 250 http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federazione_Italiana_Giuoco_Calcio and http://www.figc.it/en/10/1985/HpSezione.shtml (accessed in 11/10/12) 251 Italian National Olympic Committee ( Italian : Italian National Olympic Committee, CONI ). CONI was founded in 1914 and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is responsible for the development and management of sports activity in Italy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_National_Olympic_Committee 252 For more information see FIGC official website available at http://www.figc.it/en/81/3122/Struttura.shtml (accessed 10/01/13) 253 As Mr. Sartori further explained to the author, historically the Federation was composed only by the Clubs and the Directors of the Federation but AIC earned the right to be represented also in the organs of the federation after dynamic collection actions. Now, even though the Association is represented in the organs of FIGC the dynamics are not balanced in the Federation and AIC is always concerned to be an external part and in no situation an equal part. 254 As already mentioned under the title ‘methodology’ of this paper, In order to collect as many information as possible and to result to more comprehensive research, the author contact the social partners for some personal interviews. Mr. Stefano Sartori was interviewed representing AIC. Mr. Stefano Sartori is working at AIC for 21 years and he is the responsible for the trade union issues of the Association regarding the negotiations of the CBAs, the regulations and labour law legal issues. 255 Lega Calcio is the English name for the Football League or as it was called ‘Lega Nationale Professionisti’, i.e. National League of Professionals 256 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lega_Nazionale_Professionisti and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serie_A (accessed 15/10/12)
76 season 2010-2011 257 . It consists of 20 football clubs 258 and is one of the most important and followed championships worldwide. Furthermore, according to the current ranking of the UEFA coefficient (for the season 2012/13), it is the 4 th most competitive championship in Europe 259 .
AIC - Associazione Italiana Calciatori (Italian Footballers’ Association)
AIC is the acronym name of the Italian Footballers’ Association (Associazione Italiana Calciatori in Italian) also known as ‘Assocalciatori’. AIC constitutes the trade union of the football players in Italy and its aims are to protect, improve and negotiate the conditions, rights and status of all professional players through collective bargaining agreements 260 .
AIC was officially established in 1968 in Milan by a group of very important players of the time 261 who signed the memorandum of the association. Those players, showing great sensitivity and solidarity towards the issues that professional footballers were facing, decided to form a trade union in order to represent, empower and protect the players and their rights. According to AICs’ official website, the idea of forming a union stemmed from a need for defense of the “player” notion, not yet well defined and adequately protected 262 . The vision of the founders of the AIC was to establish a strong trade union which would be recognized by the Federation and the other stakeholders of Italian football (i.e. leagues and Clubs) as a social partner and have its own representatives to fight for their rights 263 .
During the first years of its establishment, AIC represented only the players of Serie A and B. Later, in the years 1971 and 1973, it integrated the Series C and D respectively. Nowadays, AIC also represents and protects the rights of the amateurs 264 . In 2012 AIC counted 2573 professional male football players, 9734 amateurs and 772 female football players as registered members. 265
According to AIC’s Statute 266 , the association operates in full autonomy with the exclusive and sole aim to protect the interests of its members not only as a group but also as individuals. Members of the association can be (i) the players that are registered in Italian Clubs participating in the national professional or non- professional championships organized by the FIGC (regardless of their nationality); (ii)Italian players that are playing in foreign Clubs which (Clubs) are registered in the
257 http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serie_A (accessed in 15/10/12) 258 http://www.legaseriea.it/en/serie-a-tim/squadre (accessed in 15/10/12) 259 http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/index.html (accessed 20/11/12) 260 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Footballers'_Association (accessed 20/11/12) 261 The group includes Bulgarelli, Mazzola, Rivera, Brown, De Sisti, Losi, Mupo, Engagement, Corelli and Sergio Campana. 262 Players were labeled as "semi-professional", ie athletes with all the obligations of the professional, but with the legal status of an amateur. See also http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/tabid/64/Default.aspx and http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associazione_Italiana_Calciatori ( both accessed 20/11/12) 263 http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/tabid/64/Default.aspx (accessed 20/11/12) 264 AIC Statute, Article 2. The AIC statute is available at http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Statuto/tabid/69/language/en-US/Default.aspx in Italian (accessed 21/11/12) 265 These numbers are the official numbers of the registered members of AIC given to the author from Mr. Stefano Sartori, responsible of the syndical issues of the AIC. 266 The AIC Statute was amended in May 7 th 2012 after the approval of the amendments by the In the Extraordinary General Meeting.
77 professional sector of their national football associations, as well as (iii) players that are no longer in operation provided that they have been registered in Clubs listed in the Italian professional championships 267 .
The ‘Assocalciatori’ operate through five organs, namely: the General Assembly, the Board of Directors, the President, the Board of Auditors, and the Board of Arbitrators 268 . Legally, the association is represented by the president, who is also the ‘signing authority’ of AIC 269 . Pursuant to AICs’ Statute, the President of the association is elected by the Board of Directors and the latter is elected by the General Assembly (of the members). 270
The first big achievement for the entire Italian sport society took place on the 23 rd of March 1981 when the Law No.91 271 was adopted and the professional football players were recognized as employees (same also for the other professional athletes) and gained the right to sign their first CBA and the model contract 272 .
Throughout the years the association had given a lot of ‘fights’ in order to improve the status of football players in Italy. The outcome of these was the gain of many important rights on behalf of the professional football players, such as the recognition of the image rights of the players and the possibility of commercial exploitation of the image, the rights of social security, the compensation of non-employment, the creation of the Guarantee Fund 273 and the Fund for the end of the football players’ career, the reorganization of the sector, the adoption of Law No.91/81 and the signing of the CBAs 274 .
In general, the Italian players’ Association is very dynamic. It never stands idly by when an issue influential to the players arises and it is always ready to take action. AIC has taken industrial actions (protests-mainly delays of games-, threatens for strikes and strikes 275 ) in several cases in order to protect the rights and the conditions of employment of its members 276 . According to Mr. Sartori 277 the power and the
267 Articles 3 and 6 of AICs’ Statute, available at: http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Statuto/tabid/69/language/en-US/Default.aspx in Italian (accessed 21/11/12) 268 Article 11 of AICs’ Statute, available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Statuto/tabid/69/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed 21/11/12) 269 Article 19 of AICs’ Statute, available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Statuto/tabid/69/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed 21/11/12) 270 For more information see articles 12, 16 and 18 of AICs’ Statute available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Statuto/tabid/69/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed 21/11/12) 271 Reference to the Law No.91/81 can be found in the introduction and also a more detailed analysis on the article of M.Colucci : “Sport and Contractual Stability: The Italian Case” which is included in the book ’ CONTRACTUAL STABILITY IN FOOTBALL’, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, Issue 1-2011, Sports Law and Policy Center, Book edited by Michele Colucci, pages 199 and following. 272 The first CBA in professional Italian football was signed at the 8 th of July 1981. For more information see also http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Conquiste/tabid/70/language/en-US/Default.aspx and http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associazione_Italiana_Calciatori (both accessed 20/11/12) 273 The Guarantee Fund is a special fund which is used in order to protect the players’ salaries in the event of their Clubs being bankrupted or insolvent. If the Clubs are proved that they cannot pay the players wages then the players are allowed to apply to the Guarantee Fund to receive their money. 274 http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Azionisindacali/tabid/71/language/en-US/Default.aspx , http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Conquiste/tabid/70/language/en-US/Default.aspx and http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associazione_Italiana_Calciatori (both accessed 20/11/12) 275 The first universal strike in the Italian football took place in March 16 th and 17 th 1996. Few days before, on March 11, at a meeting of the General Assembly of AIC Members, the players decided to go on a strike. 276 More information can be found in the official website of AIC available at http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Azionisindacali/tabid/71/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed 23/11/12) 277 See footnote no 122.
78 combativeness of AIC are ascribed from the fact that the Association has a long history of achievements, obstacles and fights that they had to be overpassed and won. When the association was first established, back in 1968, the players started from zero, they had no power, no rights and no recognition in the field of football, but during the following years the association managed to achieve a lot and gained recognition not only from the other social partners but also from the players. Furthermore, as Mr. Sartori stated, the fact that AIC has as members very ‘big names’ of Italian football playing in the Lega Serie A as well as players belonging to the most popular and powerful Clubs (such as Juventus FC, AC Milan FC and FC Internazionale), grants the Association with even more power. Having a high rate of membership in Lega Serie A gives the Association a more dynamic and respectful profile and the other social partners are taking more seriously into account the positions and opinions of AIC as they are ‘afraid’ that if they fail to do so, AIC has the power to ‘paralyze’ the football industry in Italy, as Mr. Sartori explained. At this point, it is important to add that AIC has a rate of membership among professional players between 70% and 80%. 278
In addition, AIC is affiliated member of FIFPro and the Italian football players’ representatives were among the founders of FIFPro in 1965 279 . Regarding the relations between the two Associations, Mr. Sartori commented that they are excellent and that they have a close cooperation also on grounds of the FIFPro’s Statute which provides the (5) founder member associations with a fix position in the Board of FIFPro. Furthermore, he added, that the present President of FIFPro’s Board is Mr. Leonardo Grosso 280 , who is a former Italian player, a highly respected person and past vice-president of AIC. AIC, together with other very powerful and experienced player associations (such as the national associations of England, Spain and France) participate in FIFPro Committees having the decisive role of trying to help to achieve as much as possible towards the benefit of the professional players in an international and collective way.
As far as the relations between AIC and the other social partners in Italian professional football is concerned (i.e. FIGC and Leagues), Mr. Sartori stated that “AIC, on the one hand, maintains good relations-not friendly but good- with FIGC, Lega Serie B and Legal Pro, but on the other hand, unfortunately does not have neither friendly nor polite ones with Lega Serie A. With the latter, we have a lot of disputes and disagreements and during our meetings the discussions are becoming very intense and in a bad climate”.
Regarding the question If the FIGC tries to play the role of the mediator between AIC and Lega Serie A, Mr. Sartori replied that FIGC formally is neutral and even if they try to mediate some times, its intervention is too neutral and, in his opinion, they should try to put more pressure on Lega Serie A in order to be more cooperative, especially regarding the signing of the CBAs.
278 These figures were given by Mr. Sartori. 279 http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/FIFPro/tabid/73/language/en-US/Default.aspx , http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/FIFPro/Lastoria/tabid/97/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed 25/11/12) and http://www.fifpro.org/about -under the title history 1965- (accessed 10/01/13) 280 http://www.fifpro.org/about -under the title board- (accessed 10/01/13)
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Moreover, with regard to the relations between AIC and its members, Mr. Sartori stated that they are very good and both sides are satisfied. He also stressed that AIC tries to be in continuous communication with all its members, not only through the General Assemblies but also with frequent meetings with players of each division separately, in order to discuss and hear their opinions and positions regarding problems, concerns and issues that could arise.
Concluding, he said that AIC has a history of 45 years, during which it established many institutions for (and with) its members such us the Guarantee Fund and the CBAs. However, there is always space for improvement and for more goals to be achieved.
6.2.3 Social Dialogue in Italian professional football and the CBA of August 7 th 2012
6.2.3.1 The Social Dialogue
It is a fact that the Social Dialogue in the field of football in Italy has been established for many years now. The Social Partners in the field of football are meeting on a regular basis in order to exchange views, discuss important matters which concern the field and to negotiate upon them 281 . In a lot of cases, when disputes or new facts arise about the game of football in the country, the social partners will ‘turn’ to the social dialogue in order to overpass or solve them 282 .
Since the adoption of the Law No.91/81 and thereafter, the social partners have to negotiate annually in order to conclude a new CBA, which regulates the industrial relationship between the players, the Clubs and the Leagues. The latest Social Dialogue took place during the summer of 2012 which resulted in the signing of a new CBA between FIGC, AIC and Serie A (LNP-A) on the 7 th of August of 2012 283 . A brief analysis of the CBA will follow.
281 It is very important to note here, that this phenomenon was resulted and was empowered because of the establishment of AIC and the fact that through the years the trade union by its dynamic presence and actions gained the acknowledgment of the other stakeholders in the field of Italian football. 282 Information about cases that Social Dialogue between the stakeholders of Italian football took place can be found at http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Azionisindacali/tabid/71/language/en-US/Default.aspx and http://www.assocalciatori.it/Aicstruttura/Lastoria/Conquiste/tabid/70/language/en-US/Default.aspx . (both accessed 23/11/12) 283 The Collective Agreement is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12)
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6.2.3.2 The CBA of August 7 th 2012
-The Parties of the Collective Bargaining Agreement
FIGC (Italian Football Federation) LNP A (Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A) AIC (Italian Footballer’s Association)
-The Context of the CBA
Object
The CBA governs the remuneration and the conditions of the employment relationship between professional football players and the Clubs which participate in the Italian Championship of the Serie A. Its Annexes compose an integral part of the CBA which concern: the form of the standard contract, the ‘other scriptures’ 284 and the Rules of Arbitration and the Arbitration Panel. 285
Requirements of the employment Contract between a player and a Club
Contract based to the form of Contract attached to the CBA (compliance with the national CBA)
As it is stated both in the Law 81/91 and the CBA, the Contract between the Club and the player must be compiled on the form of the Contract attached/annexed in the CBA under penalty of nullity.
284 The ‘Other Scriptures’ are integral and inseparable part of the Contact and they are additional agreements between the player and the Club which might concern athletic goals, bonuses of the player etc.. 285 Article 1 of the CBA available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12)
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Elements of the Contract
The CBA defines that the contract must be duly signed (under penalty of nullity), both by the player and an authorized representative of the Club, and drawn up in a triplicate: one copy for the Club, one for the player and one Copy for deposit to the League 286 .
Null and void agreement
Any non-competition agreements or any agreements which are restricting the freedom of the professional football player for a period after the resolution/expiration of the Contract are null and void. 287
Obligation of deposition of the Contract to the FIGC for approval-procedure of deposition
Article 3 of the CBA gives further instructions/information about the obligation for the deposit of the contract to the League, which (League) subsequently has to forward it to the FIGC for approval. In brief, the aforementioned obligation belongs mainly to the Club but, in case that the Club does not deposit it within 10 days after the signing, then the player can deposit it directly, within 60 days from the signing. The deposition of the contract in time is one of the legal requirements and conditions for the approval of the contract by FIGC.
In addition to this, the same article bestows upon the player the right to ask for a (fair) compensation from the Club in case that the contract is not approved by FIGC, for reasons that are not referable to him or his agent 288 .
Amendments of Contracts’ provisions or integrations of other documents to the Contract
Modifications of the provisions of the contract or any integration with other scriptures are allowed by the CBA, given that (i) they will also be signed by the parties; (ii) the same procedure that is required for the deposition of the contract will be followed and
286 Article 2.1 of CBA available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 287 Article 2.2 of the CBA in combination with article 4 paragraph 6 of the law no.91/1981 288 Article 3.6 of CBA. The same article gives also further directions according the compensation and is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12).
82 that (iii) there will be a specific clause which will specify that they constitute an integral and inseparable part of the contract 289 .
Based to the aforementioned it becomes clear that the ‘principle of one and unique Contract’ applies.
Remuneration of the player
The CBA in article 4 stipulates that the remuneration of the player (wage) can be either fixed or a combination of a fixed and a variable part. The variable part, as defined by the CBA, can be linked to sport reasons –concerning either the player individually or the whole team collectively- or to non-sport ones which result from an agreement between individual player and the Club 290 . In every case, the remuneration must have been explicitly stated before in the contract. In case of a multi-year Contract the amount for each season must be indicated before.
Furthermore, the same article makes particular reference to the ‘’collective prizes’’, which are the bonuses linked to the performance of the football team. Those prizes can be a subject of a separate agreement between the Club and the player or representatives of the Club players (in case of collective agreement) 291 .
Amount of the players’ remuneration / Minimum wage
The CBA based to its articles 4.6 and 4.7 defines that the amount of the players’ remuneration can be agreed in varied extends depending on the League and / or the international competition which the Club participates or will participate. However, that amount of remuneration cannot in any case be less than the amounts which are determined by the CBA itself. 292
289 Article 3.5 of CBA available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 290 Article 4.1 of the CBA. Important to note here is that the variable part of the players remuneration must be in accordance with some rules that the article 4.1 states. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 291 Article 4.1 of the CBA. This article also gives details about the procedure that must be followed in case of collective agreement regarding the bonuses between a Club and its players. When an agreement is concluded under this article then it is obligatory to be deposit –together with any power of attorney given from players to their colleagues in order to represent them in the negotiation of this agreement, according with the procedure that is required- by the Club at the Lega Serie A within 20 days of the closure of the transfer period of the January. The Lega Serie A afterwards has to transmit the agreement to FIGC. 292 Article 4.7 of the CBA states that the minimum wage for each case is determined and defined by tables which are annexed to the current CBA.
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Remuneration of the player for participating in Clubs’ promotions or advertisements/ image rights
The CBA by its article 4.3 states that the remuneration of the player for participation in any promotional or advertising initiatives of the Club may or may not be included in the fixed part of the payment (wage) of the player but the relative provision must be indicated in the Contract and / or in the other Scriptures.
What we can conclude by this provision is that the player and the Club have the opportunity to negotiate about this issue and agree whether the payment of the player for such participation will be included in his fixed part of wage or not.
Furthermore, the CBA defines that in case of agreements between the Club and the player which are involving the licensing of image rights (of the player) the ‘Convention on Advertising’ must be taken into account. 293
Image rights
In accordance with the previous provisions by the CBA its parties acknowledge and agree that they are progressing negotiations for the conclusion of Convention on Advertising. 294
Details regarding the payments of the player
In combination with the previous provisions, the CBA also defines the details concerning the payment of the players’ wages. The fixed part of the payment is due on the 20 th of the next calendar month with regard to the accrued sums of the previous one. This sum cannot be unilaterally reduced or suspended but for the case of specific derogations provided by the CBA itself. On the other hand, the variable part of the salary can be paid in the way that the parties will agree in the Contract or in another written agreement.
All payments must be exclusively made via a bank transfer in the bank account that the player indicated at the time of the contract signing. In case of default of payment of 1 (one) month’s salary, according to the CBA, the player is entitled to monetary revaluation under a given (stated in the CBA) procedure.
In the event that the player is disqualified from football activities, as a result of penalties arising from criminal issues and/or (illegal) sport betting and/or doping practices, then the obligation of the Club to pay the salary is suspended from the date of the effect of the penalty, taken that there was a prior telegram or other equivalent electronic means. In such event, and in the absence of a specific regulation, the Club is granted the right to appeal to the Arbitration Panel (in
293 Article 4.5 of the CBA 294 Article 24.4 of the CBA
84 accordance with the Arbitration Rule) and to further request to ban the player from getting bonuses (collective prizes). 295
Obligations of the Club towards the player
Suitable equipment and appropriate environment for training
The Club is obliged to provide the player with the suitable equipment for its training and preparation and shall provide it within the appropriate environment consistent with his professional dignity- allowing him at the same time to participate in the training and preparation of the first team-.
Health insurance coverage
It is of a major obligation for the Club to ensure that the player has health insurance against injuries and illnesses (subject to the rules, terms and minimum standards established by the Association and the League 296 ). Any agreement which allows the Club to avoid this obligation will be ineffective, even if the player agreed to it. The insurance policy must be signed before the beginning of the activities of each season and, in case that a player is not insured, the CBA provides that the player is not allowed to participate in any sport activities. The Club that will fail to fulfill its insurance obligations will be subject to disciplinary actions and will be liable to pay compensation for damages the player and its successors suffered.
Social security contributions and contributions to the ‘ Fund for the Players’ End of Career’
The Club must also make payments to the legally competent social security authorities for insurance against invalidity, old age, death and sickness. In addition to this, the Club must donate to the Fund for the Players ’ End of Career 297 (opened at the FIGC) a contribution equal to 6.25% of the player’s annual gross salary 298 .
295 Combination of articles 5, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 of CBA under the title ‘Payment of wages’. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 296 All the medical expenses of the player are borne by the Club and the health/medical insurance that the Club provides, including medical expenses arising when the player is playing or training with his national team. 297 The ‘Fund for the end of Career’ is a fund from where the players take an extra income (something like a bonus) when they retired or they are unemployed. (information taken from the interview with Mr. Sartori) 298 This obligation is based to the articles 20 and 5.1 of the Agreement and article 4 paragraph 7 of Law 91/81 and subsequent amendments. The player must also donate to this fund compensation equal to 1.25% of his annual gross salary.
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Support for educational improvement
Finally, the Club must promote and support the player’s-with whom it is bound by a contractual relationship- aspirations and initiatives for the improvement of his education. The Clubs have to facilitate the efforts of players who wish to continue their education and/or achieve a professional qualification 299 .
Obligations of the player
(attendance to matches and trainings, prior written consent of the Club in order to engage to other activities, maintenance in a good physical and mental health, loyalty to the Club and follow the Clubs instructions )
The obligations of the player that has to fulfill towards his Club are of different nature. According to the CBA, the player must attend to all training hours and places which are appointed by the Club as well as to all official and friendly matches that the Club intends to play both in Italy or abroad. In accordance with the previous obligations, when the player has to travel for the purposes of training or to participate in official and friendly matches, he must use the suitable means of transportation that his Club established 300 .301
Pursuit to article 8.1 of the CBA, throughout the duration of his contract, the player, is not allowed to be engaged in other sport activities, work or business, unless he gets a prior written consent on behalf of his Club 302 .
Moreover, he has to take good care of his physical and mental health and integrity and refrain from any activity that could jeopardize his safety and his physical and mental condition. 303
Finally, the player (i) must follow the instructions of his Club (of technical or other nature, which concern the achievement of the teams goals) while avoiding to interfere with the Club’s choices regarding technical, managerial and business issues; (ii) preserve the duty of the loyalty towards the Club; (iii) avoid any behavior that might affect the image of the Club; (iv) respect and take care of the equipment
299 Combination of the articles 6, 7.1, 14, 16, 17 and 28 of the CBA. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 300 The travel expenses as well as the expenses for housing and food in these situations are borne by the Club. 301 Articles 7.2 and 7.3 of the CBA. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 302 Article 8.2 of the CBA between other things makes reference for reasons which justify the denial of the Club for consent, states that any denial must be motivated and delivered to player within 45 days from his request. On the other hand article 8.3 of the CBA states the rights of the player in the event that the Club denies the authorization and the procedure applicable. http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 303 Article 9.1 of the CBA. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12).
86 and property of the Club and (v) undergo medical exams when requested by his Club. 304
Compliance with the anti-doping Regulations
Based to article 9.2 both (the Club and the player) are required to be in total conformity with the Laws of CONI and FIGC, regarding the protection of health and the fight against doping. Due to this obligation, the player is required to undergo medical examinations, including periodic and/or preventative blood and urine controls organized by the Club, CONI and FIGC.
In case where the Club and/or the player violate the aforementioned provision will be facing disciplinary measures envisaged by the regulations/ laws of CONI and/or FIGC.
Disciplinary provisions
In its article 11 the CBA states that, in the event of a player failing to fulfill his contractual obligations to the Club or the obligations arising from the Regulations of FIGC 305 or other sources of Law (statutory or federal), which are relevant or supplementary to the contractual regulations, measures shall be taken proportional to the gravity of the infringement. The measures provided are: a) written warning; b) fine; c) reduction in salary; d) temporary exclusion from training or preseason preparation with the first team and e) termination of the player’s contract.
Depending on the severity of the infringement, the appropriate measure shall be imposed, following the procedure and the requirements defined in the same article of the CBA.
It is of a major importance here to note that the CBA provides detailed reference about the disciplinary measures that can be applied, the procedures that must be followed and the extend where each measure can be applied. For example as far as the fines and reduction of salaries there is imposed by the CBA a plafond. 306 Furthermore, the CBA bestows the player with the right to be heard and defend himself before the imposition of any of the aforementioned disciplinary measures.
304 Combination of articles 7.2, 7.3, 8, 9, 10and 16.8 of the CBA. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 305 Based to the fact that the CBA makes reference to the obligations arising from the Regulations of the FIGC, we can assume that is also (indirectly) provides that a player must be in compliance with the Football Regulations . 306 For further information and details see article 11 of the CBA. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12).
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Right of the player to appeal in case of disciplinary actions against him
The player is granted with the right to appeal to the measures/sanctions imposed on him before the Arbitration Panel and he can ask either for the reinstatement and/ or termination of his Contract. The CBA also defines the procedure which must be followed in order for the player to appeal to the sanctions 307 .
Breach by the Club of its contractual obligations
In case where the Club has breached its contractual obligations against the player, the latter based to the CBA has the right to obtain, by application to the Arbitration Panel, damages and/ or termination of the Contract. 308
Salary arrears / Just cause for termination
The CBA provides in detail the rights of the player and the procedures that he must follow in case where his Club is delaying to pay his salary (either is the fixed or the variable part) over a provided by the CBA deadline.309
Important to underline regarding this issue is that when the player is not paid on time 310 , the CBA provides him the right to terminate his Contract (just cause).311
Incapacity of the player due to sickness or injuries / Right of the Club to ask the termination of the Contract
By its articles 14 and 15 the CBA is defining by detail what the rights both of the Club and the player are, in cases where the latter is either sick or injured and he cannot perform his work either for a short period or permanently.
In brief, the CBA gives the right to the Club, in case of prolonged periods of injuries or illness (over 6 months) of a player to request from the Arbitration Panel the termination of the Contract or reduction of his remuneration. However, in case where the incapacity of the player to perform his job is permanent the CBA gives the right to the Club to request from the Arbitration Panel termination of the Contract
307 For further information see articles 11 and 12 of the CBA. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 308 Article 12.1 of the CBA 309 See Article 13 of the CBA 310 The CBA gives to the player the right when the Club delays for 20 days to pay his monthly salary to ask the termination of his Contact for just cause. See also the analysis of M. Colucci regarding this issue page 205 of the book ’ CONTRACTUAL STABILITY IN FOOTBALL’, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, Issue 1-2011, Sports Law and Policy Center, Book edited by Michele Colucci, (Sport and Contractual Stability: The Italian Case by M. Colucci) 311 Article 13.1 of the CBA
88 immediately. 312 As already mentioned the CBA defines in detail under which circumstances those rights can be exercised.
Right of the player to make use of a health care different from the one being available from the Club
As a standard right, provided by the CBA, the player can make use of the health care which the Club is obliged to offer him, without having to pay any fees or expenses.
In case where the player wishes to make use of a health care different from the one being available of the Club he is allowed to (and the expenses will be borne all by the Club), given that he will give a timely written notice to the Club and the health care that he will rely on will be of exemplary professionalism. 313
Holiday
The player is entitled with one day off per week (usually within the first two days of the week) and a four week annual rest period, including the offs for public holidays. 314 In case the player gets married, then he is entitled to some extra paid leave, the so called ‘marriage leave’, which constitutes paid leave for at least 5 days. 315
Arbitration Clause as mandatory clause for every Contract
The CBA in accordance with article 4 paragraph 5 of the (Italian) Law no.91/1981 and article 3 paragraph 1 of the (Italian) Law no.280/2003 provides that every Contract must contain an arbitration clause. The arbitration clause shall state that any dispute regarding the interpretation, execution or termination of the Contract or by any way related to the employment relationship of the contractual parties must referred to the Arbitration Panel, which will resolve the disputes in a friendly way. 316
Furthermore, the CBA provides that its parties by signing the CBA agree to accept unconditionally the knowledge and the provided solutions of the Arbitration Panel, as well as the latter’s procedures. 317
312 Article 15.4 of the CBA 313 Articles 14.2 and 14.3 of the CBA. The aforementioned articles are also stating some formalities between the parties that have to be taking into account, for example that the Club and probably the player will have to sign a new health insurance coverage policy. For more details see article 14.3 of the CBA. 314 Article 18 of the CBA. The Club is the one which decides when the weekly offs and annual rest period will take place. See Article 18.3 of the CBA for more detailed information. The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 315 Article 19 of the CBA .The CBA is available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12). 316 Article 21.1 of the CBA 317 For more details see article 21 of the CBA
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Youth player/ minor player
The CBA itself does not include any provisions regarding the Contracts of minors or young football players.
Human rights, non discrimination and against racism
The CBA does not include any provisions regarding these issues.
Records of injuries
The CBA itself does not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Payment of taxes
The CBA itself does not include any provisions regarding this issue.
Loan of the player to another Club
Within the CBA there is not a provision which is stating that in order for a player to be loaned (in another Club) must be a mutual agreement between his original Club and him.
Applicable law of the CBA (and by extension to the Contracts)
According to the article 22 of the CBA for any matters not covered by the CBA applicable are the statutory rules and regulations of the FIGC which form an integral part of the CBA.
Based to the aforementioned article we can also assume that within those rules and regulations are also included the Football Regulations and the contractual parties (the player and the Club) are obliged to be in compliance with.
Options for extension of the Contract
The CBA allows terms of option for extending the Contract, both in favor of the Club and in favor of the player with the double condition that will be provided a specific fee in favor of the one that allows the option and that the total duration of the contract would not exceed the maximum extend provided by law.318
318 See article 2.2 of the CBA for more details
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-The duration of the CBA
The duration of the CBA is one year 319 and must be renewed by another CBA 320 .
-The binding effect of the CBA
The CBA is legally binding and it is applied to the Contracts of all professional players in Serie A. 321
6.2.4 Comparison between the CBA of 2012 and the CBA of 2011
The CBA of 2012, compared to the previous one, does not exhibit many differences and is devoid of any major amendments. The only big change was related to the sanctions imposed on players’ payments in cases where they were found to be involved with doping practices and match fixing frauds. The new measures, which were agreed upon and established for these sanctions, are stricter than the ones of the previous CBA 322 .
6.2.5 Comments from AIC about the Social Dialogue in professional football at Italian and European Level
During the interview Mr. Sartori was asked to comment, on behalf of the AIC, on the Social Dialogue in professional football in Italy but also at the European Level. As far as the social dialogue in Italian professional football is concerned, Mr. Sartori stated that the level is high. This is due to the fact that it was formally established years ago, since the 1980’s, after the adoption of the Law 91/1981. Furthermore, he added that throughout the years, stemming from the social dialogue, many achievements were accomplished, which not
319 The present CBA expires at June 30, 2013 and cannot be silently renewable. 320 Article 23 of CBA available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12) 321 Confirmed also by Mr. Sartori 322 The amendments concern articles 5.5 and 11.4 (iii) of the CBA 2012 available in Italian at http://www.assocalciatori.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=%2bjP5Y%2b4e%2bBI%3d&tabid=58&language=en-US (accessed 20/11/12)
91 only improved the working relations and conditions of the players but also the field of professional football in general. The biggest example of those achievements is the signing of the CBAs. Furthermore, he emphasized that there are many improvements still to be made concerning social dialogue, with the most important being the improvement of the relations between AIC and Lega Serie A, which are unfortunately strained.
On the other hand, when he was asked to comment on the Social Dialogue in European Level and the implementation of the Agreement of April 29 th 2012, Mr. Sartori stated that the initiative is excellent and the resulting agreement is very useful for countries were those issues are not yet covered and settled by CBA’s. Though, from Italy’s point of view, the agreement is not very important and there is no necessity for its implementation. This is due to the fact that the issues covered in the Agreement have already been covered and fixed for many years now through their national sectoral CBAs. In countries where the presence of social dialogue is vivid and where negotiations (which result to CBAs) are conducted, the majority of the issues covered by the Agreement have already been settled. Thus, resort to its implementation has been rendered obsolete, Mr. Sartori concluded. As for the national CBA in the field, he explained that it is extended also to the other Leagues, beyond Lega Serie A, which must also conform to the agreed provisions.
6.2.6 Conclusions
On the whole, in Italy, the social dialogue in sports is very advanced. The adoption of Law No 91/1981 played a major role because it officially established the Social Dialogue and stated that every (employment) Contract of professional athlete must be drawn up in accordance with the ‘standard contract’ jointly drafted by the relevant sport federation and the representatives of the athletes in the field. The aforementioned provisions enshrined the right of athletes in general to start negotiations for the ‘standard contract’ and further to conclude in CBA agreements.
In accordance with the Law No 91/1981 and since its adoption, the social partners in the field of Italian professional football are concluding every year their own CBA in order to draw the ‘standard contract’ and regulate the employment conditions between the Clubs and the players.
The latest CBA, signed in August 2012, governs all the matters concerning the remuneration and the employment relationship between the employers (Clubs) and employees (players). Furthermore, it deals with the employment Contract and its requirements, including all the obligations that the parties have to mutually fulfill in the context of their employment relationship and the procedure which must be followed in the event of a dispute between them.
Comparing the national CBA and the Agreement concluded in the European level, regarding the minimum requirements of Contract for professional football players, we
92 can reach the conclusion that the CBA already covers and complies with almost every provision of the Agreement.
7. Comparison of the regulations and provisions regarding the Contracts of professional football players at European and at national level (Cyprus and Italy)
As already explained in the introduction of this paper (chapter 1), within the latter’s aims are to examine the two-level social dialogue, including its outcomes and the agreements resulting from it, and the issue of the implementation of the Autonomous European Agreement into the national systems.
Unavoidably, due to the fact that the European Social Dialogue was dealt with the issue of the minimum requirements of professional football players’ Contracts and the European social partners concluded an agreement which regulates this issue, within this paper there was also an analysis of the national provisions of Cyprus and Italy regarding the professional football players’ Contracts in order to examine the compatibility between the European Agreement and those national regulations and the need of implementation of the European Agreement. Furthermore, such analysis was deemed mandatory based to the fact that the relative Italian provisions are settled by a CBA and the Cypriot ones are an issue which is discussed within the structures of the national Social Dialogue.
Analyzing the 3 different sources of regulations and provisions regarding the Contracts of professional football players (i.e. the European Agreement, the Italian CBA and the CFA’s Regulations from European level, Italy and Cyprus respectively) it became also feasible to compare the issues which each source of regulations and provisions are dealing with and / or are covering. A brief analysis of the aforementioned comparison will follow.
Firstly, the comparison has shown that the Italian provisions included in the national CBA are more compatible with the ones of the European Agreement than the ones of the Cypriot Regulations drafted by the CFA. In accordance with this outcome it is obvious that the European and Italian provisions are providing more employment security and contractual stability to the professional players due to the fact that their provisions are more detailed and define more issues.
Secondly, all three sources of regulations under examination are dealt with and/or are covering the issues of: the obligation for conclusion of a Contract; the mandatory written form of the Contract; the elements of the Contract; the obligation for deposition of the Contract; the ‘principle of one and unique
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Contract’; the amendments and annexes of a Contract; the responsible organ for interpretation of a Contracts terms and the dispute resolution between a player and its Club.
Thirdly, both the regulations regarding the Contracts of Italy and Cyprus do not include any provisions which are defining the issues of: the financial impact on the player in case of Club’s major change of revenue; the player’s working time, inclusion in the Contracts of provisions regarding human rights, non discrimination and against racism; and the records of player’s injuries. On the contrary the European Agreement includes provisions defining the aforementioned issues.
Finally, both the regulations of Cyprus and the ones resulting from the European Agreement include provisions which are defining the issues of: the payment of the taxes; the conclusion of Contract with a minor player; and the mandatory mutual agreement of the player and the Club in order for the player to be loaned to another Club. On the contrary the regulations within the Italian CBA do not include relevant provisions.
The aforementioned comparative results can be found in the following comparative table.
Comparative table: Vertically are the issues covered by the different regulations and horizontally the 3 different sources of regulations regarding the Contracts
European Cypriot Regulations Italian CBA 2012 Autonomous of CFA Agreement (last amended in 2012) (signed in 2012) THE CONTRACT Obligation for YES YES YES conclusion of a Contract Written Contract YES YES YES
Elements of the YES YES YES Contract Contract of YES NO (The Regulations YES employment define the Contract as ‘Financial Agreement”) Obligation of YES YES YES
94 deposition of the Contract ‘principle of one and YES YES YES unique Contract’ Amendments of the YES YES YES Contract Annexes of the YES YES YES Contract PARTIES OF THE CONTRACT Minor player / youth YES YES NO player
CONTENT OF THE CONTRACT Equal rights for YES Relevant provisions Relevant provisions extension or do exist do exist termination of the Contract Just Cause for an YES *The Regulations allow early YES termination of a Contract for early termination of legitimate reason without the Contract giving further information
Legislation YES NO YES Applicable for the (Indirectly) Contract Financial Obligations YES Indirectly YES of the Club Details regarding the YES NO YES payment of the player Paid Holidays YES NO YES
Health and Safety YES NO YES policy of the Club Mandatory health YES NO YES insurance coverage (*mandatory only as far as the player is released for of the player for purposes of participation in accident and illness the national team) Obligations of the player towards the YES NO YES Club
Players working time YES NO NO (*but there is a provision for one day off per week) Records of injuries YES NO NO
Right of the player for second medical YES NO YES opinion
Provisions of human
95 rights, non YES NO NO discrimination and against racism Compliance of the YES NO YES parties with the (*also provisions for national CBA minimum wage) Compliance with Anti-doping YES NO YES Regulations Compliance with Football Regulations YES NO YES (indirectly) Image Rights (of the YES NO YES player) Payment of taxes YES YES NO
Loan of the player to another Club/mutual YES YES NO agreement of the player and the Club Disciplinary Regulations of the YES NO YES Club Players Discipline YES NO YES
Rights of the player in case of disciplinary YES NO YES actions against him Dispute Resolution between the player YES YES YES and the Club Responsible organ for interpretation of YES YES YES the Contract terms/etc Financial impact on YES NO NO the player in case of (note: there is only a provision in cases where the Clubs’ major change Club is dissolved) of revenue BINDING EFFECT Legally Binding NOT per se, must be YES YES provisions implemented
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8. Final Conclusions and Recommendations
8.1 Social Dialogue at European level
The initiative of European social partners in professional football to launch officially the Social Dialogue through the ‘Social Dialogue Committee in professional football sector’ is of great importance and contributed not only for the progress of social dialogue in football but also to sports in general.
This Committee is the first established sectoral Social Dialogue Committee in the field of sports within the structures of European Union and opened the road for other fields of sport to also establish relevant Committees.
The first objective and task of the Committee to discuss, promote and develop the concept of ‘the European Professional Football player contract minimum requirements’ was fulfilled with great success and lead to the signing of the Autonomous Agreement for the minimum requirements for the professional football players’ Contract.
A major issue regarding the Autonomous Agreement, before and after its’ signing, was its’ binding effect. The social partners could not agree at first regarding the binding effect that the Agreement should have and because of that the Social Dialogue and the signing of the Agreement was delayed several times. Nonetheless, in the end they agreed on a compromising proposal.
As already mentioned, in the relevant chapter, the Autonomous Agreement is not binding per se but it is voluntary. The parties of the Agreement set and analyzed the minimum requirements that must be included within the professional football players Contracts and provided that those requirements, and therefore the Agreement, have to be implemented by the national social partners within their national systems. This voluntary route (or ‘tactic’) followed by the parties can be characterized as ‘the norm’ due to the fact that it is the most usual and most common route followed at the European level. Furthermore, due to the fact that the European social partners wanted for this Agreement to be also implemented (extended) to the whole UEFA territory, this route seemed to be the most suitable. As far as I am concerned, what is really important is that the Agreement was finally concluded and has as an objective and aim to be implemented in the various national systems. The practical impact that the Agreement will have will be a very important one, especially when it is going to be implemented in real terms and be applied in practice.
As far as the content of the Agreement and its provisions are concerned, if analyzed as such, by labour law experts or any other law experts, in no way can be described as innovating because they are just defining and setting all the basic requirements that a players’ employment Contract shall have (i.e. the employment relationship, the
97 obligations of the parties, the mandatory provision of health and medical insurance to the player, the social security contributions etc).
However, taking into account that in many countries these minimum requirements do not exist neither in the content of the players’ Contracts nor as established national regulations, the fact that they were set and defined by the Agreement (despite that they might seem ‘logical and self-evident’ requirements) is of a major importance. The reasoning for the aforementioned importance is based to the fact that the implementation of the Agreement in real terms can lead to the protection of the employment relationship as well as the players’ employment rights.
Moreover, even only by the fact of the existence of the Agreement will motivate the national social partners (especially the players’ associations) to put more pressure to their national partners to discuss the adoption of such requirements in their national systems.
When the implementation of the Agreement starts to take place at the national level of the countries within UEFA’s territory and all the countries that do not have minimum standards regarding the football players’ contracts adopt at least these ones then, in my opinion, the outcome would not only be the improvement of the working conditions of the players and the protection of their employment relationship with the Clubs, but also will be the raising of the standards of football in general not only in those countries but also to Europe.
Furthermore, I firmly believe that the latter argument can constitute a powerful lever in order for the European and national social partners to promote the implementation of the Agreement.
In order for the Agreement to be implemented at national level in a short period of time and the procedures of the national social dialogues regarding the implementation to be progressed as cooperative and smoothly as possible, the European social partners should exert some kind of pressure to their members and persuade them that this implementation will be a win-win situation for all the parties involved in the professional football.
An important role to the aforementioned task of persuading the national football stakeholders involved in the implementation of the Agreement should have mainly UEFA. UEFA as the governing body of football in Europe has the status and the required powers to do so. If UEFA exerts pressure and promotes as demanding as much as possible this implementation, no way any of the aforementioned national stakeholders of football will provide any resistance to cooperate and accept this implementation to take place shortly and effectively. In any way one of the missions of UEFA is to promote and develop the level of football in Europe and with this implementation this mission will be facilitated, as it was argued earlier.
In addition, the FIFPro Division Europe can also have an important role and facilitate the implementation of the Agreement. The FIFPro Division Europe can assist by guiding its members on how they should proceed during the national negotiations. For example FIFPro can provide technical assistance by explaining the significance
98 of the different provisions of the Agreement and assist on the drafting of the national regulations.
As regards the follow up of the Agreement, it would be very useful if the national members of the social partners and/or each countries relevant social partners were urged to provide a report to the parties of the Agreement regarding the implementation progress and the implementation itself. Elements of the report could be the positions of the national social partners during the negotiations, the outcome of their negotiations and the concluded Agreement.
8.2 Social Dialogue at national level
8.2.1 CYPRUS
The Social Dialogue taking place in the professional football in Cyprus as already analyzed in previous chapters it is in a very early stage and has no major outcomes to show such as a CBA between the social partners.
Moreover, the Cypriot Social Dialogue in the sector under examination has almost no resemblance at all with the one taking place in Italy. There are many differences between the two national Social Dialogues regarding their level, their agendas and they way the Social Dialogue in general functions.
The Cypriot Social Dialogue being in a primary level has a more intense and different agenda in comparison with the Italian one. The issues and problems discussed in the Cypriot Social Dialogue are issues that in Italian Social Dialogue have been discussed and already been overcame for years now.
Many of the issues that the being now discussed within the structures of Social Dialogue and problems that existing for years (i.e. the regulations of the contracts and health insurance of the players) would be automatically solved and overcome with the implementation of the European Agreement on minimum requirements. For that reason the implementation is deemed mandatory for Cyprus.
In general, the Social Dialogue in professional football in Cyprus has to be upgraded and empowered in order also to be more productive and result to more positive outcomes.
In order for this to happen several actions should be take place.
To begin with, the CFA has to be more committed to the Social Dialogue. It has to be more punctual and follow the time schedules that are agreed with the PFA from time
99 to time either for their meetings and discussions or for giving replies regarding the proposals of the players for issues which concern to the social dialogue. In addition, it has to stop procrastinating as regards taking actions or measures necessary to comply with the decisions taken or agreement concluded within Social Dialogue.
On the other hand, the PFA has to be more assertive and demanding as regards the Social Dialogue in general and the enforcement of the rights of its members. It has to constantly putting as much pressure as possible to the CFA in order for the latter to be forced to take PFAs’ positions and demands seriously as regards the issues discussed within the structures of the Social Dialogue and Social Dialogue as such. Except from the traditional collective actions that the PFA can take in order to put pressure to CFA and promotes its proposals and demands, there are also other alternative measures that can use.
An example would be to use the power of the mass press more intensively and aware the public opinion regarding Social Dialogue and all the issues of that are not progressing and remain pending. As already mentioned football in Cyprus is the most popular sport and the majority of the Cypriots are fans of the game. If the PFA manages to aware the fans of football regarding the problems of football and the football players, then indirectly the pressure on the CFA will be multiplied. If the PFA uses such ‘techniques’ for some time then the CFA will be forced to cooperate in some point and facilitate the Social Dialogue and its outcomes by its actions.
Concluding, the ultimate success of the Social Dialogue in football in Cyprus will be if the social partners manage to negotiate and conclude a CBA. In such event the conclusion of CBA will blast off the Social Dialogue and the Cypriot football in general. As far as the implementation of the European Agreement it was argued earlier it is deemed necessary.
8.2.2 ITALY
The social dialogue taking place in Italian football can be one of the optimal examples of social dialogue in general. Due to the fact that the social dialogue in sports is enshrined in the Legal system of Italy since 1980s, its level is very high and the national CBAs negotiated and signed every year by the Italian social partners in professional football regulate into the maximum the employment relationship and working conditions of the players.
In addition, the assertiveness and dynamism of AIC can be also set as example to the other relevant national associations in order to enshrine the social dialogue in their countries.
In general, the establishment of social dialogue at any level, industry or field is not an easy task. Several fights have to be given on behalf the employees and their representatives in order to persuade or force the employers to sit in the so called
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‘Social Dialogue table’. The employees/ workers are the ones that have to fight for the establishment of social dialogue because those are the ones that they are in a disadvantaged position and the ones that they have to gain the most of the social dialogues outcomes.
AIC knows very well the aforementioned and since the date that it was established fights for the rights of its members and the improvement of their working conditions through social dialogue and has achieved much.
As far as recommendations on the Italian social dialogue in football, there not any major ones because the social dialogue taking place in the sector and its outcomes, as already stated, are exceptional. The latest CBA signed in the summer of 2012 covers in detail all the important aspects of the employment relationship between a Club and a player and the minimum requirements provided by the European Agreement in their majority are also provided/ settled within the CBA. However, needs to be improved is the relationship between AIC and Lega Serie A. The two associations have to find a way to normalize their relations and disagreements in order to facilitate the Social Dialogue and its outcomes. Furthermore, both associations have a common goal (maybe for different reasons each) which is the thriving of the Italian Football and based to this they have to start being more cooperative.
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9. Bibliography
Documents
• ‘Agreement regarding the minimum requirements for standard player contracts in the professional football sector in the European Union and the rest of the UEFA territory’, Agreement signed by UEFA, EPFL, ECA and FIFPro Division Europe in Brussels, Belgium, on April 19 th 2012.
• ‘Rules of Procedure for the European sectoral social dialogue Committee in the professional football’, Adopted on 1st July 2008 in Paris, France
• 98/500/EC: Commission Decision of 20 May 1998 on the establishment of Sectoral Dialogue Committees promoting the Dialogue between the social partners at European level, Official Journal of L 225, 12/08/1998 P. 0027 – 0028, (notified under document number C(1998) 2334).
• AFC Statutes, ‘Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes Standing Orders of the Congress’, Edition 2011, article 8 paragraph 8(b)
• AIC Statute, Statute of the Italian Footballers’ Association, amended in May 7th 2012. (in Italian)
• Bosman Case, ECJ Case C-415/93, Judgment of the Court of Justice, 15 December 1995
• CAF Statutes , ‘Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly’, dated 29.04.2010, article 5(1)
• CFA, ‘Disciplinary Regulations of CFA’. (in Greek)
• CFA, ‘Regulations for the registration and transfer of players and on the Procedural Regulation of the Dispute Resolution Committee 2012’, published 01/04/2012 (in Greek)
• Commission of European Communities, ‘White paper on Sports’, Brussels, 11.7.2007, COM(2007) 391 final, paragraph 4.1 and Title 5.3 Social Dialogue paragraph 53.
• CONMEBOL Statutes, Edition 2000, articles 8 and 6 paragraph 2, (ESTATUTO Textos aprobados por el Congreso Extraordinario de la Conmebol ,12 de Febrero del 2000)- in Spanish • EPFL Constitution, Madrid, 14 November 2007
• FIFA ‘Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players’, 2012
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• FIFA Statutes, ‘Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes Standing Orders of the Congress’, Edition July 2012, article 10 paragraph 1 and 4 (a), article 20
• FIFPro Statute, articles of association of: FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DES FOOTBALLEURS PROFESSIONNELS (INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLERS’ ASSOCIATIONS), amended the 12th of January 2007. Articles 1(5), 2, 3, 4, 6(1) and 7(3).
• Italian Collective Bargaining Agreement (in professional football) 2012, CBA signed among FIGC, LNP-A and AIC, signed on August 7 th 2012 (in Italian)
• Memorandum of Understanding between UEFA and FIFPro, signed at the XXXVI Ordinary UEFA Congress in Istanbul on 22 March 2012.
• OFC Statutes, ‘Regulations governing the application of Statutes standing orders of the Congress’, Edition 2011, article 11 paragraph 1 (a)
• Statutes of CONCACAF, English Edition 2006, article 5(a)
• UEFA Statutes, ‘Rules of Procedure of the UEFA Congress, Regulations governing the Implementation of the UEFA Statutes, Edition 2012 (article 7bis)
Publications
• ‘Professional Footballer’, magazine published by PFA, issues 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. (in Greek)
• ’ Contractual Stability in Football’, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, Issue 1-2011, Sports Law and Policy Center, Book edited by Michele Colucci. Michele Colucci, Chapter ‘Sport and Contractual Stability: The Italian Case’, pages 199-209.
• Marili Parissaki and Sonia Vega Vega, ‘Capacity building for social dialogue at sectoral and company level in the new Member States, Croatia and Turkey’, European Foundation for the Living and Working Conditions 2008, Research Institute: ECOTEC UK - ECOTEC Madrid
• Michele Colucci and Arnout Geeraert, ‘The Social Dialogue in European professional football’, International Sports Journal, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67, No. 3-4 (2011), p. 56-67.
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• Michelle Colucci and Felix Majani, ‘The FIFA Regulations on Labour Status and Transfer of players’. Indonesian Journal of International Law (Jurnal Hukum Internasional), Volume 5, Nomor 4, July 2008, p.681-710 • Richard Parrish, ‘Social Dialogue in European Professional Football, ‘European Law Journal’, Vol.17,No.2 March 2011, pp.213-229)
• Roger Besson, Raffaele Poli and Loïc Ravenel, ‘ Demographic Study 2013’, CIES Football Observatory
• T.M. C. Asser Instituut, ‘Promoting the Social Dialogue in European Professional Football (Candidate EU Member States ), November 2004
• Tomáš Gábriš , ‘European Social Dialogue in Sports’, Article available by SSRN (Social Science Research Network), July 6, 2010
• Universite Catholique de Louvain, Institut des Sciences du Travail, ‘Study on the representativeness of the social partner organizations in the professional football players’ sector’. Project No VC/ 2004/0547. February 2006. Research project conducted on behalf of the Employment and Social Affairs DG of the European Commission. Pages 49-53 and 111 forward.
• *Official websites of FIFA, UEFA, EPFL, ECA, FIFPro, AIC, LNP-A, FIGC, CFA, PFA and European Commission
• Online articles from national Cypriot press. (in Greek)
a) http://www.ant1iwo.com/athlitika/2013/01/10/syskech-twn-mikrwn-me- koytsokoymnh-gia-t/ (accessed 24/01/13) b) http://www.balla.com.cy/3/14_Protathlima_a_katigorias/36434_Skepsis_g ia_dimiourgia_Ligas (accessed 24/01/13) c) http://www.sigmalive.com/sports/football/cyprus/a%20league/221869 (accessed 13/01/13) d) http://www.sigmalive.com/sports/football/cyprus/a%20league/221606 (accessed 13/01/13) e) http://www.sigmalive.com/sports/football/cyprus/a%20league/224687 (accessed 13/01/13)
Regulations Governing the Application of the
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10. ANNEXES
Annex 1
Questionnaire addressed to PFA (Pancyprian Footballer’s Association)
1. How many members does the PFA have? 2. Does PFA have also female members? If yes, how many? 3. Do the members have active presence to the Association? 4. Except from the professional footballers, does the Association have also Amateur Football players as members? 5. What are the relations of PFA with the foreign players which participating in the professional football in Cyprus? 6. Relationship between PFA and its members. Do PFA members and the players in general realize the role of PFA (i.e. the reason of its existence as a trade union)? 7. What is the rate of membership of PFA between professional football players? 8. Do the members follow/obey the decisions of the Association? 9. What are the organs of PFA? 10. When PFA was established the goal was to safeguard and promote the rights of the footballers, which had the status of semi-professionals. What are the goals of the Association nowadays? 11. What are the relations between PFA and CFA like? Is PFA acknowledged and respected by the CFA? 12. Can you please describe the relations and cooperation with FIFPro? 13. Why did the PFA become member of FIFPro in 2005, given the fact that it was established in 1987? 14. Is PFA recognized by CFA? If yes how? Does a Memorandum of Understanding between PFA and CFA exist? 15. Describe and comment the social dialogue in professional football in Cyprus. Does the social dialogue exist? Do the parts have the will to conduct a productive social dialogue? 16. Which social partner is usually taking the initiative for social dialogue meetings? 17. Where is attributed the fact that there are no Collective agreements in the professional football in Cyprus? 18. Until now PFA had never organized a collective action (i.e. strike). How come? 19. What is the best way, in your opinion, for PFA to achieve all its goals and wins what is fighting for? 20. I would like some comments for the permanent committee which CFA had established regarding contacts with PFA. (participants, role etc) 21. Did Cyprus implement the European Agreement on Minimum Requirements of Contracts of professional football players?
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22. What are the biggest achievements of PFA? Where do you think that as association you failed? 23. What services (for example legal advices) does PFA offers to its members? 24. Please comment the social dialogue at European and national level.
Note 1: These questions were addressed to the president of Pancyprian Footballers Association (PFA) Mr Spyros Neofitides who replied on behalf of the PFA.
Note 2: The interview was conducted through telephone and previous the interview, the questionnaire was sent to Mr Neofitides in order to be informed about the context of the interview.
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Annex 2
Questionnaire addressed to AIC (Italian Footballer’s Association)
1. How many members does AIC have? 2. Do you also have women as members? 3. How are the relations between AIC and its members? Are the members of AIC rallied? 4. What services does AIC offers to its members? 5. Can you describe the relations between AIC and the other social partners (i.e. FIGC, Lega Serie A) in Italian football? 6. Italian football players played a very important role to the foundation/establishment of FIFPro. How are the relations between AIC and FIFPro like? 7. AIC is very dynamic and has a very strong presence in Italian football. Where do you think this is stemming from? 8. Comments about the European Agreement on Minimum Requirement Contracts of Professional Football Players. Has it been implemented in the Italian Football? 9. Comments about the new Collective bargaining agreement signed in August 7 th 2012. What are the new additions to this CBA in comparison to the previous one? 10. What exactly is the Fund of the end of career? 11. Please comment on Social Dialogue in professional football at national and European level.
Note 1 : These questions were addressed to Mr Stefano Sartori responsible for the trade union issues of the Association. Mr Sartori is dealing with all the labour law legal issues of the AIC as well as with the negotiations of the CBAs.
Note 2: The interview was conducted through telephone and previous the interview, the questionnaire was sent to Mr Sartori in order to be informed about the context of the interview.
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