Review article
Contracts between professional football players and clubs – contracts of labour or civil law?
Andrijana Bilić
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu
Vanja Smokvina
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci
Abstract
The relationship between professional football players and their clubs very often is defined in various ways. In some countries it is a labour law relationship, while in the others it is a civil law relationship. In this paper the authors present their thesis that the contract concluded between a professional football player on the one hand, and its club on the other, has the elements of a labour law relationship, especially in the context of the European (labour) law. The previously cited, the authors elaborate by the case law of the European court in Luxembourg, numerous European “soft law” documents, comparative law analyses of some EU countries (Italy, Great Britain and Germany), along with the case law of the Court of Arbitration for sport (CAS).
The analyse of the labour relationship and its transformation is a factor of extreme importance which helps in defining the relationship between the professional football player as workers on the one hand, and professional football clubs as employers on the other. In the paper the authors present their perception of the problems in defining the relationship of sportspeople and clubs in the form of civil law contracts, by analysing the faults of such defining, and give their de lege ferenda proposal.
Keywords
contract of employment; civil law contract; football; professional player; labour law relationship
Hrčak ID:
94423
URI
Publication date:
17.12.2012.
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