Too many questions remain unanswered

Sport falls under European law the moment it becomes an economic activity of non-negligible scope. This therefore covers all professional competitions. It also includes events and activities of amateur athletes if, for example, they are of interest to advertising or television.

Clubs in team sports will, after Slovakia’s entry into the European Union, have to sign employment contracts in accordance with the principles of Community law, in Slovakia according to the Labour Code – meaning as employees. Naturally, with a very special status. An important issue is, for example, termination. An athlete must practically complete the contractual relationship. The organization representing the interests of professional football players, FIFPro, pushed strongly for the principle of a standard termination, but its efforts did not succeed.

We asked the licensed football agent Jozef Tokos, who deals with questions of the relationship between sport and law, whether there is a risk that the European Court of Justice could one day side with the footballers. He replied, rather not. He completely dismissed the hypothetical question – what if a new Bosman case were to emerge, returning professional sport to the beginning of the 1990s.

Tokos left many question marks in his answers, because as the European Union expands, more disputes and more binding decisions from the Court of Justice can be expected. For example, what would happen if a good Slovak club were to lose support from a sponsor or advertising partner. There were cases such as the basketball players from Pezinok, the Inter handball players, and partly also the women’s basketball team from Ruzomberok. What if an entire club, along with its trademark, wanted to transfer to Poznan or Hodonin? The lawyer said that so far he is not aware of such a case. Something like that was attempted by English football club Wimbledon, which wanted to move completely to Dublin.

The transformation of teams, which today employ also freelancers, will likely not happen overnight. Two possibilities exist. The club (in Slovakia almost all are civic associations) could convert into a commercial company. Or: a new commercial company could be founded, in which the original civic association would have an ownership share (even a hundred percent).

According to Tokos, it is crucial that in the transitional period – sooner or later only commercial companies are expected to exist – players should not sign contracts with clubs that are in debt. And such clubs should not be granted licenses by associations. In the relationship between clubs and sports associations, it is necessary to enforce principles of good governance, which, among other things, emphasize principles lacking in Slovakia, such as transparency, communication, and the avoidance of conflicts of interest.

A question mark also hangs over the free movement of players from May 2, 2004. Some countries declared an open market for the ten new member states immediately. Britain still insists on this, and initially some Scandinavian states supported this fundamental right. Sweden and Denmark are already changing their stance, considering introducing a limit on the number (several million) of new workers. Germany and Austria announced a seven-year restriction. Not, however, across the board, and it is not at all clear which professions the “ban” will apply to, and whether it will also apply to sport.