Hockey players are ending up at employment offices. Why are footballers better protected?

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted football life. Is it right that Bardejov sent its footballers to the employment office? Why are footballers better protected than hockey players? Is it realistic to cap a player’s value at one hundred million euros?

These and other issues are explained in an interview for SME by sports lawyer, football agent, and advisor to the Union of Football Professionals, Jozef Tokos.

To what extent will the coronavirus pandemic affect footballers' salaries in Slovakia?

It will certainly affect the entire football industry - transfer fees and their volume, club finances, and of course, player salaries. It's important to distinguish between two things. With an existing contract, you can't touch base salaries without the consent of the other party. Then there are negotiations about new contracts. Given the current state of things, clubs will be very cautious about what salaries they offer to many players. In the short term, six months to a year, salaries will stagnate. Clubs will be careful with every euro. Problems may arise for players whose pay is not much higher than the average salary in their country. That also applies to our leagues, especially the second division.

Hockey players in the Slovak league have long been angry that the contracts they sign with clubs are often one-sided and offer them minimal rights. Some clubs ended players’ contracts as early as mid-March because of the coronavirus. Are footballers better protected?

Definitely yes. Footballers, unlike hockey players, sign employment contracts for professional sports performance. They are employees. According to the Sports Act, they have greater protection. Ice hockey players, except in a few clubs, don’t have such contracts. Most ice hockey clubs didn’t follow the law and used civil code contracts, which can contain clauses allowing for termination at will. Most ice hockey players are self-employed. The difference is even more significant now. The ice hockey season was canceled and a champion declared. The football season has only been suspended. Let’s hope it resumes.

Swiss club FC Sion told its players their wages would be cut to 12,000 euros per month. When they refused, the club terminated their contracts en masse. Could something similar happen in the Slovak league?

It’s not possible for a club to get rid of a player from one day to the next. In Slovakia, the league is suspended. That’s not a legal reason to unilaterally cancel contracts or cut base salaries. That can only happen voluntarily with agreement from both sides. So unilateral termination of contracts is not allowed. We’ll see how the situation develops. The main question is whether the league will resume or whether the worst-case scenario comes true and it doesn’t finish.

Many virologists believe it’s unlikely the season will be completed. Then what?

That’s more a question for the Union of League Clubs how they would handle such a situation. At this point, these are just hypotheticals. The decision would be made off the pitch. We’re optimistic that the current state of emergency won’t last for months.

Each league faces a different situation. Italy’s league leadership has spoken about minimizing player wages. In elite leagues, a footballer’s salary is vastly different from Slovakia’s.

Calls to reduce wages look very different when players earn 200,000 euros a week or even 20,000. But if you consider a second division Slovak player earning just above the minimum wage, that’s a big difference.

The president of second-division Partizán Bardejov says the club is at rock bottom. A few days ago, he sent a message to players saying the club is withdrawing from their contracts due to the current coronavirus situation. Can you explain?

In Bardejov, there was an internal message saying football was over and advising players to register with the employment office. It's a very unfortunate move and is against the law and Slovak Football Association (SFZ) rules. Ján Mucha, president of the Union of Football Professionals (ÚFP), called the club's leadership and informed the SFZ, the Union of League Clubs (ÚLK), and the Second Division Association to address the situation. This shouldn’t set a precedent for other clubs.

Have you heard of clubs pressuring players to accept pay cuts?

I wouldn’t call it pressure. We’ve heard something from one top-division club, but it’s not officially confirmed. We need to wait. The ÚFP is willing to talk and wants to help. Second division clubs especially are in a difficult situation. They rely on businesses that have been hurt by the pandemic.

AS Trenčín general director Róbert Rybníček fears that football in Slovakia could fall to a semi-professional level. What do you think?

If the situation doesn’t improve soon, we may see fewer players with professional contracts. Salaries will also go down. But I wouldn’t speculate about club bankruptcies yet—that would be irresponsible. It depends on each club’s financial setup and their deals with sponsors. Clubs that managed responsibly and weren’t too deep in debt will have fewer problems.

In top European leagues, clubs earn most from broadcasting rights and commercial deals, followed by ticket sales. Slovak clubs rely on very different sources. How will the pandemic affect them?

Slovak clubs earn almost nothing from TV rights or tickets. Recently, a big part of their income came from player sales. That’s been especially true for Žilina and Trenčín. Slovan recently sold Andraž Šporar for a record sum. But now we can expect fewer transfers and for lower fees. Slovakia is an exporting country—we send players to more developed leagues. That could become a problem.

Top footballers’ values and wages are extremely high today. Do you expect a major drop?

More likely a correction. I believe the market will adjust. PSG bought Neymar for 220 million euros three years ago, and people were asking how much higher it could go. That started a wave of huge transfers. But the pandemic will change that. Clubs will be far more cautious about investments. If someone had picked out a player worth 30 million, now they’ll seriously consider whether to pay even half.

Spanish economist José Maria Gay de Liébana says the era of luxury in football is ending, and that the most expensive players will cost no more than 100 million euros. Do you agree?

But there weren’t that many players who cost more than 100 million in the first place.

There are ten of them—eight in the last two years.

In recent years, new young players have risen to become global stars. I wouldn’t say no transfer will ever exceed 100 million again. If Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland were to transfer, I wouldn’t be surprised if that number were exceeded. But it would be surprising if any club spent that much this coming summer.

UEFA is reportedly considering a price cap of 100 million euros per player. Is that realistic?

I don’t think such a proposal would pass, and it would likely face legal challenges. Salary and transfer caps are not part of European football’s identity unlike, say, the NHL in ice hockey. The market will take care of it.

The pandemic is causing an economic disaster. It’s expected that football won’t be a priority and that sponsors won’t invest like before. Do you agree?

It’s natural that governments must prioritize saving lives. Football is not the priority. But long term, I’m optimistic. Football won’t disappear and its global revenues won’t collapse. As entertainment and the most popular sport in the world, it will still be around hundreds of years from now.

According to the website theathletic.com, UEFA will ask club competitions to pay 300 million euros for the postponement of the European Championship. Do you know anything about that?

No. I would have to see the wording of the request and its legal justification. But the clubs didn’t cause the EURO to be postponed.