Is it time for a Global Labor Agreement for Professional Soccer Players?
The influx of new owners and money into European football prompted adjustments to the operations of European clubs, but now it is also prompting rule changes. Last year saw FIFA announce changes to their player loan limitations in response to clubs “hoarding” young players.[1] Now, UEFA, the European federation governed by FIFA, is discussing changes to their contract amortization rules to prevent the exploitation of long-term contracts, a strategy favored recently by London-based club Chelsea following their ownership change in 2022.[2] UEFA and FIFA lack the ability to enforce strict contract regulations across their constituent Football Associations (FAs), because professional footballers do not have a global labor union that can collectively bargain for them. It is now time for that to change.
The most prominent discussion around football after the close of the European January 2023 transfer window was not about anything that happened on the field or the World Cup that finished less than two months prior, but instead on the lengthy contracts young players were signing with Chelsea.[3] Chelsea signed seven players to permanent transfers during the window, with six of them agreeing to contracts longer than seven years.[4] This came as a shock to many as it appeared to be a violation of FIFA’s five-year limit on contracts, but there is an exception to that limit, “if consistent with national laws.”[5]
Chelsea is utilizing long-term contracts to avoid punishment under UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.[6] FFP rules are a set of financial bylaws aimed at preventing clubs from overspending and ensuring clubs act with financial responsibility.[7] FFP requires that clubs report their revenue and expenditures to UEFA. Typically, one of the largest expenditures for clubs, particularly those large enough to be subjected to the financial rules, is player transfer fees.[8] Under FFP transfer fees are spread out over the length of the initial contract, so by signing a player to a long-term contract, teams can spread, or amortize, the fee out over more years.[9] UEFA are reportedly undergoing the process of changing their FFP rules in response to these long-term contracts. UEFA will limit the amortization period to a maximum of five years, even if the player signs a lengthier contract.[10] This would remove a major benefit for clubs seeking exceptionally long contracts, without imposing an actual restriction on contract length.
UEFA, or FIFA, would run into difficulties if they attempted to implement universal contract limits across leagues and FAs. The main roadblock in preventing FIFA from doing this is that national laws in many countries specifically promote the use of collective bargaining for determining the maximum length of termed contracts.[11] Due to the FIFA rules making the exception for national laws in countries that promote unions, those collectively bargained agreements trump FIFA’s contract limit. While there is a general union for all professional footballers, FIFPRO, they leave the collective bargaining relating to contracts to national organizations who can work directly with local FAs in determining the best outcome for their domestic players and leagues. As a result, FIFPRO provides support to local unions, but it does not bargain directly with FIFA.[12] Furthermore, FIFA or UEFA would have trouble implementing a universal contract limit because of the difference in league structures around the world, which has made global bargaining nearly impossible, even though collective bargaining is a policy supported by almost all of the largest member nations of FIFA. However, this reality is changing. There have already been steps toward global collective bargaining for professional footballers. In fact, the International Labor Organization recently recognized the Global Labour Agreement between the World Leagues Forum (WLF), which represents 44 of the world’s largest football leagues, and FIFPRO.[13] The two groups have even begun working together, focusing initially on concussion protocols and scheduling.[14] Building on this agreement and working towards a truly global collective bargaining agreement is necessary because of the disparity in bargaining power across leagues and FAs, which is exacerbated by the increasing coalescence of money into a few top leagues. This disparate financial power of certain leagues is preventing players from having the full array of opportunities to sell their talents in a free market, making a global labor agreement necessary to preserve the bargaining power of players. For now, the WLF and FIFPRO agreement is a great step on the way to achieving this much needed goal.
David Blomquist is a staff member of Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLVI.
[1] FIFA to introduce new loan regulations, FIFA.COM (Jan. 20, 2022, 7:00 AM), https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/organisation/media-releases/fifa-to-introduce-new-loan-regulations.
[2] Dan Sheldon, Chelsea’s Long Contracts: The risks and rewards of a policy influenced by baseball, The Athletic (Jan. 19, 2023), https://theathletic.com/4097587/2023/01/19/chelseas-long-contracts-explained-baseball.
[3] Id. See also Rory Smith, The Danger Lurking Behind the Premier League’s Wealth, N.Y. Times: On Soccer With Rory Smith (Feb. 3, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/sports/soccer/chelsea-transfer-window.html; Mark Ogden, Chelsea’s £600m spree seems more scattergun than strategic – a big risk if it can’t deliver on promises, ESPN (Feb. 3, 2023), https://www.espn.com/soccer/chelsea-engchelsea/story/4868439/chelsea-600m-spree-runs-the-risk-of-not-delivering-much.
[4] Chelsea FC Transfers 22/23, TransferMarkt, https://www.transfermarkt.us/chelsea-fc/transfers/verein/631/plus/?saison_id=2022&pos=&detailpos=&w_s=w (Authors Note: Use the “transfer date” drop down and select “winter transfer only”; Contract lengths can be found by clicking on individual player names and viewing the player data box).
[5] Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, FIFA (Mar. 2022), https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/41c272bcbc3b19df/original/c83ynehmkp62h5vgwg9g-pdf.pdf.
[6] Sheldon, supra note 2.
[7] UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations Edition 2022, UEFA, https://documents.uefa.com/r/UEFA-Club-Licensing-and-Financial-Sustainability-Regulations-2022-Online.
[8] Id. at § III.
[9] Id. at G.3.
[10] Sheldon, supra note 2.
[11]See, e.g., Fixed-term employment contracts, U.K. Gov’t, https://www.gov.uk/fixed-term-contracts/print (last visited Feb. 5, 2023) (U.K. making exceptions to fixed-term contract limits for collectively bargained agreements).
[12] What We Do, FIFPRO, https://fifpro.org/en/who-we-are/what-we-do (last visited Feb. 4, 2023).
[13] ILO welcomes first global agreement on working conditions and rights of professional football players, International Labour Organization (Sept. 26, 2022), https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_856730/lang--en/index.html.
[14] World League’s Forum (WLF) and FIFPRO discuss with ILO current labour-related issues in professional football, World Leagues Forum (Jan. 17, 2023), https://www.worldleaguesforum.com/en/media/wlf-and-fifpro-discuss-with-ilo.
This is a student blog post and in no way represents the views of the Fordham International Law Journal.