SPECIFIC FEATURES AND LEGAL NATURE OF CONTRACTS OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the specific features and legal nature of the contract of football player in Ukraine. Authors analyzed the most important sources of law of Ukraine and competent national and international organizations, which regulate the structure, form and minimal requirements to the football contracts in our country. Particularly, the list of the relevant normative acts in this sphere consists from the Code of Laws on Labour of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On Physical Culture and Sport”, Football Federation of Ukraine (at the moment Ukrainian Association of Football) Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, Agreement between UEFA, EPFL, ECA and the FIFPro Division Europe Regarding the Minimum Requirements for Standard Player Contracts in the Professional Football Sector in the European Union and the rest of the UEFA Territory. Having synthesized the most important information from these sources, the complex list of specific features of football contracts has been formed (e.g. written form, the club’s obligation to maintain the professional status, the player’s obligation to be 15 years or older, definition of a precise salary etc.). Moreover, the article has analyzed the issue of legal nature of such a contract, namely two main approaches to this problem – “labouristic” and “civilistic”, which mean regulating the aforementioned issues using the provisions of corresponding branch. In the article have also been analyzed the thoughts of scientists and the provisions of normative acts on this problem. Additionally, here have been stated the main points derived from the judgment of the Cassation Administrative Court of the Supreme Court, which has included some precious interpretations of the legislative norms necessary to distinguish between civil and employment contracts, and this has been applied to the subject of the article. As a result, a conclusion has been made that football contracts should be regulated by labour law. It has been summarized in the final part of the article that football should be considered an important element of the Ukrainian economy, which makes the regulation of employment relations to be considered significant; additionally it has been concluded that football contracts should be researched in particular in order to control efficiently the issues that may arise around them and in general – to take the functioning of the football sphere in Ukraine to the higher level.