COVID-19 Regulatory Issues
The COVID-19 outbreak has caused an unprecedented shutdown of organised football. This has naturally led to several regulatory and legal issues for FIFA, its member associations, leagues and clubs.
As world football’s governing body, FIFA felt a responsibility to provide appropriate guidance and recommendations to both mitigate the consequences of the disruption caused by COVID-19 and ensure that any response was somehow harmonised globally in the best interests of all football stakeholders.
On 18 March FIFA established a working group to examine some amendments to the FIFA regulatory framework to protect both clubs and players as well as to allow adjustments to player registration periods.
The group was chaired by Victor Montagliani and composed of representatives from confederations, member associations, clubs, leagues, FIFPRO (the World Players’ Union) and the FIFA administration.
James Kitching, FIFA’s Director of Football Regulatory, led the whole process in order to find common ground with the stakeholders. Among many different issues analysed during the stakeholder meetings, several core matters were considered relevant to address.
Following extensive consultation, on 7 April, FIFA published the COVID-19: Football Regulatory Issues document, which contained recommendations concerning mainly:
Player employment, loan and transfer agreements with a start/end date corresponding to the original start/end date of the season.
These contracts are always tied to the season dates, therefore issues arose given the suspension or postponement of competitions. The FIFA guidelines recommend that contracts be adjusted to the new season’s dates.
Agreements that cannot be performed as originally anticipated, given players’ inability to work.
The FIFA guidelines encourage clubs and employees (players and coaches) to work together to find appropriate solutions to temporarily adjust the terms of their contracts for any period when the competition is suspended.
Player registration periods (“transfer windows) which were impacted by the suspension or postponement of the competitions.
FIFA decided that any changes to the transfer windows would be accepted despite the rule stipulating that FIFA normally has to be notified of such changes one year in advance.
If you would like to learn more about these guidelines, please click here.
Following the publication of these guidelines, the FIFA administration conducted 13 workshops with representatives from member associations and confederations, members of the World Leagues Forum (WLF), and members of the European Club Association (ECA), which involved more than 350 participants from around the world.
The FIFA administration has also actively responded to any electronic queries received regarding the regulatory and legal impact of COVID-19. This active consultation process led to the identification of frequently asked questions (FAQs), as well as several new regulatory and legal issues for consideration.
A subsequent document, discussed and agreed between FIFA and its core stakeholders during the extensive consultation process, provides clarity on the most relevant questions raised during the process and identifies solutions for new regulatory matters.
The most relevant new regulatory matters addressed in this document (Covid-19: Football Regulatory Issues - FAQs) are the temporary amendment to the rule according to which players may only play for a maximum of two clubs in the same season, as well as the possibility of opening transfer windows up to four weeks before the completion of the 2019/20 season.
Kitching highlighted the ultimate objectives of these FIFA guidelines:
“It was incumbent on FIFA to recommend guiding principles which find a fair solution for clubs and employees, while protecting jobs as much as possible. Moreover, what we wanted to avoid was football stakeholders receiving drastically different treatment or resolution on a global basis despite being in similar circumstances, whether from national courts, employment tribunals or the FIFA judicial bodies. In addition to this, we wanted to guarantee that the integrity of the competitions was the guiding light in every decision. These recommendations were well received by the broader football community and we believe that they provide the necessary basis for a proper compromise which takes into account all the interests at stake.”
