New legal framework for sports employment contract

07 / 19 / 2017

Law no. 54/2017, of July 14, was published in the Official Gazette, establishing the new legal framework of the employment contract for sports practitioners and sports training, regulating as well the activity of the sports agents.

This Law revokes Law no. 28/98, of June 26 (former legal framework of the employment contract for sports practitioners and sports training).

The most relevant changes are the following:

The existence of a trial period now depends on express stipulation between the parties, thus clarifying one of the questions existing under the previous legal regime;
It is now expressly provided that the parties of a sports employment contract may establish a termination clause, stipulating the right of the athlete to unilaterally terminate the employment contract in force, regardless of grounds, upon payment to the employer of a specifically determined compensation;
The joint and several liability of the third party is now established as accomplice in the case of unlawful termination by the athlete, when the latter terminates the contract unilaterally and without fair ground and there has been a direct or indirect intervention by the new employer ("instigating" the athlete);
The compensation for the unlawful termination of the employment contract is no longer limited to the remaining due remunerations, whenever the damaged party (athlete or employer) proves to have suffered damages of a higher amount.