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Are Footballers Employees of Clubs? Essay

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INTRODUCTION The definition of ‘Employment’ and an ‘Employer – Employee relationship’ is one that has puzzled most commentators to the extent that there have been growing calls for shelving of the entire distinction between an ‘Employee’ and an ‘Independent Contractor’ through a broad understanding of ‘Employment’. The question of whether a footballer could be considered an employee of the club he plays for is a tricky one enmeshed in a number of technical intricacies, such as the distinction in the nature of a ‘contract of service’ and a ‘contract for service’. Given that a fair amount of murkiness surrounds the understanding of the ‘normal’ constitution of a relationship of ‘Employment’, an even greater uncertainty is expected when an …show more content…

However, at the very outset, the author would limit the scope of this discussion to ‘Professional Footballers’, thereby excluding ‘Amateur’ and ‘Part-Time Footballers’ from the pertinent theme of this article. DEFINING EMPLOYMENT AND DEMARCATING THE BOUNDARIES OF AN EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP In his article, ‘The Reports of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated: ‘Employee’ as a Viable (though over-used) Legal Concept’, Guy Davidov makes a compelling case for the implementation of a ‘purposive approach’ in defining an Employment Relationship. This would entail that the concept of ‘employment’ would be interpreted differently based on every piece of legislation, sometimes even different provisions within the same legislation. Such a theoretical approach stems from the simple fact that a strict categorisation would only result in a very rigid application of the law, which may not justify the legislative intent behind it. Let us assume, for example, that footballers are mere independent contractors under a strict interpretation of the letter of the law. Let us extend this assumption to a fact situation similar to the one in Bosman Case , wherein there is a footballer, whose right to free movement is curtailed by his club. While we may (for the sake of argument) consider the footballer in such a scenario to be an

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