Kickoff (Cape Town)
7 January 2009
Clubs that break contracts with players and players that sign a contract while still tied to another face are likely to face stiffer penalties in the future.
Clubs that are guilty of this offence could see themselves banned from signing new player for two transfer window periods, while players who go beyond the bounds of their deals, could be banned for four months.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) made this clear recently when it came out twice in support of Fifa's aim of safeguarding the principle of maintenance of contractual stability between professional football players and clubs.
In the first case, ruling on an appeal by Al Kuwait SC, CAS ordered that the Middle East club must pay compensation for breach of contract in the amount of $120 000 to the Estonian player Vjatseslav Zahovaiko.
The highest sports court also ordered that Al Kuwait be banned from registering new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two registration periods following the notification of the decision of the organization.
Al Kuwait denied being responsible for the early termination of the employment contract and declared that it legally terminated the employment contract in consequence to negative results of a medical test that was carried out. However, this argument was turned down by both Fifa's Dispute Resolution Chamber and CAS.
In the second instance, Cas ruled against Czech player Tomas Mica and Swiss side FC Wil 1900 in a matter involving the Bulgarian club PFC Naftex AC Bourgas.
The CAS ruled that that Mica and FC Wil 1900 must jointly pay compensation for breach of contract to the Bulgarian club and that the player shall be banned from participating in official matches for a period of four months.
Mica, while under contract with to Bourgas, had breached that contract by signing another contract with FC Wil 1900 partially covering the same period of time without previously having obtained the consent of the Bulgarian club.
Mica claimed that he had just cause to terminate his contract due to outstanding salary payments. This reasoning was, however, dismissed, as it was considered that the player had been paid all his due salaries.
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