The mutual termination of a football employment contract

THE MUTUAL TERMINATION OF A FOOTBALL EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT 📑

This is usually where both parties have had enough, the love is lost and they give their mutual consent to part ways, usually settling any debts owed and sometimes one party offering the other compensation or “incentives”.

Most, if not all, football employment contracts will stipulate “mutual termination” as one of the few valid ways in which the contract can be brought to an end…

… but when does “consent” stop being consent ? 🤔

FACTS ⚽️

A 23 year old African player Mr XY was brought to my attention a few weekends ago. He had signed a two and half year contract with a European club with a monthly salary of between €1.5-2k.

He was paid for the first two months, but then the club defaulted. After a further two months the club approached him and asked him to sign a termination agreement with an offer to pay him €10,000 (inclusive of the two months they owed) which he turned down.

Thereafter, Mr XY was humiliated, told not to attend training and evicted from the club accommodation. In the end, he decided to sign the “mutual” termination agreement.

I had previously asked his agent to ensure he did not sign any documentation because I wanted to take it to the FIFA Football Tribunal (“FT”), but unfortunately, he had already signed it by the time we got to him. His words when I had a chat with him were, “I am tired of fighting them so I will leave it in the hands of God 😢”.

I decided to contact the sporting director of the club because for me it’s always very important to hear both sides and get a balanced account, but he smugly told me, “his contract is cancelled, so there is nothing further to discuss!”.

I truly believe that this kind of behaviour is unethical and I reported this to FIFA, because there is a procedure for stakeholders to report such wrongdoing. However, very predictably, I received a response a few days later asking that Mr XY submits a claim via the FT route.

I know that if a claim is submitted via the FT route, it is bound to fail. Why? Because Mr XY has given his “consent” to terminate the agreement, and that’s exactly how FIFA will see it unfortunately, case closed !! The club will see it as a license to do it again and again and again.

In my opinion, this kind of behaviour needs to be called out and clubs should be reprimanded, because to me consent is only consent when it’s without undue influence and not when it’s induced by force and humiliation. A young man that is about to be made homeless in a foreign country and with no family around, is very likely to make an irrational decision to keep himself safe.

This is unfortunately, the ugly side of the beautiful game that fans don’t always see 😔

If any lawyers in the house know of any related TAS/CAS Tribunal Arbitral du Sport / Court of Arbitration for Sport / Tribunal Arbitral del Deporte cases, please share.

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