COVID-19: a legal perspective on FIFA’s guiding principles for national football associations
This article examines the regulatory and legal issues for FIFA member associations deriving from the COVID-19 virus outbreak and provides an overview of FIFA’s guiding principles[1], as detailed in FIFA Circular no. 1714. As FIFA has also declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be a force majeure event, the authors will also discuss the legal concept of force majeure in light of the published case law of the leading form in international football: the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber and the FIFA Players’ Status Committee as well as the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Specifically, it looks at:
- Events to date
- FIFA COVID-19 working group
- Force majeure from FIFA DRC, FIFA PSC and CAS perspective
- Contractual clauses
- The core matters
- Expiring agreements and new agreements
- Agreements that cannot be performed as the parties originally anticipated
- The appropriate timing for registration periods (‘transfer windows’)
- Other regulatory matters
- Final remarks
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- Tags: COVID19 | Employment | FIFA | Football | Football Players | Governance | Player Contracts | Regulation
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Written by
Frans de Weger
Chairman, FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber & Partner/Founder, BMDW Advocaten
Frans de Weger is Attorney-at-Law registered at the bar in the Netherlands and has been working in sports law for more than fifteen years.
In the past, Frans worked at the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) as a legal assistant, as a licensed player’s agent and for seven years at the organisation for Dutch professional football clubs, the Federation of Professional Football Organisations (FBO). At the FBO, he further specialised in national and international football law and regularly advised on various legal issues, including player contracts, national and international transfers, training fees and solidarity contributions.
In 2015, Frans was appointed as CAS arbitrator and since then is regularly appointed by parties as a arbiter and by CAS as Sole Arbitrator or President.
In 2021 Frans was appointed for a period of 4 years as Chairperson of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC), FIFA’s decision-making body that deals with the international employment and transfer related disputes between players and clubs
Arne Al
Arne Al is a lawyer at BMDW Advocaten in the Netherlands. BMDW Advocaten is a boutique law firm specialised in (inter)national sports law, with a particular focus on football (www.bmdw.nl). Arne specialises in providing legal advice and assistance in (international) transfers. In addition, Arne also advises in (international) dispute resolution within football and commercial contracts.
