FIFA Regulatory Reforms, Legal Publications and Virtual Events

As the world has reeled under the impact of the global pandemic, FIFA, as the world governing body, wasted no time and set out to responsibly assume its leadership role in world football to continue and push ahead with regulatory renovations, football professionalisation projects as well as important legal publications for the development and benefit of the greater good of world football. The following section includes an overview and summary of the major achievements and updates which have taken place throughout the latter half of 2020 for each of the specific areas.

Regulatory reforms

As far as regulatory updates, following the work done regarding the COVID-19 outbreak and the development of the COVID-19 Football Regulatory Issues - FAQ,  FIFA promptly turned its attention back to the pressing items on the agenda, primarily the reform of the Transfer System, as well as some new topics which have never been addressed before such as the introduction of regulations for football coaches and the introduction of specific protection rules for women players.

The latest FIFA Football Stakeholders Committee (FSC) meeting in November 2020 represented an opportunity for the stakeholders to back milestone reforms aimed at strengthening the protection of female players as well as coaches, whilst also providing the opportunity to approve changes relating to the international transfer of minors. These landmark reforms were passed by the FIFA Council on 4 December 2020.

Increased protection for female players and football coaches

The reforms, developed in close cooperation with stakeholders, establish new global minimum standards for female players, particularly in relation to maternity.

Following the recent phenomenal growth and the unprecedented success of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France last year, women’s football is now indisputably entering its next stage of development. As a consequence of this evolution, there is a growing need for a regulatory framework that is appropriate and suitable to the needs of the women’s game.

The new rules include a number of key measures:

• Mandatory maternity leave of at least 14 weeks, at a minimum of two thirds of the player’s contracted salary;

• Following their return to work, clubs must reintegrate female players and provide medical and physical support

• No female player should ever suffer a disadvantage as a result of becoming pregnant, thus securing greater employment protection for women in football.

Endorsed by the FSC, the FIFA Council also passed reforms to better protect the position of football coaches in order to recognise the key role they play.

Coaches undeniably play a vital role in the game of football, yet have historically been left outside of the football regulatory framework. In order to fill this gap, the new rules establish minimum standards for coaches’ contracts and provide greater clarity on the content of employment agreements.

The aim of these new rules is to protect contractual stability, achieve greater transparency and make sure that coaches also get paid on time.

Amendment to the rules regarding the international transfer of minor players

Children are the future of the sport, and in a world that has become ever more modern and global, the topic of the international movement of minor players is one of huge importance.

Since the introduction of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP), minors have been able to transfer ‘internationally’ within the United Kingdom by benefiting from the EU/EEA exception in art. 19 par. 2 (b) RSTP. This is despite the 4 British associations governing football in a territory within the same country

With the United Kingdom now leaving the European Union, the FSC was called to assess the possibility of 16-18 year old minors no longer being able to transfer “internationally” within the same country.

In order to avoid absurd situation, the stakeholders were presented with various solutions and ultimately agreed that the transfer of 16-18 year old minors between different associations in the same country would be authorised, applying the same conditions as are applied to transfers within the EU/EEA.

The new rules concerning, female players, coaches and the international transfer of minors were unanimously endorsed by the FSC, which includes club, league and player representatives, as well as member associations and confederations.

The reforms were also brought before the FIFA Council and approved in early December 2020.

National Dispute Resolution Chamber (NDRC) Global Implementation Programme

Last, but not least, within the context of the National Dispute Resolution Chamber (NDRC) global implementation programme, the projects concerning South Africa and Egypt have reached their final stage following the excellent work of national and international stakeholders. The impending completion of these two projects is just another step in the direction of providing the football community with specialised and cheaper mechanisms in order to resolve disputes within the local/national context (click here to learn what an NDRC is).

Recent legal publications and events

As a whole, the FIFA Legal & Compliance division has been actively working on a number of different initiatives in the second half of 2020 to complement and fortify both of the described regulatory and professionalization projects. The recent months have seen the conclusion of a number of such decisive enterprises and publications, demonstrating FIFA’s desire to continue to assist the football community in its leadership capacity.

FIFA Legal Handbook

Published for the first time in September 2020, the Legal Handbook is a comprehensive new guide aimed at providing a more user friendly approach to FIFA legal documentation.  This handbook is the place to find the latest FIFA regulations, statutory documents and relevant circulars, and for ease of use can be accessed in one place electronically.

Available on legal.fifa.com, FIFA guarantees that this Handbook will be updated annually, and has been created with the aim of providing an all-in-one electronic resource for FIFA documentation related to legal, governance and regulatory matters in football.

The FIFA Legal Handbook is available for free and can be downloaded here.

FIFA Guide to Submitting Minor Applications

Another landmark publication launched by the FIFA Legal unit was the FIFA Guide to Submitting a Minor Application. This guide stems from FIFA’s commitment to promote greater transparency and disclosure of its core internal activities. Work on such a document was initiated as a response to the recent codification of new exceptions, the high number of cases received as well as their increasing complexity, and finally, the need for FIFA to provide legal certainty to football stakeholders.

FIFA has taken steps to ensure that this guide serves to educate not only football stakeholders, but also the general public, on the process and documentary requirements relating to the international transfer of minors. FIFA understands that football touches everyone, and as a consequence it is just as important that this guide provide non-initiated individuals with a clearer understanding of this important and complex topic.

An explanatory video has been released to provide further background on this initiative.

FIFA Third Party Influence (TPI) & Third Party Ownership (TPO) Manual

The release of the “Manual on TPI & TPO in football agreements” once again illustrates FIFA’s ever increasing commitment in promoting greater transparency and disclosure of its core internal activities.

The manual was developed in response to a long-standing interest in two specific provisions: article 18bis (TPI on clubs) and 18ter (TPO of players’ economic right) of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) respectively. In this respect, the manual features a thorough examination of the scope of the provisions, regulatory framework and FIFA and CAS cases relating to TPI and TPO, this coupled with a comprehensive statistical analysis.

This document follows FIFA’s aim to once again not only cater to clubs and players, but instead provide all interested parties with a clearer understanding of important and often intricate topics.

For more information click here for an introductory video.

FIFA Intermediaries in International Transfers 2020 Report

The FIFA Intermediaries in International Transfers 2020 report, a comprehensive look at the involvement of intermediaries in international transfers completed in FIFA‘s International Transfer Matching System (ITMS) during 2020, is now available.

Overall, the involvement of intermediaries in international transfers in 2020 remained at the same level as in 2019, with 3,346 (20.4%) international transfers having an agent representing at least one of the clubs involved in the transfer or the player.

Commissions paid for the services of club intermediaries remained at the considerable level of USD 496.2 million, which represents a little less than 10% of the total transfer fees paid in 2020. Clubs from England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Portugal covered 79.9% of that worldwide sum.

The report includes various sets of data and analysis, including data on median intermediary commission, detailed information at both confederation and member association level, and historical comparisons with past years.

FIFA International Transfer Market Snapshot June-October 2020

During the second half of the year, FIFA also published its International Transfer Market Snapshot June-October 2020, an analysis of player transfer activity during the transfer window that closed in early October.

It is the first time that FIFA has created and published such an overview of global transfers involving both male and female players immediately after the conclusion of the international transfer window.

The Snapshot gives a brief overview of transfer activity between June and October 2020, taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, both on the extended deadline for deals to be struck and the willingness of clubs to engage in the market.

Looking ahead, FIFA will publish a full-scale analysis of the characteristics of international football transfers concluded over the course of the whole year (2020) in January 2021.

Eligibility, amendments to the Regulations Governing the Application of the statutes

In September 2019, the Football Stakeholders Committee established a technical working group to examine the regulations which govern eligibility to participate for representative teams. The culmination of this year long process came to fruition during the 70th FIFA Congress, held in September 2020, as FIFA’s Member Associations approved amendments to the Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes

The new regulations which have entered into force anchor key principles such as “no nationality, no eligibility”, the protection of sporting integrity of international competitions and the avoidance of cases of excessive severity or hardship. Further details in this regard can be found in FIFA Circular 1732.

Relive the presentation of FIFA’s Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, Emilio García Silvero, on this topic in the video below.