FC Barcelona’s case before the CSD requesting that its appeal against the denial by LALIGA and RFEF of a federative license be upheld is giving much to talk about.
In view of the CSD’s resolution of the appeal filed by FC Barcelona and its request for injunctive relief, we can conclude that the labor rights of the players are becoming an unexpectedly important tool for obtaining administrative injunctive relief.
The failure of FC Barcelona to register Olmo and Pau Víctor would result in what is known in labor terms as a violation of the right to effective employment insofar as they would not be able to participate in the matches played by their club. In general terms, this right implies that each worker must have the possibility of being able to perform his duties, which would not be the case if they did not have a federative license.
In these cases the player could sue the club and demand the termination of his contract with the inherent effects of an unfair dismissal.
Part of the allegations made by FC Barcelona have revolved around the economic damages that this possible termination of the players’ contracts would generate. In the particular case of Daniel Olmo, this possibility was expressly included in his contract.
This is a labor eventuality that obviously should remain in the contractual sphere between club and player, however the CSD has considered this argument as valid, among others, for the estimation of the request for precautionary measure.
This is a precedent that takes on special relevance because one might wonder why this same argument could not be used by any club in a similar situation, logically adapting it to the dimensions of each one, which for FC Barcelona is a serious damage – according to the club between 50-500 million -, this serious “economic damage” can also be in terms of relevance for any club with a smaller budget.
When reflecting on the labor rights of athletes and in the face of such sensitivity shown by the CSD, we should bear in mind that the right to effective work of these two players cannot violate the labor rights of the rest, since this decision represents a clear discrimination against players who belong to different soccer clubs and are subject to their compliance with the rules of the competition, including the established budgetary limits. In this decision, two players have been privileged over the others.
In this sense, it can be concluded that the general interests of the players have not been taken into account, only the particular interests of one or two. If this decision allows the clubs to default on their financial obligations and get into debt, thus returning to the ghosts of the past, such as disproportionate indebtedness, the damage to the collective will be much greater.
You can see the article published in this regard in IUSPORT. The right to effective occupation as an argument to obtain an injunction.
For further information on the subject, please contact Diego García Diego
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