The legal relationship between a professional footballer and a club is established through a professional footballer contract. A professional footballer contract is defined as a consensual contract made between clubs that are allowed to establish a professional team and amateur or professional footballers, where the footballer undertakes to play football in return for a fee, depending on a club, and stipulating that the parties have certain mutual rights and undertake obligations.

In the doctrine, the elements of a professional footballer contract are mentioned as participation in football activities, dependency, continuity and fee, parallel to the employment contract. In terms of a professional footballer contract, the footballer undertakes to participate in football activities in return for the work performed. Football activity is a concept that includes actions such as playing football, wearing the uniform in competitions, participating in trainings, developing technical and tactical skills, participating in trainings provided by the club, participating in camps organized by the club, and therefore should be considered as a whole. On the other hand, a professional footballer is obliged to perform the task of participating in football activities in accordance with the instructions of the club and depending on the club. The football player is obliged to play football, attend training sessions and prepare himself for football under the supervision and control of the club management. The football player’s dependence on the club is not limited to these. The football player is dependent on the club even in terms of what clothes he will wear in the club. In addition, it is not possible to make a contract with the football player for a single match or several matches. In any case, the contract is tied to a certain period and regardless of the length of the contract period, the football player is obliged to continuously dedicate his labor to football activities in accordance with the instructions of the club within the specified period. In other words, the football player is under a continuous performance obligation throughout the agreed contract period. On the other hand, Article 21 of the Regulation on the Status and Transfer of Professional Football Players treats the wage element as a mandatory element in professional football player contracts. Accordingly, the wage is the amount that must be determined in the contract and paid to the football player, provided that it is not below the monthly minimum wage.

Within this framework, the dominant view in the doctrine qualifies the professional football player contract as a service (labor) contract. In fact, the Court of Cassation also accepts the professional football player contract as a service contract.

Court of Cassation 13th Civil Chamber, 06.06.2016, Merits No. 2015/9000, Decision No. 2016/14293;

“A professional football player contract dated 02.02.2009 was made between the plaintiff football player and the defendant sports club… The legal relationship between the parties arises from the general service contract, and in Article 408 of the TCC; “If the employer prevents the performance of the work obligation through his fault or defaults in accepting the obligation, he is obliged to pay the employee his wage and cannot ask the employee to perform this obligation later. However, the expenses that the employee is exempted from doing due to this obstruction and the benefits he earns by doing another job or knowingly avoids earning are deducted from his wage.”[2]

Court of Cassation 22nd Civil Chamber, 05.10.2015, Merits No. 2014/15655, Decision No. 2015/26568;

“Since athletes train and compete in places designated by their clubs (employers) under the orders and supervision of their employers and are subject to certain working hours, and receive a pre-determined wage in return, their ties with their clubs are based on an employment contract. The fact that the activity is related to sports does not prevent the ties between the athlete and the club from being considered as an employment relationship.”[3]

Regarding the form requirement of service contracts, Article 394/1 of the Turkish Code of Obligations states; “A service contract is not bound to a specific form unless otherwise provided by law.” The provision is included. However, FIFA rules, which are foreseen to be implemented by Law No. 5894, and TFF instructions, which are put into effect with the authority granted by Law No. 5894, require professional football player contracts to be made in written form. In this case, despite the freedom of form specified in the Turkish Code of Obligations, the question of whether the validity of a professional football player contract is subject to written form arises. Article 14 of the Regulation on the Status and Transfer of Professional Football Players requires the existence of a uniform contract in order for a professional football player to be registered and licensed on behalf of a club;

(1) In order for a professional football player to be registered and licensed under the name of a club, the following documents must be submitted to the TFF by the club:

a) Contract signed by the parties (Notarized Turkish translation if the contract is submitted in a foreign language).

In previous years, in the trials held before the TFF, decisions were made that professional football player contracts that were not made in writing were invalid and/or that the TFF legal committees were not authorized to examine disputes arising from these contracts. However, later the TFF Arbitration Board stated that the basic principle in Turkish Law was freedom of form and that the provisions of the instructions could not change this, and accepted that professional football player contracts were not subject to form as a rule.

It would also be useful to touch upon the rights and obligations arising from these contracts in terms of professional football player contracts. As mentioned before, professional football players practice participating in football activities as a profession. Therefore, professional football players have certain rights arising from the employment relationship and are also liable for certain obligations.

In this context, the most basic obligation of a football player is the obligation to perform a job. The obligation to perform work is the obligation to participate in football activities in the broadest sense. As mentioned before, this obligation can consist of many different figures such as playing football in competitions, participating in training, participating in educational activities, participating in team camps, participating in team meetings, etc. The football player is expected to fulfill the obligation to perform work by participating in football activities within the scope of the contract. In fact, the expression “To participate in all competitions and trainings to be held by the club in Turkey and abroad” used in Article 5/b titled Obligations of the Football Player of the Uniform Professional Football Player Contract prepared by the TFF is an article regarding the content of the obligation to perform work. The serious breach of the obligation of perform work by the football player may cause the contract to be terminated by the club for just cause. For example, the failure of the football player to participate despite being in the match squad, not coming to training, constantly leaving trainings unfinished are all grounds for the termination of the contract for just cause. On the other hand, the football player’s duty of care also applies. Accordingly, the performance of the football player must be at a high level.; The following statements are included in the 5/f. paragraph of the uniform professional football player contract prepared by the TFF, titled “The obligations of the football player”; “To show the necessary care and attention to his private life and health in order to be able to play in the competitions in which the club will take part and to be able to demonstrate the expected efficiency”. As can be seen, the obligation of the worker to perform his job meticulously is as wide-ranging as showing the necessary care to his private life and health. In fact, according to paragraph 5/2/a of Circular No. 1171 published by FIFA; the football player must play to the best of his ability when selected for the team. According to paragraph 5/2/c of ​​the Circular; the football player must maintain a healthy life and a high standard of fitness.

The football player also has a duty of loyalty. The obligation not to compete is important within the framework of the duty of loyalty. For professional football players, the non-competition clause may arise in the form of not being able to make a contract with another team in the same league or not being able to make a contract with certain teams in the same league. The validity of such clauses should be examined within the framework of the provisions of the Turkish Code of Obligations. According to Articles 444 and 447 of the Law regulating the non-competition clause; certain conditions are foreseen for the non-competition clause to be valid. Accordingly; the non-competition clause is only considered valid if the service relationship provides the employee with the opportunity to obtain information about the customer circle or production secrets or the work done by the employer and if the use of this information is of a nature that will cause significant damage to the employer. It is impossible to meet the mentioned validity conditions when the relationship between the football player and the club is considered. It is not possible for a football player to obtain information about the employer’s, in other words, the club’s production secrets or to take over the customer circle due to the dynamics of football. For these reasons, it will not be possible for the non-competition clause to be valid. In addition, within the scope of the obligation of loyalty, the football player also has the obligation to act in accordance with sports ethics. Accordingly, the football player’s resorting to unethical methods such as doping, match-fixing, incentive bonuses will be contrary to the duty of loyalty.

One of the most fundamental rights of a professional football player is the fee. The main point that distinguishes a professional football player from an amateur football player is that he performs football activities in return for a fee. The professional football player’s employment relationship is based on the professional football player contract, which is a service contract, and the club’s obligation to pay the fee arises from this. Whether the agreed fee to be paid to the professional football player is net or gross can be determined in the contract. However, if this issue is not agreed in the contract, the TFF jurisprudence states that the fee is gross.

[1] This study was prepared by making use of the following master’s thesis; Kızılkaya, Y. (2019). Profesyonel futbolcunun iş ilişkisinin sona ermesi (Master’s thesis, Bursa Uludag University (Turkey)).

[2] Court of Cassation 13th Civil Chamber, 06.06.2016, Merits No. 2015/9000, Decision No. 2016/14293.

[3] Court of Cassation 22nd Civil Chamber, 05.10.2015, Merits No. 2014/15655, Decision No. 2015/26568.