the law of 1978 and clubs "agreements"

[sabaku_no_gaara]

There's an interesting transfer drama in Belgium, Brazilian defender Kanu used the law of 1978 on labour agreement for those participating in a sport to get out of his contract with Standard Liege (Basicly a player can terminate his contract with a Belgian club provided he pays a compensation) And be able to negotiate with RSC Anderlecht.

And now apparently there is a gentleman's agreement that no Belgian club hires a player that invoked the law of '78 to get out of his contract at a club, and Standard is furious at Anderlecht for not upholding the Gentleman's agreement.

The law has been invoked a few times, or players threatened to use it.

Junior Malanda for instance, used it to get out of his contract with Zulte Waregem, and then signed on with Wolfsburg who then rented him out to... Zulte Waregem

another player who used the law was Vainqueur of Standard who wanted a better contract with a higher salary, Standard refused so he invoked the law and terminated his contract, only to re sign at Standard with a better contract and a higher salary.

Another player from Lokeren Mokulu, didn't agree with the transfer price his club asked, and thus terminated his contract


What I find the most shocking about this is how clubs actively tried to circumvent a law to protect players in sports from exploitation by clubs by having these gentleman's agreements.

[torongill]

There's an interesting transfer drama in Belgium, Brazilian defender Kanu used the law of 1978 on labour agreement for those participating in a sport to get out of his contract with Standard Liege (Basicly a player can terminate his contract with a Belgian club provided he pays a compensation) And be able to negotiate with RSC Anderlecht.

And now apparently there is a gentleman's agreement that no Belgian club hires a player that invoked the law of '78 to get out of his contract at a club, and Standard is furious at Anderlecht for not upholding the Gentleman's agreement.

The law has been invoked a few times, or players threatened to use it.

Junior Malanda for instance, used it to get out of his contract with Zulte Waregem, and then signed on with Wolfsburg who then rented him out to... Zulte Waregem

another player who used the law was Vainqueur of Standard who wanted a better contract with a higher salary, Standard refused so he invoked the law and terminated his contract, only to re sign at Standard with a better contract and a higher salary.

Another player from Lokeren Mokulu, didn't agree with the transfer price his club asked, and thus terminated his contract


What I find the most shocking about this is how clubs actively tried to circumvent a law to protect players in sports from exploitation by clubs by having these gentleman's agreements.

It all depends on the compensation really. A club that has invested say 5 million in a player and pays him 2 million per year stands to lose lots and lots of money if the compensation is say a quarter of his annual salary. Such sums used to be impossible back in 78.

Second, I bet that law was made to protect players from exploitation. When a club pays the player a salary that a neurosurgeon could have after decades of experience, you can hardly claim the club is exploiting the player. As a matter of fact often it's the other way round.