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The workshop was held under the supervision of Ghanem Ghawanmeh, the UAE Pro League legal advisor, with the participation of the world renowned lecturer, Efraim Barak, an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Image Credit: Supplied

Dubai: The UAE Pro League held a legal workshop on the professional players’ contracts as part of its series of programmes, aimed at raising awareness among all workers in the UAE football system and developing all related sectors.

The workshop was held under the supervision of Ghanem Ghawanmeh, the UAE Pro League legal advisor, with the participation of the world renowned lecturer, Efraim Barak, an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and a founder of sports diploma programs in several international institutes with more than 30 years experience in the sports field, as well as the presence of representatives of professional clubs, including lawyers, and legal advisors.

It discussed two aspects; the first was sports law, while the second focused on contracts of the professional players.

Barak gave a presentation on sports law in general and football law in particular. He tackled the academic and practical requirements of a sports lawyer, as well as the training programmes which develop sports lawyers’ skills.

The international lecturer shed light on the overlap between labour, commercial, and football laws and how to handle these cases to reach the desired outcomes.

Transfer contracts

The workshop paid special attention to professional players’ contracts, focusing on the most significant points that a sports lawyer must take into consideration when concluding contracts. It also discussed the transfer contracts of players between clubs and how to negotiate their terms.

Barak stressed the importance of guaranteeing clubs’ rights when concluding player contracts of an international nature, especially as they fall under FIFA’s laws, noting that the judicial bodies in FIFA and the CAS are the only bodies authorized to consider the disputes arising from such contracts.

The workshop also discussed the cases, in which the club has the right to terminate a players’ contract for a fair reason and the mechanism of compensating clubs and players in cases of contracts termination under the provisions of the FIFA regulations.

Waleed Al Hosani, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the UAE Pro League, said that the league is keen on backing the efficiency of cadres in clubs in all fields, according to the Pro League 2020-30 strategic plan, aimed at developing the football system in an integrated manner, to reach the long term objectives by attracting the most experienced and specialized experts, in order to keep up with global developments.

Positive interaction

Al Hosani expressed his appreciation for all clubs’ participation, as the workshop saw a positive interaction between the attendees and an effective presence for the representatives of professional clubs, reflecting the workshop’s outcomes positively.

For his part, Barak hailed the UAE Pro League and the professional clubs’ legal teams keenness on developing the players’ transfers and contracts, as well as the responsiveness of the attendees to the workshop’s ideas, a positive reflection on professionalism prevalent in the UAE’s football clubs.