Clubs hit players and summon supporters by General Sports Law

After soccer players went to the Federal Senate to complain about the proposed changes to the General Sports Law, clubs responded and called on their fans to defend the changes in the new legislation.

This Friday (15), teams from series A, B, C and D used their profiles on social networks to ask that the text, responsible for consolidating all sports legislation, be approved by the Senate.

“What we are looking for is a greater balance in the relationship between club and athlete when it comes to employment contracts,” he told Sheet the president of Atlético Mineiro, Sérgio Coelho.

He says that he intends to hold a meeting between the club’s board and the athletes to explain the situation and that he believes that, in this meeting, it will be possible to demonstrate that the new legislation is not harmful to sportsmen as they believe it to be.

“They go a lot with the speech of businessmen and lawyers. The country is democratic, they can defend their interests, and so can we, without offense, without fighting. In the same way that we seek support [da torcida]they have the freedom and the right to search too, we are in a democratic process,” he added.

After the proposal passed through the Chamber, on the 6th, the athletes organized protests during the weekend games of the national competitions, spending the first minute of the matches standing still, with their hands in their mouths.​

The idea was to convey the message that they would not have been heard during the debate on the topic. For them, the text as it is promotes changes that harm the category and reduce labor rights.

According to the clubs, the General Sports Law “brings sports legislation closer to what is already valid for all other workers”, in addition to preserving existing contracts.

Players and managers complain, for example, that the new law would allow a club to pay only half of the expected total until the end of an athlete when he fires him.

In publications published on the internet, the teams recall that there are no changes for contracts with less than 12 months, “which represent 95% of the category in the country”. For these shorter agreements, the compensatory fine of at least 100% of the contract is maintained, as it is today.

The new law provides for the possibility of paying a fine of at least 50% of the value for contracts lasting more than 12 months.

“What clubs ask for in terms of termination I think is fair, because it does not exclude the possibility of having a fine of 500%, it is enough to be in the contract, but it allows the club to have a fine of 50%”, says deputy Felipe Carreras ( PSB-PE), rapporteur of the project in the Chamber of Deputies.

Before the vote on the text in the Chamber, leaders and presidents of confederations were in Brasília and met with the president of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), at which time they aligned the final wording that would be voted on in the plenary.

Carreras says that he met, for example, with FAAP (Federation of Professional Athletes’ Associations), in addition to having meetings with the COB (Brazilian Olympic Committee) Athletes Council and Athletes Pelo Brasil,

It was the meeting with Lira, in particular, that caused discomfort. Businessmen and players organized themselves in a movement called “União dos Atletas de Futebol das Séries ABCD” and managed to meet with Senator Romário (PL-RJ), last Tuesday (12).

The conversation with the former player lasted about 30 minutes. In addition to presenting their criticisms of the text, the athletes asked Romário to be the project’s rapporteur – which in practice would give him more decision-making power on new changes to the project.

The project has no date to be voted on. In her first stint in the Senate, Leila Barros (PDT-DF) was the rapporteur.

The possibilities for changing the text, however, are limited. The Senate can now only undo changes that have taken place in the House, but cannot propose new rules.

The main point of disagreement is the changes in the rules of contract termination and dismissal.

The ABCD Series Soccer Athletes Union also claims that the new project increases from 40% to 50% the share of remuneration that they can receive as image rights. There is also dissatisfaction with the definition of the night shift from 11:59 pm instead of 10 pm, as it is currently.

Despite the noise surrounding football, the General Sports Law deals with several other topics related to sports in general.

The project foresees, for example, an increase in the penalty for cases of racism in the sports environment, parity between awards for men and women, punishment for corrupt top hats and support for athletes to express their opinions.