La situación laboral contractual de los futbolistas profesionales con los clubes deportivos en el Ecuador

Abstract

This research project analyzes the internal and international regulatory framework regarding the contractual employment situation of professional football soccer players within sports clubs in Ecuador. The aim is to determine that the "Law of the Professional Footballer" passed on June 15th, 1994 is a law with notable gaps and legal abuses for the protection of professional soccer players rights in which exists arbitrariness from sports clubs through their legal representatives by seeking their own benefits and taking advantage of the soccer player sports conditions. In Ecuador, most sports clubs do not fulfill their labor obligations derived from contracts, such as; there are delays in the payment of monthly salaries, they do not affiliate soccer players in the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security, they require soccer players to claim their rights in a prior and mandatory manner to the Ecuadorian Football Federation Special Arbitration Court as an alternative solution mechanism of conflicts. This is, they violate their freedom to direct and free access to ordinary justice and effective judicial protection. It must be taken into account that there is an international regulation that is obliged to be complied with by clubs that are affiliated with the Ecuadorian Football Federation through regulations and statutes issued by the International Association Football Federation. FIFA is the highest governing body of the football soccer world that ensures the protection of the rights of professional football soccer players without violating provisions of the domestic legal system. The applied methods were deductive, historical, and comparative since it is an analytical investigation. Due to the above, a reform is proposed to the Law of the Professional Footballer in order to improve the legal labor relations and the legal security between sports clubs and the professional footballer in the practice of his profession.