РУАЭСТ (RUAEST)
CONTRACTS FOR SPORTS SERVICES
This paper investigates the relationship between professional — or simply remunerated — athletes and their respective clubs or sports organizations, as well as every aspect of their employment and relevant agreements. Lex Sportiva divides athletes into three categories: amateurs, professionals and remunerated athletes. The legal distinction between amateur and professional athletes, especially as far as it concerns the protection of their rights and personality, is strongly questionable in regard to its constitutional lawfulness. This distinction should mean the differences between professionals and amateurs in the provision of sports services; amateur athletes have to constitute services offered to a club with no remuneration and are excluded from the scope of employment agreements. What’s more, there is no any special legal definition for the term “amateur athlete”: it simply refers to those athletes who are not remunerated and who also do not play professionally. Financial rewards or other means of support given by sports clubs, associations or federations to amateur athletes, in the context of their sports activity, do not constitute any form of remuneration and therefore, those athletes are not considered to be remunerated or professional ones according to Sports Law.