May 2022. Santi Mina, Celta footballer, sentenced to four years in prison and compensation of 50,000 euros for a crime of sexual abuse. January 2023. Prison without bail for Dani Alves, a soccer player for the Mexican Pumas, for an alleged sexual assault in a Barcelona nightclub. In the Premier League two cases occupy the minds of the Manchester clubs. In August 2021 Mendy, a City winger, was accused by 13 women of six counts of alleged rape and one of sexual assault. And Greenwood, a United footballer, was arrested in January 2022 after his girlfriend appeared in a series of videos with injuries allegedly caused by the footballer. In the Bundesliga, the Stuttgart footballer Atakan Karazor spent 42 days in prison for the alleged perpetrator of a sexual assault on an 18-year-old girl in Ibiza. Ligue 1 does not escape. PSG winger Achraf Hakimi is under investigation for alleged rape. After investigating the case, the Prosecutor's Office has formally charged him and placed him under judicial supervision.
And the clubs? What can they do? Is there any protocol? Can they terminate the contract of their athletes? The answer is complex. According to the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, “in the event of justified cause, either party may terminate a contract without any consequences”. The range is very wide.
“The clubs can terminate the contracts of their footballers or separate them from the group's activity. There are also behavior clauses. But without a final sentence, the footballer can claim his reinstatement to the club for unfair dismissal, ”explains Vicente Javaloyes, a lawyer specializing in sports law. This is the case of Santi Mina. Once convicted, Celta decided to suspend him from employment and salary. A few weeks later he had to reinstate him after the appeal filed by the player. And the footballer, who has a contract until 2024, agreed to leave on loan to Al Shabab of Saudi Arabia.
In Alves' contract with Pumas there was also a clause in which the Brazilian was penalized for his participation "in any scandal that becomes public or in any act that is considered a crime according to the legislation of the country in which it took place". . For this non-compliance, the Mexican club fired him and made it known that Alves "is irremediably obliged to reimburse the club for the payment of compensation of 5 million net dollars."
This condition in the contract, according to what La Vanguardia learned, applies to all the links of all the club's players and also penalizes involvement in doping cases. However, if justice finds him innocent, Alves may claim the compensation paid and another for damages.
In Manchester, the first thing United did was remove Greenwood from the team, sanction him from employment and salary, withdraw the sale of his shirts and eliminate all traces of him on the web. Now, once the Manchester Police withdrew all charges against Greenwood a month ago, they are looking for how to proceed. "Manchester United are aware of the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the charges against the English footballer. The club will first carry out its own process before determining the next steps to be taken. No further comment will be made until the completion of this procedure," the club said in a statement.
The same goes for City with Mendy, who was found not guilty on six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. Two counts of rape and sexual assault are still pending verdict. And that is what the City clings to. "Since there are open issues related to this case, the club is not in a position to comment further," the club said. As for Atakan Karazor, a Stuttgart footballer, he paid bail of 50,000 euros to get out of provisional prison and played again. This course adds 12 titles in the Bundesliga.
In Ligue 1 Achraf has denied the accusations and continues to train with PSG. He was also seen parading down the Parisian red carpet at The Best awards. He even went out to collect his trophy for being part of the best eleven according to FIFA. "In French clubs, they are committed to normality until there is no final sentence," they say from Paris. And they add: “In the contracts of Ligue 1 footballers there is a behavior clause. If there is any lack of discipline, a very minimal part of the salary is deducted. But it never activated. There are lawyers who insist that it is not legal until proven otherwise. But it is the way that the clubs have to tell their athletes that they can control them ”, add the same sources.
In LaLiga there is a similar control system. The collective agreement of the employer and the Association of Professional Soccer Players (AFE) is in charge of laying the foundations of the disciplinary regime. This condemns "the serious and repeated ill-treatment of words or, where appropriate, the serious assault on any person." As for the clubs, they add a clause in the contracts by which the players agree to respect their internal code. Each player must sign that he knows the existence of the code, that he accepts that it is applicable and a copy must be given to him. Most clubs are reviewing their codes to adapt them to the current scenario.
“Never forget that where you are, there is Real Madrid. It is important that they speak well of you as a footballer and as a person, and that will define your daily attitude. This is why all inappropriate behaviors and attitudes that are carried out in areas outside those organized by the club (public roads, schools, places of leisure, etc.) that go against our values can lead to disciplinary consequences of sports type ”, reads the Real Madrid code.
“FC Barcelona considers its image and reputation as one of its main assets. In this sense, the staff must pay the utmost attention to preserving the image and reputation of the club in each and every one of their actions. In addition, they must act ethically, respectfully and in accordance with current legislation, even outside working hours to avoid possible disrepute ”, says the blaugrana code.
More explicit are the codes of Atlético de Madrid and Celta. “Any attitude that could mean harassment is strictly prohibited, and especially workplace harassment and sexual harassment. Atlético de Madrid maintains its firmest commitment to equal opportunities, tolerance and the fight against racism and xenophobia," says the statement from the mattress club. "Celta does not allow, and will be denounced, if necessary, offensive, intimidating, discriminatory, malicious, humiliating or contemptuous behavior, sexual harassment, etc," indicates the Galician club.
Instead, there are no doubts in the contracts with the sponsors. All include clauses that protect companies from events that may have a negative impact on their brand. Alves went from being a football idyll to a nightmare for his club and also for those who paid for his image. His relationship with Adidas expired in 2022. The German company did not renew the contract. Hygia Saúde, a public health-related app in Brazil, terminated its sponsorship of him four days after his arrest. "Our pillar is the appreciation of women and we strive to make them increasingly recognized in society," he said.
The 1xBet betting company chose to send an email and end the link with the player three days after the arrest. “Scheduled payments will also be postponed,” he reminded her. And the underwear brand Ethika also terminated its contract five days after Alves entered prison. “We will not make any of the agreed payments for 2023 until Dani is cleared of guilt,” he detailed in a statement.
That footballers must pay compensation to each sponsor for an alleged crime does belong to contractual law, a branch that studies from the negotiation all the possible responsibilities of athletes with brands. In short, indemnifying the sponsors or not will depend on what both parties agree to.
