Andy Webster, who was contracted to play for Heart of Midlothian Football Club (Hearts FC) in Scotland, successfully exploited the transfer regulations of FIFA, which claimed that players and clubs alike, are unilaterally allowed to walk away from a contract after a fixed period (The regardless of the duration of the contract. Article ‘protected period’), 17 (introduced in 2004) of for the Status and Transfer of Players FIFA’s Regulations deals with this idea of in particular the of ‘Sporting Just Cause’, ‘Consequence Terminating a Contract Without Just It highlights a series of provisions for such Cause’. breach and provides that: the a player may unilaterally break the remainder “…Outwith “Protected Period” of his contract of employment and be entitled to transfer his registration certificate (his license to play football) to a new club.” This is indeed what occurred when in 2006 Webster became engrossed with a dispute with the club chairman Romanov and so broke the remainder of his contract with Hearts FC to join Wigan Athletic Football Club, even though technically still contracted for one more year to play for the former. Hearts then took the dispute to FIFA after threatening to refuse to release the player’s license to play football. The FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber, which met in April 2007, announced that although the player (Webster) was still under contract, he was the and so any compensation owed to Hearts FC could only be ‘outside protected period’ derived from the amount of Hearts that Webster’s outstanding salary. FC’s claim, Webster was guilty of breaking his contract just was partially accepted, ‘without cause’ but only on a technicality. This meant that Hearts were only entitled to six hundred thousand English pounds from a player they had valued at five million pounds. An appeal then followed by Hearts FC in front of the CAS (January 2008) which only clarified the original ruling and indeed reduced the compensation due to Hearts FC for the player to one hundred and fifty thousand English pounds to be jointly and severally liable between Andy Webster and Wigan Athletic Football Club.
Andy Webster, who was contracted to play for Heart of Midlothian Football Club (Hearts FC) in Scotland, successfully exploited the transfer regulations of FIFA, which claimed that players and clubs alike, are unilaterally allowed to walk away from a contract after a fixed period (The ‘protected period’), regardless of the duration of the contract. Article 17 (introduced in 2004) of FIFA’s Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players deals with this idea of ‘Sporting Just Cause’, in particular the ‘Consequence of Terminating a Contract Without Just Cause’. It highlights a series of provisions for such breach and provides that: “…Outwith the “Protected Period” a player may unilaterally break the remainder of his contract of employment and be entitled to transfer his registration certificate (his license to play football) to a new club.” This is indeed what occurred when in 2006 Webster became engrossed with a dispute with the club chairman Romanov and so broke the remainder of his contract with Hearts FC to join Wigan Athletic Football Club, even though technically still contracted for one more year to play for the former. Hearts then took the dispute to FIFA after threatening to refuse to release the player’s license to play football. The FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber, which met in April 2007, announced that although the player (Webster) was still under contract, he was ‘outside the protected period’ and so any compensation owed to Hearts FC could only be derived from the amount of Webster’s outstanding salary. Hearts FC’s claim, that Webster was guilty of breaking his contract ‘without just cause’ was partially accepted, but only on a technicality. This meant that Hearts were only entitled to six hundred thousand English pounds from a player they had valued at five million pounds. An appeal then followed by Hearts FC in front of the CAS (January 2008) which only clarified the original ruling and indeed reduced the compensation due to Hearts FC for the player to one hundred and fifty thousand English pounds to be jointly and severally liable between Andy Webster and Wigan Athletic Football Club.
A-Domestication-of-the-Court-of-Arbitration-for-Sport-in-South-Africa.docx