Labour-Law Status of Professional Athletes

Predmet ovog diplomskog rada je radnopravni status profesionalnih sportaša s naglaskom na nogomet kao sport s najviše autonomnih i heteronomnih izvora te opsežnom praksom Suda EU. Cilj rada je objasniti problematiku koja stoji iza različitih definiranja odnosa između kluba kao poslodavca i igrača kao radnika u onim državama koji mu priznaju takav status te u državama koje mu ne priznaju takav status. Analiziraju se ugovori koji igrači potpisuju te socijalni dijalog kao jedan od instrumenata provedbe politike EU. Daje se pregled kako je radnik definiran u pravu Europske Unije kao i nacionalnom pravu te se analizira Sporazum o minimalnim zahtjevima za standardni ugovor profesionalnog igrača te njegovi učinci na profesionalni sport u Hrvatskoj. U posljednjem dijelu rada daje se komparativni prikaz statusa profesionalnih igrača u Njemačkoj, Španjolskoj, Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu te Italiji.The subject of this diploma paper is the labour law status of professional athletes with an emphasis on football as a sport with the most autonomous and heteronomic sources and the extensive practice of the EU Court. The aim of the paper is to explain the issue behind the different definition of the relationship between the club as an employer and a player as a worker in those states that recognize him as such and in states that do not recognize such status. The contracts signed by the players and social dialogue as one of the instruments of EU policy implementation are analyzed. An overview of how the worker is defined in European Union law as well as national law is analyzed and the Agreement on minimum requirements for a standard contract for a professional player and its effects on professional sport in Croatia is analyzed. In the last part of the paper, a comparative overview of the status of professional players in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy is provided