Instant sports
Author: Yuan Zhihao
2020-12-23 11:51
Last update date: 2020-12-23 11:51
Local and foreign players are off duty in the Hong Kong Super League. Although the standard contract mentioned in the previous episode provides certain protection, there are still contract disputes with the football from time to time. How will the FA assist the two parties to resolve the dispute?
Recently, some foreign aid applied to FIFA for arbitration, and the Earth Club won the case, but the result was still unable to obtain compensation, revealing the tragedy of Hong Kong football.
We found the client, the former Hong Kong Super League dream FC midfielder Zuyakun to elaborate on his experience.
Photography: Huang Baoying, Huang Shuhui
Most Hong Kong players will turn to the Football Association for help when they encounter contract problems. More than 10 players seeking compensation from R&F have met with the FA’s Director-General Yuan Wenchuan earlier. Some players criticized their attitudes for being less positive. "They are helping the players. It’s very passive. Even the meeting is brought up by the players. I don’t know if they are afraid of winning or losing."
What role should the FA play in handling relevant disputes?
The outside world generally believes that the FA should take the initiative to protect the rights of players, but Yuan Wenchuan emphasized that the FA needs to take care of the opinions of all stakeholders at the same time, so as not to make people feel partial to any party.
He explained: "The players feel that the FA is very passive, but if something happens to the players, we will immediately jump out, and the club will feel that we are too enthusiastic. The FA has to shirk responsibility, but the players must take a step forward before we can It is handled in a balanced manner according to the system."
The FA’s director-general Yuan Wenchuan bluntly said that he must uphold neutrality and it is difficult to actively assist any party.
(Photo by Huang Baoying)
What is the Dispute Resolution Chamber of the Standing System of the Football Association?
The "system" that Yuan Wenchuan said was the "National Dispute Resolution Chamber" (NDRC) of the Hong Kong Football Association.
As long as the players formally complain, in accordance with the FA regulations, this decision court has the right to investigate, review and rule the dispute between the two parties.
↓↓↓What is the player contract dispute resolution court? Click to enlarge to learn more↓↓↓
However, since the establishment of the Resolution Chamber in 2014/2015, it has only handled one case.
Yuan Wenchuan said that most of the disputes can be resolved privately. "The Hong Kong market is fine, and everyone wants to "go well." Moreover, deliberation requires resources and time. Players would rather settle as soon as possible and accept compensation."
Recently, a former R&F player decided to file a complaint with the Labour Tribunal and accused the FA of "not being able to help" in a media interview.
Yuan Wenchuan asked: "How does he want the FA to help? Want money or justice?" He emphasized that the FA system "always exists", but players choose other solutions. "NDRC can definitely determine who is right and who is wrong, but we can't do anything about it. Forcing R&F to pay the full salary."
Hong Kong Football Specials.
Players' Rights 1｜Hong Kong Super League signed a letter, local players lack self-protection awareness
[Hong Kong Football Topics.
Player rights 2] Is the dismantling of the player contract sufficient to protect the missing wages?
Twelve R&F players had previously visited the FA for help, but some players thought the meeting was not very helpful.
(Photo by Yuan Zhihao)
Case study: Zuyakun sued Dream and won the case
Every time there is a similar incident, there is a voice calling local players to "sue FIFA (International Football Association)", but this is a misunderstanding and it is impossible to happen.
The FA NDRC is responsible for handling local cases, namely disputes between the Hong Kong Football Club and Hong Kong players.
And if any party is involved in other affiliated clubs, such as foreign players suing the Hong Kong Club, to ensure fairness, the incident will be handled by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC); this means that only foreign players can "sue FIFA."
According to Yuan Wenchuan, a total of 4 players filed a lawsuit against the Hong Kong Football Club against FIFA last year and all of them won.
One of the cases involved the Spanish midfielder Zuyakun and the former Hong Kong Super League team dreaming of FC.
This foreign aid was suddenly cancelled by dreams in the previous season, and issued warning letters to the club three times, requesting re-registration to no avail.
Zuyakun accused Dream of unilateral termination of the contract without a just cause and complained to FIFA that the club had breached the contract.
Former Dream Chief Executive Liang Zhiju criticized Zu Yakun for leaving the team without permission when receiving media enquiries in recent months, but the latter emphasized that he had already returned to freedom.
The picture shows the timeline of the dispute between Dream FC and former foreign aid Zu Yakun (click to enlarge):
Local labor laws≠FIFA regulations
Who said the truth?
The key is that there are differences between Hong Kong’s labor laws and FIFA regulations in terms of contract termination.
The former means that if there is no clear stipulation in the contract, both parties can terminate the contract unilaterally with no less than one month's notice or payment in lieu of notice.
The employer can terminate the contract without notice or payment in lieu of notice only if the employee deliberately disobeys the order, misbehavior, fraud or habitual negligence of duties.
However, FIFA upholds a principle in this respect-the player's contract with the club can only be cancelled after the contract expires or both parties agree, unless one of them has a just cause.
Zuyakun (right) joined Dream FC since the 2017/18 season, but was suddenly cancelled during the previous season, so he filed a complaint with FIFA.
(Dream Football Team Facebook Page)
What is a reasonable reason?
According to previous cases, it is roughly as follows:
Take the golf club as an example. It is all unreasonable reasons for players to play poorly, games or training are injured; even if players are absent from practice, it depends on the frequency and whether there will be official matches during the period.
As for the long-term unpaid wages of the club, or if the players play less than 10% of the football club games in the season, the player can also be considered as having a reasonable reason for termination, but it still depends on the circumstances of each case.
Therefore, R&F initially issued a one-month payment in lieu of notice to the players to terminate the contract. Although it complies with Hong Kong's labor laws, it violates the FIFA principle.
As for Zuyakun’s situation, the dream claimed that this son refused to play on the pretext of injury and canceled his registration due to the need to improve the team’s performance. Obviously, it did not reach "reasonable reasons". As a result, FIFA also ruled that the dream breached the contract, representing Zuyakun’s freedom. Leaving the team.
FIFA made a ruling on the dispute between Zuyakun and Dream.
(01 Art Drawing)
The inconsistency of the two regulations caused the club to vomit.
You Yongqiang, vice chairman of the Oriental Sports Association, said frankly that FIFA tends to stand on the side of the players, or make the club a "victim". "If you terminate the contract with the player due to disagreements or other circumstances, you will have to pay a high price at any time, but the club resources Limited, how to balance it is our difficulty.” Lee Man-en, president of Lee & Man, believes that some clubs may not be familiar with FIFA regulations. I hope the FA can send people to strengthen education.
Yuan Wenchuan explained that FIFA is a worldwide organization and it is difficult to consider the local laws of each affiliated club when formulating regulations. Therefore, it is mostly applied from the perspective of football and applied to the actual situation of the football circle. He also reiterated that even if the club has complied with labor laws, It does not mean that it can evade the "consequences of the football world." "FIFA will cancel the company registration if it cannot take a free throw, but it has the right to impose a suspension, prohibit transfers, etc."
FIFA also has a resolution panel to deal with disputes involving the two affiliated clubs.
(Getty Images)
Winning the lawsuit is still difficult to obtain full compensation
Returning to Zuyakun’s example, when he was interviewed, he lamented that the appeal process was long and "not as simple as expected."
During this period, he needs to provide FIFA with a contract, as well as various documents proving that the club owes wages and unreasonably canceled registration, including account information, the FA website player list, team photos...Finally FIFA sentenced in February this year Dreams need to pay Zuyakun close to 600,000 Hong Kong dollars.
The irony is that this does not mean that players can get compensation.
Although FIFA requires Dream to "find the number" within 45 days, otherwise up to three consecutive transfer windows will be prohibited from registering new players, but Dream still refuses to pay.
According to media reports, the reason is that the club has changed hands and it is difficult to recover the money; Liang Zhiju even pointed out that the club had reached an agreement with Zu Yakun, but the opponent was "reversed".
In this regard, Zuyakun said that Dream had initially offered to compensate for 3 months of labor, but the payment was never transferred, and he did not agree.
A screenshot of the SMS conversation provided by Zu Yakun, he said that this is part of the conversation with the former CEO of Dream FC, Liang Zhiju:
It is said that Zuyakun and Liang Zhiju were in a confrontation. The other side of the conversation blamed Zuyakun for causing him to lose the club and pointed out that the responsibility lies with the former team owner rather than himself.
"01 Sports" received a screenshot of the Whatapps dialogue between him and Liang Zhiju in the middle of last month, which was provided by Zu Yakun. The content showed that the other party accused Zu Yakun for "causing trouble for him"; the other party also claimed to try the former class owner Li Zhanwei went to fight for the old compensation plan. The topic was that Zu Yakun closed the case to FIFA, and wrote: "Otherwise, you will confiscate the money. If you think about it, it doesn't matter if I lose the club. The boss is not interested anyway."
Zuyakun believes that the club never thought about compensation from the beginning to the end. "I had one and a half years left on the contract, but they wanted to use three months' salary to pass me. I always hoped that a consensus could be reached, but they just ignored it. ."
Dream has been renamed Jing Feng and Gang Jing, and withdrew from this year's Hong Kong League due to the FIFA ban, but Liang Zhiju led the existing players to "pass the file" in Tai Po, and may be able to "return" after the ban is over.
Zu Yakun criticized those interested in using this method of "changing the soup without changing the medicine" to avoid punishment. "The Hong Kong Football Association should not allow this to happen. This shames Hong Kong football and I am very disappointed." Inquiry to Liang Zhiju about the incident and the content of the dialogue, but no reply was received before the deadline.
Former Dream FC CEO Leung Chi-kui has now led some of the former Hong Kong elite players to join the Tai Po football team to continue the Hong Kong League this season.
(Profile picture)
If the dream continues to default on compensation, will there be no consequences after the injunction period?
In this regard, Yuan Wenchuan believes that the opportunity is slim. "FIFA can impose additional penalties, such as banning clubs from participating in football activities or banning some staff from participating in football activities under its jurisdiction." However, most Hong Kong clubs do not have the same brand value as foreign countries, and basically no bankruptcy. It is too costly, but compensation can be reduced or avoided. It is obvious how to choose.
In the past, R&F reported to the Labour Tribunal as an example. According to the information, if the player fails to pay the payment after winning the case, the player can apply for "enforcement of the judgment", such as issuing a writ to seize the debtor’s property, but it does not guarantee success or claim. Get the full amount back.
And if the club is finally liquidated, players will not be able to recover all the benefits whether they are to get back wages, payment in lieu of notice and severance payment in the order of creditors, or apply for the ex-gratia payment of the Bankruptcy Wages Protection Fund, because each type of payment has Maximum amount.
Even if the former R&F players filed with the Labour Tribunal, they may not be able to claim full compensation from the club.
(Profile picture)
FA has nothing to do
As the saying goes, "A person is shameless and invincible." Even if the Football Association refuses to issue the Hong Kong Super League license to the club or cancel its membership, it seems that it is difficult to deal with the team owner who would not hesitate to give up the club and escape salary.
The golf club owes wages and scattered shifts are like a cycle in the Hong Kong ball circle, appearing every one or two seasons. Is there any way to prevent the situation from happening again?
According to Yuan Wenchuan, the Hong Kong Super League team has always been required to pay a deposit, which is about HK$100,000 per month.
When someone suggested raising the margin for compensation in an emergency, he asked, "How much margin is enough?" He bluntly said that even if the amount is as high as 7 figures, it may not be enough to solve the R&F crisis.
In those days, the dream of leaving classes was also related to raising the margin. Yuan Wenchuan said: "The team has to consider cash flow. It is difficult to advance such a large amount of money before the season. If the conditions are too strict, the boss will be scared. It is the players who ultimately suffer."
What if the Football Association establishes its own "Pay Back or Scattered Funds" to help players in emergency situations?
Yuan Wenchuan believes that the idea is worth considering, but where the money comes from, you need to consult the club and the players.
He also worries about the counter-effects of this move. "This is theoretically the responsibility of the club. If it is assumed by the FA, it will not make sense. It will spoil the club and must be handled with care."
The cancellation of membership by the Football Association, the deduction system for the Hong Kong Super League license, and the increase of the Hong Kong Super League margin, etc., seem to be difficult to completely prevent the occurrence of wage arrears and shifts.
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The local football environment is special, the football circle is dominated by the club owner, and the players are weak, which is the root of many problems.
In the past, people in the circle have mentioned the creation of a player association or a union, which is undoubtedly a potential solution, but it has not been achieved for a long time. Why?
Can Hong Kong refer to overseas experience?
What is the position of the FA, the players and the club?
In the next episode, we will discuss it in detail.
Hong Kong Super League Dream FC Hong Kong Football Association R&F International Football Association FIFA