Role of Policy and Legislature in Experiences in Sports Employment Paper Example

Policy and legislation are crucial in reigning order to virtually all fields, sports included. The modern-day sports industry is an intricate structure involving multiple dynamics ranging from discrimination and racism, big money in the sector, transfers, and contracts among other factors. The sports industry has also provided an avenue for employment of talented persons to earn from their talents and also other supporting staff to run supporting activities like technology, marketing, and training. The employees running the supporting activities operate under the normal employment laws. On the other hand, the sportsmen and women representing the sporting entities in the actual sporting activities, there is a need to develop further measures and legislation to facilitate their employment. Therefore, employment in sports is a factor that requires sound policy and administration to ensure there are clear guidelines for the players and the sporting entities they represent. It is, therefore, imperative to explore the different ways in which policy and legislature impact on sports regarding employment.

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Employment contracts in sports are tools applied in setting out the rules of engagement between a player and the sporting institution for which they represent. A player can enter into a contract with institution directly, but the norm is that an agent representing the player undertakes negotiations on behalf of the player on different aspects of the contract (Welch, 2017). Also, player contracts are attainable from collective agreements between the sport's governing body and the players' union groups. Sound policy and legislative agenda ensure that the employment contracts are binding for both the players and the club they are representing thereby providing security to both parties from getting disadvantaged by the other. It is through the contract that the club extends its requirements from the player such as exclusivity, discipline, and fitness. This is ensured for the entire period while the player is guaranteed payment and bonuses. The club and governing bodies are at liberty of disciplining its players by imposing ban and fines for cases of indiscipline that is stipulated in their contracts. For instance, the Nuggets' Nikola Jokic was fined 25000 dollars by NBA for discriminatory remarks (Maloney, 2018). This illustrates a case where policies are important in governing players behavior in sports.

Besides the employment of players through clubs, players also get a chance to liaise with sports brands like Puma, and Nike for marketing purposes through established policies. Given the competitive nature of these brands, contracts play a considerable role in setting out the working relationship between the player and the brand considering that the brand in agreement with the club may be different. The operation of all the entities needs to be coherent to facilitate a good working relationship between the entities. For instance, Nike is the kit supplier for Barcelona (AFP, 2016), while Messi, a Barcelona player is in a lifetime marketing contract with Adidas (Nelson, 2017). The employment contract between Messi and Barcelona and the contract between Messi and Adidas need be in sync to avoid a breach of either of the deals. This demonstrates that sound policy and legislation come in handy to ensure that such a relationship is coherent and accommodated in the sports industry to allow for a seamless operating relationship between the club, the player and the sports brands.

Sports is also involved in indirectly offering employment to individuals which implies raising their chances of better employment through the sports scholarship provided by different universities to talented students who are also relatively good in academics. Sports employment is common in the United States where colleges and universities offer scholarships based on the student's capability of playing a sport. The scholarships are also handed by some businesses and organizations to reward student-athletes as depicted by Mousavi et al. (2011). Once a student has been assessed and identified to qualify for the award, there has to be an agreement between the institution handing over the scholarship and the student on rules of engagement in the course of the scholarship. In this regard, the policy and legislation chips in to ensure that the student gets the academic support from the institution. Conversely, the institution is guaranteed of sporting services from the student during the period of their scholarship. At the end of the process, the student has their sporting abilities horned further gifting them a shot on performing sports at a professional level. If this does not work out, the student will still have their academic credentials that will offer alternative employment.

Policy and legislation come in handy in facilitating a productive relationship between the institutions offering the scholarships and the students receiving the scholarship. There are myriads of possibilities that can occur after the sponsorship is offered. For instance, the student may get injured while practicing, and the student may feel they need to concentrate more on their studies among other possibilities. In essence, the possibilities imply that there needs to be sound policy coupled with legislation to anticipate the incidents and provide the way forward that is both fair to the student and the institution. In this regard, policies are formulated by bodies like NCAA in maintaining intercollegiate athletics as a crucial part of the education system and student body by a fair consideration of the student needs and those of the institution.

Sport governing bodies in different countries formulate policies which spell out the ratio of local players to foreign players employed by a given club. Such policies are aimed at developing local talent so that it grows with the growth of the sports industry. In the process of doing this, the governing bodies stipulate the minimum number of local players that are employable by the local clubs. Such a limit is essential where the sport is internationally huge hence the possibility of foreign players eclipsing the local players is enormous. For instance, in England, premier league clubs are required to name a twenty-five-man first team squad. Eight of the players have to be homegrown putting a limit of the foreign players to a maximum of seventeen (Mariner, 2016). Such policies have numerous effects ranging from growth of local players and local game to improving employment prospects of the local players.

The FA introduced the player limit policy to encourage the growth of young football players by offering them more opportunities with a long-term goal of strengthening the English national football team. In this regard, the manager will have a wider pool of players from which to choose the team. Therefore, the action also impacts on the employment of local players as their importance to local clubs is increased and so is their potential to become better players after the resulting increased concentration on their growth. In MLS on the other hand, US-based clubs have no limit to the number of US domestic players while Canada based clubs are required to have at all times on their roster a minimum of three local players (MLS Communications, 2018). It is, therefore, evident that through policies the players employed by clubs can be controlled by the governing bodies.

Like in every other form of employment, in sports there is a change of employer that is clubs, for the player once in a while. Policies and legislature come in handy to facilitate a smooth change of employers from one club to the other or from one sporting brand to the other. Basically, through policies and legislature, it is widely accepted all over the world that players are to change clubs over the transfer window. A player under contract with a given club cannot move to another club until their deal is over or another clubs negotiates for their transfer with the player's club where they will pay a transfer fee and the player move to the other club during the transfer window.

Negotiations with another club, however, are restricted by the tapping up regulations. While in other forms of employment it is generally okay for an employee to negotiate employment terms while still working for another institution, in football tapping up regulations prohibit a player to negotiate transfer terms with another club without their club's permission if the contract period remaining is more than six months as per FIFA regulations (O'Toole, 2018). These regulations are tighter in England where a player is not allowed to be in contact with another club while still contracted by another club without the player's club consent. These regulations promote loyalty of the player towards their clubs by providing an environment that enables them to give more to their clubs during the contract period.

Change of clubs while out of contract is simple as the club the player is transferring to, is not required to pay a transfer fee a situation that was realized after the Bosman Ruling (Brand, 2015). The ruling triggered FIFA to change its rules in April 1997 to allow any player to move to other clubs within European Union on a free transfer on expiry of their contracts (Duval & Van Rompuy, 2016). In regards to ambassadorial contracts players usually wait for the contract period to expire before changing brands or renewing before the contract time is up. This trend is since the ambassadorial contracts are less demanding and the implications of canceling the contracts would result in undue complications. It is for these reason that most of them run their full length or are renewed before their expiry time.

Conclusion

From the various illustrations, it is evident that policy and legislature play a crucial role in the diverse experiences in sports in regards to employment. It is through the building of sound policies and legislation that clubs are guided on the process of contacting players in different fields of sports and the contracting process. The bare minimum requirements in the contract are stipulated by the policies and regulations to allow for a smooth relationship between the player and the club. On employment by the club through the agreement, the policies and legislation further provide guidelines on containing disagreements that may occur during the employment period. Change of clubs that is synonymous to change of employers is generally a complicated affair for players as it involves the three entities agreeing for the transfer to succeed. But through policies and legislation set by the governing bodies, the process is well defined with all the different possible scenarios well thought out. The policies and legislation are in this regard vital to the sports fraternity in the section of employment.

References

AFP, 2016. Barcelona confirm record kit deal with Nike. SkySports. Available at: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11833/10637904/barcelona-confirm-record-kit-deal-with-nike [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].

Brand, G., 2015. How the Bosman rule changed football - 20 years on. SkySport. Available at: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10100134/how-the-bosman-rule-changed-football-20-years-on [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].

Duval, A., and Van Rompuy, B., 2016. The Legacy of Bosman: Revisiting the Relationship Between EU Law and Sport. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-120-3.

Maloney, J., 2018. Nuggets' Nikola Jokic fined $25,000 by the NBA for 'derogatory and offensive language'. CBS Sports. Available at: https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nuggets nikola-jokic-fined-25000-by-the-nba-for-derogatory-and-offensive-language/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018]

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