MLS kicked off its 2024 season with stand-in referees when Inter Miami and Lionel Messi played Real Salt Lake. I wrote on the CBA negotiations between the trade union representing the referees in MLS, the PSRA, and PRO, the organisation that employs these referees. PRO locked the referees out from the ‘workplace’ in February after negotiations were deadlocked. This negotiation may set a tone for similar negotiations around the world, in football and in other sports, with officiating becoming increasingly professionalised.

Read More

This is a piece on the changes that can be made in the PSL to improve competitive balance, financial sustainability of clubs and employment security for players. I consider the central role that the collective bargaining relationship between SAFPU and the PSL and its clubs plays in bringing about changes in the system.

Read More

The United Soccer League Players Association (USLPA), the trade union representing players in the United Soccer League (USL), is preventing USL Championship clubs from signing international players by refusing to sign “no objection” letters approving these signings.

The decision to place a hold on issuing these letters is a significant power play by the USLPA, with the players’ union currently negotiating a first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the USL and with these talks progressing at what the union will consider an unacceptably slow pace.

Furthermore, the USLPA and the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the largest communications and media trade union in the United States, have recently announced a partnership, aimed at assisting the players’ union in concluding a CBA with the USL.

Read More

In Part 1, we discussed the situation in South African rugby in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the pay cuts implemented across the industry by collective agreement. We covered the unique termination clause which was included in the agreement and the fallout from the opening and closing of the termination window. We analysed the resultant legal questions concerning renegotiation of contracts which arose and highlighted the importance of image rights in contractual relations in local rugby.

In Part 2, the final part of the article, we dissect the novel model for player contracts which has been introduced into the local game, including the new salary caps. The contracting model has brought in new player categories, which have implications for contractual terms, and a revised system for player development and management. One of the primary aims of these changes is to enable the more effective management of players leaving for foreign clubs, in conjunction with improved succession planning. We consider whether these aims will be achieved.

Read More

The South African rugby landscape has changed significantly in a year. In response to Covid-19, Super Rugby in its ordinary format is suspended, test matches are postponed indefinitely and pay cuts and domestic competitions are the order of the day in Sanzaar. In mid-2019, a ground-breaking new model for player contracts, which introduced a salary cap, was agreed to and has since come into force. The primary aim of the new contracting model is to improve the effectiveness of the system, by ensuring financial prudence and better managing the retention and development of talent in South Africa. The situation surrounding the Covid-19-related collective agreement on pay cuts, concluded in April 2020, has grown more nuanced and fascinating from a legal perspective, in the aftermath of the opening and closing of the termination window. This was a 21-day period within which players were able to terminate their contracts to join foreign clubs.

Read More