ECUADOR Law and Practice Contributed by: Santiago José Zambrano Solano, Conlegal Sports
4. Corporate Structures 4.1 Legal Forms of Sporting Bodies
Where a national sports federation or sports club does not receive public funds, the board must respond. The requirements for any person who wishes to become part of the board of a certain club or national sports federation are very basic – they must be an Ecuadorian, be 18 years old or over, and be a member of the sports institution. They are not required to be a professional player or even to have practised the sport in the past. In the case of insolvency of a sports organisation, sanctions will depend on the by-laws of each national sports federation. However, once again, professional football is the only Ecuadorian sport with such dispo - sition, where sanctions include deduction of points or loss of affiliation in the case of insolvency or not complying with a judicial decision. 4.3 Sport Funding Sports funding is decided by the Ecuadorian sports minister and the minister of finance, according to the new Ecuadorian Sports Law. In order to receive resources from the central government, a national sports federation needs to go through a process of determining the good use of national resources in terms of sports benefits, the social impact of the sport and its future development. Every national sports fed - eration that develops amateur sports or professional sports will have to fulfil these requirements. Additionally, national sports federations can obtain their own resources by commercially exploiting the business of sports through organising sports events, ticket sales, broadcasting, summer camps, etc. 5. Intellectual Property, Data and Data Protection 5.1 Trade Marks Trade marks are registered in Ecuador through SENADI ( Servicio Nacional de Derechos Intelectuales ), which is the institution in charge of all intellectual property. The first step in registering a trade mark is to search the existing database to find out if a similar or identical brand/mark is already registered.
The only legal form allowed for sporting bodies in Ecuador is that of a civil non-profit association where any funds generated are reinvested in the club. Sport - ing bodies in Ecuador cannot sell shares or be on the stock market, meaning the structure of a club is very limited. Clubs are largely dependent on sponsor - ship and broadcasting rights because the Ecuadorian legal system does not allow investors to put money into local sports clubs, although this has started to change in the last few years with clubs being taken over through some legal technicality. Football clubs in the LigaPro and Ecuadorian Football Federation are required to be structured as profes - sional clubs, but Ecuadorian Sports Law also allows for other kinds of structures such as: • amateur sport clubs; • high-performance sport clubs; • university sports clubs; • adapted or paralympic sports clubs; and • special regime military and police sports clubs. All such clubs in Ecuador start as an amateur sports club, although high-performance sports clubs are for There are no specific sport corporate governance codes, but according to Ecuadorian Sports Law, sports clubs need to comply with an election process and the members of the board should comply with a programme provided by the Ecuadorian sports minis - ter, although in reality, this has never happened. The Ecuadorian sports minister is in charge of apply - ing the rules of registration of the club’s board and if the process is incorrect, the club will not be able to register with the board, which could result in the club losing its affiliation to the national sports federation. In the last two years, this has become a particular problem for clubs, sports federations and even the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee, due to a lack of regu - lations and ambiguous law. Olympic or semi-professional athletes. 4.2 Corporate Governance Codes
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