ECUADOR Law and Practice Contributed by: Santiago José Zambrano Solano, Conlegal Sports
cial purposes and will therefore have an impact on spectators. 5.8 Data Protection The data protection law in Ecuador is very recent, and it has not so far been used in a sports context relating to athletes, clubs, sporting bodies, spectators or fans.
The autonomy given to each sport’s governing body is recognised by the international sports federation and accepted by the Ecuadorian sports minister. Howev - er, in recent years the Ecuadorian sports minister has intervened in the affairs of different national sports federations when they have not complied with certain regulations under the Ecuadorian Sports Law. If a party wishes to appeal a decision they can do so before the appeal tribunal of the same sports federa - tion, or present an appeal to the international sports federation or CAS, both of which are accepted under the Ecuadorian Sports Law. 7. Employment Contracts and Rights 7.1 Sports-Related Employment Contracts Relationships between sports organisations and play - ers are usually handled in a very informal way, as many club owners do not like to negotiate with agencies, or prefer to work with one particular agent. This man - ner of handling relationships with players, where most club owners prefer to skip any communication with agencies to save money on the contract, has not been good for communication or building relationships. As mentioned previously, in Ecuador the only profes - sional sport is football, so football players are the only athletes that must be employed by a club. Most of the contracts for players include labour law clauses and just a few sports law clauses because it is com - mon to use a single template of a contract for multiple purposes. Salary caps are not enforced in Ecuador; only the min - imum income for a professional player is stipulated. It is common for mistakes to be made in drawing up these employment contracts, particularly when it comes to buy-out clauses, which can often make it very complicated to negotiate an international transfer. 7.2 Employer/Employee Rights As football is the only professional sport in Ecuador, rules regarding employers and employees are only applicable to football. In other sports, there is no obli -
6. Dispute Resolution 6.1 Role of National Court Systems
The national court system in Ecuador has relegated disputes concerning sports bodies because of the delayed processes, the lack of specific sports law knowledge, corruption and many other concerns about the national judicial system. Instead, each national sports federation has the com - petence to create an independent dispute resolution chamber which can decide on topics related to sports law, such as labour contracts, contractual relation - ships with clubs, and training compensation, among many others. Disputes are settled in the dispute reso - lution chamber and are not referred to the national courts. 6.2 ADR Mechanisms Lack of trust in the regular judicial system, coupled with the possibility of gaining quick results in certain legal areas, have made arbitration an attractive option in Ecuador. The two best-known arbitration centres are in Guayaquil and Quito, but there is at least one arbitration centre in each of the most important cities of Ecuador. According to Ecuadorian Sports Law, arbitration is recognised in sports disputes, but there is no dedi - cated arbitration chamber for this purpose. The only sport that has therefore implemented arbitration to date is football, and only because FIFA requested this. 6.3 Sanctions, Remedies and Challenges The power of sports governing bodies to enforce sporting or financial sanctions in Ecuador is estab - lished in their statutes and detailed in every discipli - nary code of the sporting body, approved by their affiliated members and by the Ecuadorian Sports Law.
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