PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Miguel Santos Almeida, Maria Novo Baptista and João Saúde, Sérvulo & Associados
• the award was made for a dispute not covered by the arbitration agreement or contained decisions that went beyond the scope of the agreement; • the arbitral court awarded a higher amount than the amount claimed or made an award on a matter other than the matter claimed, or considered mat - ters that it should not have considered; and • the content of the award violated the principles of international public policy of the Portuguese State. 7. Employment Contracts and Rights 7.1 Sports-Related Employment Contracts In Portugal, the relationship between sports organisa - tions and professional players is generally structured as an employment relationship, with athletes classi - fied as employees under Law No 54/2017, supple - mented by the Labour Code. Contrary to the general rule set out in the Labour Code, athletes’ employment contracts must be made in writing and are subject to mandatory registration with the relevant sports federation. The law requires these contracts to identify the parties, specify remu - neration, define the sporting activity, and indicate the start date and duration. Contract terms are usually limited to a minimum of one sports season and a maximum of five seasons, reduced to three seasons for minor athletes. An athlete’s employment contract may be terminated in the following situations: • expiry of the contract; • termination by mutual agreement; • termination for cause (by the club or by the ath - lete); • termination without cause (at the athlete’s initia - tive); • termination during a trial period; and • collective dismissal. In the event of termination for cause, the party that causes the termination or that has unduly promoted it must indemnify the counterparty for the value of the remuneration that the athlete would have been due if the employment contract had been terminated at its
term. A higher level of compensation is possible, how - ever, where the injured party proves that the damage suffered is of a higher amount. Athletes are free to terminate the contract without cause, subject to payment to the employer of com - pensation fixed for that purpose (termination clause). In this context, salary caps are not common. On another note, there is no sport-specific com - petition law regime in Portugal, so general national and EU competition rules apply, including the Portu - guese Competition Act and Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Issues such as restraints of trade and anti-competitive conduct are assessed under these frameworks, with particular scrutiny on no-poach agreements between clubs by the Portuguese Competition Authority. 7.2 Employer/Employee Rights In Portugal, employer–employee rules apply to sports governing bodies and sports organisations through a layered legal framework that combines specialised sports legislation, general labour law and sector- specific dispute mechanisms. Rules and regulations issued by international or national sports governing bodies may be incorporated into athletes’ contracts, but only in so far as they comply with mandatory pro - visions of Portuguese law; any contractual or regula - tory clause that conflicts with statutory labour protec - tions will be invalid. Portuguese law also allows employment conditions in sport to be shaped through collective bargaining agreements, provided that these agreements grant athletes more favourable conditions than those estab - lished by statute. In this context, sports governing bodies may incur liability when acting as employers or when exercis - ing public or regulatory powers, such as disciplinary or supervisory functions. In such cases, federations are solely liable for damage caused by acts involving slight fault committed by their employees or agents, and are jointly and severally liable with the individual concerned where the act involves intent or serious fault. This framework ensures that sports govern - ing bodies remain subject to core employer obliga -
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