PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Miguel Santos Almeida, Maria Novo Baptista and João Saúde, Sérvulo & Associados
tions and accountability standards under Portuguese employment law. An example of the latter is the Portugal League “no- poach” dispute (footballers’ employment contracts). In April 2020, the Portuguese Professional Football League and the First and Second League football clubs adopted a rule/understanding that no club would hire a player who unilaterally terminated their employment contract citing COVID-19 impacts, effec - tively restricting players’ ability to obtain new employ - ment. The Portuguese Competition Authority inter - vened, ordering the league to immediately suspend the measure (precautionary measure, 25 May 2020); it later issued a sanctioning decision finding an unlawful restriction of the labour market, and fined the league and 31 clubs. 7.3 Free Movement of Athletes In Portugal, governing bodies are largely prevented from imposing caps on the number of foreign athletes competing in sports tournaments due to a combina - tion of constitutional, labour, EU and competition law principles. As a member state of the EU, Portugal is bound by the EU principle of free movement of work - ers, which prohibits restrictions based on nationality for EU and European Economic Area (EEA) athletes. Consistent with the foregoing, Portuguese labour law forbids limiting access to employment or professional activity on the grounds of nationality, meaning that rules restricting participation by foreign athletes would generally be unlawful. Thus, any attempt by a sports governing body to introduce nationality-based quotas could be challenged under Portuguese and EU com - petition law, particularly where such measures restrict competition or the free movement of workers. For athletes from outside the EU, participation is not limited by sporting quotas as such, but by immigration and visa requirements. Non-EU athletes must hold an appropriate residence visa or residence permit for professional activity, typically linked to an employment contract with a Portuguese club or organisation. Sports organisations usually act as sponsors in the immigration process, and compliance with immi - gration law is required before the athlete can work
and compete in Portugal. Once lawful residence and work authorisation are granted, non-EU athletes are not subject to nationality-based participation caps under Portuguese law, although practical limitations may arise from immigration procedures and timelines rather than from sporting regulations themselves. 8. Women’s Sport 8.1 Development and Growth of Women’s Sport Women’s sport has developed and grown over recent years in Portugal. Specifically in football, the Portu - guese sports federations and the Portuguese sports companies have been increasingly investing in this modality. In June 2024, recognising the physical, psychologi - cal and social differences between male and female players, the Portuguese Football Federation internally adopted with immediate effects the several amend - ments to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players made by FIFA in May 2024, which aim to extend the rights of female players in terms of mater - nity and well-being. Among the measures adopted by FIFA and trans - posed into the Portuguese context is the clarification of the rights of players in the event of maternity, reit - erating that players who become pregnant during the term of their employment contract have the right to: • continue to provide their professional activity and receive their full remuneration; • request the provision of alternative services to sporting activity; and • take paid sick leave in the event of medical compli - cations associated with pregnancy (which includes early termination of pregnancy). As for statistics, women’s football has successively broken attendance records, most notably the match between SL Benfica and Sporting CP on 26 March 2023, which attracted more than 27,000 spectators at the Estádio da Luz, as well as the Super Cup Final on 13 September 2023, which achieved an average television audience of 1.045 million viewers and was
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