ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Maurizio Marullo, Giorgio Vagnoni, Francesco Amoresano and Fausto Consolo, LAWP Studio legale e tributario
laboration, unless it is proved that the services of the person involved in sport: • are permanent in nature and exceed 18 hours per week (excluding those for participation in sports events); and • are partly carried out in non-technical/sports aspects. Under the new legislation, exceptions to labour law, as well as certain aspects typical of pro - fessional employment (eg, maximum contract duration, transfers of employees from one club to another, prohibition of non-compete clauses, etc) now apply even to non-professional sport - spersons. Further, all sports employees now benefit from an insurance policy against work accidents and illnesses and also from legislative protections concerning workplace safety, health protection, illness, injury, pregnancy, parenting and unemployment. In relation to social security/ welfare protections, sports employees can regis - ter with the Sports Workers’ Retirement Fund at the National Institute for Social Security ( Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale ) (which can also be accessed by the self-employed if spe - cific conditions are met). Abolition of the “Sports Bond” Another major innovation of the new Sports Reform is the abolition of the “sports bond” for non-professional athletes, thereby granting athletes more freedom to change clubs, while providing clubs with compensation for training young athletes. Article 31 of Legislative Decree No 36/2021 orders the elimination of the sports bond by 1 July 2023 (or 1 July 2025 for renewals of previ - ous memberships). Nevertheless, clubs will be entitled to training compensation whenever one of their young athletes signs their first profes -
sional/amateur sports work contract with anoth - er club. Said compensation shall be distributed propor - tionally to all the training clubs attended by the athlete during their youth based on the duration and the extent of said training. Compensation is calculated based on the athlete’s age and the economic value of the first contract with the new club, with specific criteria set by each federation. 7.2 Employer/Employee Rights Employer/employee relationships are gener - ally regulated by the law and collective agree - ments – stipulated by athletes’, coaches’ and directors’ unions with the relevant federations and leagues – establishing respective rights and obligations. Said rights and obligations may be general (eg, duty of loyalty) or specific (eg, lim - its to the performance of other sports, work or business activities during the contract term) and may vary depending on the sportsperson under consideration. In case of breaches of the collective agreement, the sportsperson may receive sanctions (eg, warnings, fines, salary reduction and, in the most serious cases, compensation for damages and the termination of the contract); while the club may be mandated by the competent panel to stop said breach, compensate damages caused to the counterpart and, in the most serious cas - es, terminate the contract. Disputes on employer/employee relationships are generally referred to dedicated arbitrations (see 6.2 ADR, Including Arbitration ). Disputes involving players often arise from a player’s exclusion from the first team training sessions, mobbing, unpaid salaries, damage to the reputation of the club and/or its man -
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