CANADA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Janie Soublière, Soublière Sport Law
compensation and revenue redistribution, etc, in relation to each of these professional sports. Without totally reiterating what was said last year, there is little doubt that the growth of women’s professional team sports in North America, and notably of the Women’s Professional Hockey and Soccer Leagues in Canada continue to have tremendous impact in Canadian sport law. The sustained growth of women’s professional team sports in Canada creates new revenue streams and has escalated the need for regulation, mar - keting, sponsorship rights, broadcasting rights, image rights, agency rules, and the like. Whilst not currently being dealt with predominantly by Canadian lawyers, the persisting emergence of this market continues to create opportunities for sport law lawyers in Canada. Based on recent experience, the sustained growth of Men’s Professional Soccer in Cana - da, and the many repercussions linked to this growth, can be highlighted as a current trend and development. The Canadian Premier League (CPL) continues to grow and attract quality football (soccer) play - ers from all corners of the world. This inevita - bly brings a variety of opportunities and legal challenges for Canadian lawyers, notably from an employment-law perspective. The updates brought to the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) further to and alongside the worldwide impact and ramifica - tion of the European Court of Justice’s Diarra judgement (Lassana Diarra and FIFPRO v FIFA and URBSFA Case C-650/22) which will impact player transfers worldwide, are surely to have some impact on foreign nationals playing in Can - ada, even if in the case of the former the impact will be indirect. Current employment laws vary by province and territory, have not been draft -
ed with the interest of professional footballers in mind, and are not more favourable per se to players than applicable Federation Internation - ale de Football Association (FIFA) regulations. In addition, and more importantly, the CPL has not yet concluded a first collective bargaining agree - ment with the PFA: Professional Footballers Association Canada | AFP Association des foot - balleuses et footballeurs professionnels Canada. Due to these factors, it will be interesting to see how various contractual issues involving foreign nationals who wish to be transferred to other international clubs whilst playing for Canadian Provincial clubs will unravel and be resolved, be it by way of the CPL Commissioner, the Canada Soccer Association dispute resolution mecha - nism, civil courts or (most likely) that of FIFA. Will the obligation to pay compensation for breach of contract as well as the imposition of sporting sanctions remain in force in accordance with the RSTP in such cases? Will the anticipated PFA Collective Bargaining Agreement resolve some or all potential legal issues related to terminating contracts for just cause? FIFA’s proposed interim changes to the RSTP transfer rules will certainly have an impact on CPL players. The conclusion of a first Collective Bargaining Agreement will also be instrumental in reducing legal challenges within this presently murky and grey area. This is a remarkably inter - esting development worth following in Canada. Upcoming Changes to Canada’s SafeSport The Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS) is the core document that sets harmonised rules to be adopted by sport organisations that receive funding from the government of Canada to advance a respectful sport culture that delivers Mechanism The UCCMS
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