لمواكبة تعديلات الـ«FIFA».. إلغاء شرط التفرغ الكلي لاحتراف اللاعبين

The legal academic Hassan Radeef clarified in a special interview with "Okaz" that the amendment to the Professional and Player Status Regulations by the Saudi Football Federation coincided with FIFA's serious efforts to avoid the legal repercussions resulting from the European Court of Justice ruling in the case of former France player Lassana Diarra against FIFA. This amendment aims to align with international standards related to the freedom of transfer. Previously, the burden of proof fell on the club to which the player was transferring, to prove that it did not induce the player to transfer. However, the fundamental principle is that the burden of proof lies with the claimant, which is the club claiming that the club to which the player transferred induced him to break the protected period of his contract and transfer to them. Thus, the previous principle was one of the impossible matters that are difficult to prove, making the club to which the player transferred unable to prove that it did not induce the player to transfer. Here, the ruling would be to suspend the player for a period ranging from four to six months, and also to deprive the club of registration for two consecutive registration periods. The new amendment placed the burden of proof regarding inducement on the claiming club, which is the correct judicial principle in all cases, whether sports-related or otherwise.

Additionally, among the essential amendments is the modification of the identity of professionalism and its conditions to align with the texts of FIFA's Player Status and Transfer Regulations, by abolishing the condition of full dedication for the player. It is worth noting that the previous full dedication condition contradicted the second paragraph of Article 20 of the previous Professional Regulations of the Saudi Football Federation, which defined a professional player as one who has a written contract and receives a salary exceeding actual expenses for his work as a professional player; otherwise, the player is considered an amateur.