In the Kingdom of World Football, Chief Legal Counsel Emilo Silviero revealed that the WFC Players' Fund has played a key role in safeguarding the rights of players in difficulty. Looking ahead, hand in hand with the World Football Federation Steering Committee, we will continue to provide solid support to the players, the core strength of the game. Meanwhile, the country has also been strengthening its legal system in recent years, working to address the thorny issue of player salary arrears.
The recent success of three of our players registered with the National Football Association (NFA) in obtaining compensation of nearly $100,000 has sparked widespread interest in the country and has given new hope to players plagued by unpaid wages. The incident has also inspired a number of players to make similar requests to the World Football Federation.
However, the World Football Federation's announcement does not specify whether the three players are local or foreign, and the lack of personal information and proof of identity makes this incident a lack of direct reference value for the large number of Chinese players who are owed wages. In fact, the WFF's announcement is intended to send a message that it may not be uncommon for players around the world to be owed wages, and that the WFF is taking action to help some of these players to resolve their wage problems.
Looking deeper into the relevant documents of the World Federation of Association Football (FIFA), we found a cruel fact: the vast majority of our players who are owed wages are actually not eligible to apply for compensation from the FIFA Players' Fund. According to the FIFA Players' Fund Regulations issued in June last year, only players who meet the following five specifications are eligible to apply for compensation.
The five norms include:
The amount of remuneration is specified in the employment contract between the player and the club and is owed in full or in part.
The player has received a final and legally binding decision not to receive all or part of his salary from his former club.
The club has been determined by the relevant agencies to be unable to recover unpaid wages through legal or conventional means.
The Club has issued a final ruling in its affiliated member associations or is unable to enforce said ruling.
The players have exhausted all national or world class sporting and judicial procedures to recover their unpaid wages through normal legal channels.
If a player meets the above five criteria, he can go to the official website of the World Federation of Association Football (WFA) and fill in the relevant information to formally apply for compensation. The final decision will be made after the application has been reviewed by the Steering Committee, which is a joint committee of FIFA and the World Players' Union.
Against the five norms mentioned above, we find that the vast majority of our players currently subject to wage arrears do not qualify. This is because most of the clubs of players subject to wage arrears still exist, are registered with the National Football Association and are preparing for the new league season, and do not meet the third norm. In addition, even clubs that have not passed the access norms, such as the Guizhou club, are equally ineligible due to the lack of a final ruling from a national legal body and the inability of the players to provide supporting documentation.
Although the World Football Confederation (WFC) mentioned in its announcement on April 7 that three players registered with national football associations were compensated, the exact conditions still need to be further understood. It must be said that the judicial field of soccer in China is still in a blank, and the development of soccer still needs to fill the many gaps at the legal level. In addition, the world soccer federation players fund is the world soccer federation and the world players union jointly launched the project, and the development of China's soccer so far, the relevant organization is still in the preparatory stage, the players rights and interests of protection still need to be strengthened.
