China Super League (soccer league)
Beacon is on the rise, but the plight of players' unpaid wages follows them like a shadow. Rong Hao, Yin Hongbo and other players microblogging salary, stirred up a wide range of discussions in the industry and society. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, unpaid wages in the
China Super League (soccer league)
It has become a widespread problem. If effective measures are not taken, the negative impact of this potential time bomb, once detonated, will be difficult to predict.
What kind of a mess is this? How can we untangle this mess?
2021.
China Super League (soccer league)
Clubs are struggling, and lawsuits submitted to the CFA Arbitration Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Arbitration Committee), the highest body of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) that deals with work disputes, are at an all-time high. In the past decade, Chinese soccer has been in a money-burning mode, coupled with a strict vetting of the entry mechanism, and disputes over unpaid wages in the
China Super League (soccer league)
Relatively few.
However, an epidemic and the introduction of salary restrictions led to the re-signing of player contracts and a large number of disputes arose. The amount of disputes and the complexity of the materials have increased dramatically from individual lawsuits in the past to collective lawsuits by clubs. 2021 season's Arbitration Committee not only has to organize all the case files, but also to determine which cases can be filed and which ones cannot be filed on insufficient grounds, and explain the reasons to the applicants, which is a huge amount of work.
Under these circumstances, the Arbitration Commission has adopted the principle of categorizing and prioritizing litigation. Priority is given to players who wish to be free so that they can transfer early to find a team due to unpaid wages, and a judgment on the player's status is given first without delaying the player's search for his next home, and the question of when the unpaid wage dispute will be compensated is left to be resolved at a later date.
As for those players who do not want to end their contracts or who are still in the contract period to recover their past salary arrears, they are hung up for the time being and no judgment will be made. In addition, a considerable number of grievances from players who were forcibly laid off by their clubs and had difficulty in finding a replacement, and who wished to continue to fulfill their contracts or to receive due compensation in accordance with their contracts, have also not been given a final judgment. As to when the results will be available, according to the Arbitration Commission, as long as they are given within six months of the start of the arbitration process, they are in line with the regulations.
However, even international players like Rong Hao and Yin Hongbo are facing pressure to live due to unpaid wages, and other players, especially many of those at the bottom of the ladder, are suffering even more. Faced with huge pressure to repay, many players don't even know if they can continue to live in the house before the arbitration result comes out, or the house will be taken away by the bank before they can recover the unpaid wages.
Rong Hao revealed that former TEDA boss Stielike got his unpaid salary due to his appeal to FIFA. This is not an isolated case.
China Super League (soccer league)
A lot of foreign aid and coaches have left this year, most of them parted ways amicably, and unless the compensation was huge, the settlement was usually clear.
Clubs deal with the issue of foreign aid in different ways. As long as clubs still want to bring in foreign aid or are not considering quitting this season, they have to plug the salary loopholes owed to foreign aiders and coaches, and it is necessary to do so. But the money of Chinese players, can be owed first, this is why?
The reason is very simple, in addition to foreign aid and foreign coach can appeal to FIFA, more importantly, FIFA has a fatal killing move in hand, once the club does not cooperate with the maintenance of the integrity of the contract, it will be able to restrict the defaulting clubs in the transfer, not in the introduction of foreign aid on the issuance of permits, in which case, the road to replace the foreign aid is blocked, and the Chinese Football Association does not dare to violate the ban of the FIFA, in the domestic transfer market will also be Restrictions will be imposed. Because of this, the Jinmen Tigers have paid back the money owed to Strikers, and only in the summer window did Jin Yangyang and others join the team, otherwise, the road to attracting reinforcements is blocked, and it may be more difficult for them to stay in the relegation.
The reason why Chinese players' money clubs are not in a hurry to pay back, in addition to the Chinese players can not appeal to FIFA, more importantly, the strength of the Chinese players themselves, as well as indispensable and irreplaceable, far less than foreign aid. A few years ago, when the transfer market burned the most money, some clubs signed a lot of sky-high contracts, sober up to the investor's inability and unwillingness to continue to pay the bill, especially after the retreat of some investors, the remaining plate no one to pick up, signed the contract has also become a hot potato.
Of the cases that the Arbitration Commission has taken up in the current year, a number of them are based on very clear grounds that they are separate breaches of contract and that the clubs should be compensated, but in many cases, the Arbitration Commission has not been able to adjudicate on them.
Why? The reason is very simple. As there are several clubs and the wage arrears are extensive, it is impossible that only one case will be awarded but not the others. The Arbitration Committee has also exchanged views with the clubs with salary arrears, and many of them have revealed that they will not rule out the possibility of quitting once they have been awarded the need to fully compensate for the salary arrears. If they are unable to make repayments and have to opt for bankruptcy and liquidation, then some of the existing players, who will face unemployment, may be in a worse situation.
The league is underway, and if there is a mishap at this point, and if a team quits as a result, it will have a negative impact on the integrity of the league, the long-term interests of most of the players, the interests of the league's sponsors, and the overall image of China's professional leagues.
It can be said that any judgment involves one hair and affects the whole body, so many cases, except for the complaints of Rong Hao and Zheng Kaimu, which have not been followed up for more than two months, as well as the complaints of some domestic coaches and players, have likewise sunk without a trace.
Contract is reality, arrears of wages is also reality, shortage of funds, can not sustain high salary payment is also reality. Players to defend their rights and interests is right, but the club can not get so much money right now to pay out is also a reality, confrontation, how to solve?
According to the FIFA 2021 Regulations on Player Status and Transfers, the contract section is described as "firmly upholding the integrity of the contract, a valid contract can only be terminated in two ways, the first is the expiry of the contract, and the second is the termination of the contract after consultation between the two parties with the consent of both parties." From the player's point of view, the contract can be terminated with just cause (but must pay the corresponding financial compensation), and the player contract has a protection period, the player and the club, regardless of which party, in the protection period for non-just cause breach of contract termination, will be subject to the corresponding economic and athletic double punishment.
But it was all built in a time when the soccer market was great, the rules were perfect, and investors were clamoring to get into the game, and we all took our contracts particularly seriously. For many nowadays
China Super League (soccer league)
As far as the club is concerned, there is nothing more important than staying alive, and as far as reputation, morality, and the spirit of the contract are concerned, they have been put aside for the time being.
At the beginning of the year there are a number of teams, directly tell the player to terminate the contract without any communication, according to the labor contract law (hereinafter referred to as the contract law), according to the player's length of service in the club, every year will be given to one month's salary compensation, less than six months according to six months. That is to say a player who has played in the club for two years and still has three years of contract left to complete, can only get his two months salary compensation is necessary to leave. For the player's complaint that the direct termination of the contract is unreasonable, the club believes that the player has been given free agency, which is the maximum compensation.
If you follow this logic, all contracts can actually be voided at any time, as long as the club gives the player free agency by the way annual salary converted to months of salary compensation.
However, it is clear that the Arbitration Commission does not recognize such a theory, after all, the CFA has to comply with FIFA's working standards in everything, and the contracts of professional players have to comply with the labor law (because the labor law is the supreme law), but it can not be copied in full accordance with the model of the contract law (because the labor law is in a general sense, and the law is weaker than the special law in a specific field of work, which is the soccer circle as a special field).
Soccer players are not like workers in the general sense, ordinary workers do not have a special window to find a job, soccer players in the search for work and channels and time have too much specificity, therefore, if everything copied the contract law judgment of the Chinese players' contracts, it is clear that the work of FIFA standards run counter to each other. Although the Chinese players can not be appealed to FIFA, but if the judgment on the black and white is really only in accordance with the general sense of the contract law and completely disregard the special characteristics of the work of the judgment, once the exposure, the arbitration committee will become the laughing stock of the entire world soccer world.
The Arbitration Commission and the clubs also disagree to varying degrees on termination and liquidated damages, and it's not clear who can convince whom, so many cases are then delayed indefinitely to give a final judgment.
However, the players were not aware of all this, so many of them openly demanded their salaries on the Internet and denounced the inaction of the Arbitration Commission, but the matter was not as simple as the players thought. When we understand all this, we will find that this is not something that can be solved by the Arbitration Commission alone, and better mechanisms and rules are needed to prevent more similar incidents from happening in the future.
So, will the unpaid wages just drag on and not be resolved? Perhaps for the sake of livelihood and rice bowls, active players will bear the humiliation, or perhaps the two sides will reach a deferred discount payment agreement to settle the matter. However, for those whose income is not high, and has retired and is owed wages for the players, who will do justice? Obviously, can only rely on the CFA, the condition is that they are willing to assume this responsibility.
This time, the large salary arrears, not only to solve some controversial contract issues, but more importantly, to remove some of the risks, so that the salary to return to rationality, so that the future will not happen similar incidents, damage the image of Chinese soccer.
In fact, a large part of the players were forgotten, including former players of Liaozhu, Qianzhao, and Beyond clubs, who had paid, but their salaries and hard-earned money had been owed, and with the disappearance of the clubs, this group of players became the victims, the District Court refused to accept the petition on the grounds that there was an agreement in the contract that disputes could only be resorted to the working associations; and the CFA said that the target of the lawsuit was no longer a working member, and that it lacked the The CFA said that the target of the lawsuit was no longer a working member and lacked the power to enforce the law and could not do justice. Therefore, they have no way to complain.
Obviously, there are flaws in the rules of work, and the cost of default by clubs is so low that some investors come in and out "at will", and after accomplishing their own purposes of acquiring land, doing advertisements or other commercial purposes, they leave behind a trail of chicken feathers and run away. Now, many clubs are carrying out shareholding reforms, in addition to sharing the pressure of investment, but also to monitor investors.
As a working association, CFA should make adjustments to its entry qualifications and default costs to minimize the continued unchecked generation of irrational investments that lead to hasty exits and then bring significant losses to practitioners who are not at fault for their work, or even to the work as a whole.
On the current situation, the CFA Arbitration Committee should negotiate with the clubs and players, so that the two sides calmly communicate, can be reconciled best; from the players' point of view, should also be appropriate to understand the clubs, looking at the overall situation, I believe that most of the disputes, can be resolved.
