Recognising employee rights and flexibility are not trends unique to football or the world of sport. We’ve seen union action across many industries and employees generally have shifted their priorities and expectations since the pandemic, attaching more importance to flexibility, work-life balance, and company ethics and values.

In football, we’ve seen a number of recent examples of this trend towards greater recognition of the individual’s rights, including:

1. The players’ unions’ challenge to FIFA’s control over the international match calendar, and its decision to expand the Club World Cup.
2. FIFA’s introduction of minimum paid family leave entitlements for female players and coaches.

We briefly summarise these issues and what they might mean for clubs.

Fixture congestion and the claim against FIFA

FIFA unilaterally determines the international match schedule and has recently decided to beef up its Club World Cup into a 32-team summer tournament.

The announcement became the last straw for the PFA and the French players’ union in their ongoing battle against what they see as an unsustainable demand on players to play more and more matches – the two unions have brought a claim against FIFA in the Belgian courts.

The unions have requested that the case be referred to the European Court of Justice to make a preliminary ruling on a number of issues which can be distilled down to the following key questions:

Is FIFA’s unilateral decision-making power in setting the international match calendar anti-competitive and unlawful?

You may recall similar language in respect of the claim brought against FIFA and UEFA in respect of their blocking of the European Super League. While we have not seen the formal legal submissions, FIFPRO’s statement indicates that similar arguments to those used in the Super League case will be made.

Broadly speaking, we expect the unions to argue that the control exerted by FIFA over the international fixture schedule must be exercised in a proportionate manner through the adoption of criteria and procedural rules suitable for ensuring that its discretion is exercised in a transparent, objective and non-discriminatory manner.

The unions are likely to argue that such procedure must involve consultation with the unions (and other stakeholders).

To what extent should FIFA be required to consult players (via the players’ unions) on decisions of this nature?

For clubs and the football authorities, a ‘pro-union’ ruling on questions 1 and 2 may influence the relationship between the PFA and clubs and the football authorities going forwards, as the PFA may look to use it to demand a voice at the table on key decisions at all levels.

In a similar vein, it was interesting to see the PFA use the recent discourse on academy players purportedly being sold to comply with profit and sustainability rules to call for players to be around the table for decisions on matters like financial regulation.

It’s an example of the PFA wanting a voice on matters which don’t directly affect players – at least not as directly as, say, the number of fixtures or wage caps.

At club-level, there may be increased union involvement in player issues. Clubs should be guided by the relevant collective agreements in place between the PFA and the football authorities as to how such issues should be dealt with.

Does FIFA’s Club World Cup infringe the fundamental rights of players, particularly as regards their health and safety and annual leave?

The players’ unions have long advocated for a minimum 28-day break during the close season from the club and national team environment, which the new Club World Cup model represents a further challenge to.

The Standard Playing Contract gives players the right to take at least three consecutive weeks off which, given the schedule during the playing season, would almost always be taken during the close season. However, this right is expressly subject to club and national team commitments.

Players are entitled to annual leave like any other employee and clubs owe a duty to take reasonable care for the health and safety of their players and, so far as reasonably practicable, to ensure their health, safety and welfare at work.

A similar obligation is included in the Standard Playing Contract. Raphael Varane’s comments when he retired from international football in 2023 provide a vivid reminder for clubs to be alive to players struggling with the relentless schedule and their duties as an employer: “The very highest level is like a washing machine: you play all the time and you never stop. We have overloaded schedules and play non-stop. Right now, I feel like I’m suffocating and that the player is gobbling up the man.”

We await the ruling on each of these issues but, regardless of the outcome, they are likely to remain at the forefront of the debate over individual rights for the foreseeable future.

Family leave

FIFA recently extended its minimum paid maternity leave entitlement for female players to female coaches and added complementary adoption and parental paid leave for both groups. They have also introduced further protections around menstrual-related absences.

We discuss these new provisions, as well as their scope and areas for improvement here.

It will be interesting to see whether and how female players and coaches utilise these entitlements, and whether we will see a shift in the approach to pregnancy, maternity, and the return to work.

While there are some examples of players using their maternity rights since FIFA’s minimum entitlement was introduced in January 2021, it’s still relatively uncommon and, while enhanced entitlements are encouraging, the fears many professional sportswomen have about having a child and taking family leave still remain, such as losing fitness and conditioning and falling out of favour.

Clubs should therefore be looking to ensure that players don’t feel that wanting to start a family while still playing football is discouraged. There may be value in dedicated language to that effect in your family leave policies, although what happens on the ground and day-to-day interactions with senior members of staff will be key to how players perceive the club’s attitude on the subject.

This isn’t ‘job done’ for the players’ unions on this front. For example, FIFPRO wants player contracts to be automatically extended (at least to the next transfer window) where they expire during pregnancy or maternity leave. They also want more work to be done by clubs to bring players back into the fold after returning from maternity leave – guidance for clubs on facilitating that return to work, including training programmes, nutrition etc., is expected imminently.

What the new entitlements fail to do, however, is extend leave to male players and coaches (regardless of whether those coaches are in the men’s or women’s game), which we addressed here.

While there’s a clear distinction when it comes to the impact (in every sense of the word) that giving birth has on the mother (and therefore the especial treatment of maternity leave), limiting the enhanced family leave rights to females is unfortunate. Aside from the potential legal issues which arise from having divergent leave policies, if men don’t receive the same paid time off benefits to look after their children, it perpetuates the societal stereotype that it is down to the female to do so. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, FIFPRO are advocating for male players and coaches to obtain corresponding benefits.

Now would therefore be a good time for clubs to review their policies on family leave to ensure compliance with the latest updates, as well as with discrimination law.

How we can support you as the player-rights trend develops

It was only a matter of time until football started to reflect the trend towards greater employee rights and freedoms, which can manifest in any number of ways, from flexible working requests, to family leave, to union involvement in employee relations.

We can assist you to deal with these matters in the unique context of professional sport.

Explore more updates for football clubs in the pre-season edition of Beyond the Game, here.