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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn a previous story, we highlighted that when a football club acquires the services of a football player, this is essentially a contract of employment between the club and the player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can read more about that here: 826 SA-based footballers have been involved in transfer market activity since 2019<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n From an employment perspective, if the players are employees of the club, and the club [the employer] is sold to someone else, the new owner steps into the shoes of the old owner, said Nombulelo Myeni<\/a>, a labour and employment law associate at Johannesburg-based law firm Lawtons Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere can be some changes to the employment conditions, but what would typically happen is that when the new owner steps into the shoes of the old one, they adopt all the obligations that come with those [existing employment] contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only does the new employer get the old employer\u2019s players as part of the sale, it also gets the club\u2019s status in the DStv premiership, providing a quick loophole to get \u2018new\u2019 teams into the 16-team league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the 2019\/20 season, two DStv Premiership clubs were sold, affecting 79 players:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three DStv Premiership clubs were sold, affecting 121 players, by the end of the 2020\/21 season:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that five of the Premier Soccer League\u2019s (PSL\u2019s) top-flight teams, over a quarter of the DStv Premiership teams in each season, have been sold to new owners during this period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sale of football clubs is not rare in world football, however in South Africa, players have to contend with the added layer of the new owners possibly renaming and relocating their clubs \u2013 a common occurrence in the PSL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every team sold since 2019\/20, had a squad size of about 40 players each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the five clubs that were sold during this time, only one, AmaZulu, was not renamed and relocated to another city, meaning that its 45 contracted players were able to continue, uninterrupted, with the initial agreements that they had signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the rest of the players in the remaining four clubs that were sold \u2013 who make up about a quarter (155) of the league\u2019s total average players during this time \u2013 they have had to make other arrangements to meet their contractual obligations in another city, under a new club name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Basic Condition of Employment Act states that the place of employment is often a fundamental term of the employment contract and is one of the particulars that an employer is required to provide to an employee, in writing, at the commencement of employment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was highlighted by Myeni, along with labour and employment law consultant Lavery Modise<\/a>, and commercial litigation associate Clinton Mphahlele<\/a> \u2013 who are all attorneys at Lawtons Africa \u2013 in their jointly written article about football club sales, which you can read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The firm is involved in several aspects of sports law, including football club sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically, Myeni told The Outlier<\/em>, a player\u2019s contract will provide for relocation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But if, \u201cfor some odd reason\u201d, that provision has not been accommodated in the contract, and the player insists on not relocating, there would have to be discussions around how the player and the club can mutually separate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One player not wanting to relocate is not reason enough to stop the entire commercial transaction from taking place, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Labour Relations Act, the transfer [of ownership] should not negatively impact the contracts of the employees, who in this case would be the players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She explained that this is how the Act ensures that those players are protected in terms of what their initial contracts provided for, and that all those obligations are fulfilled by the new owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf there are changes to the terms and conditions of employment, those terms and conditions cannot be less favourable to the players, than what they were with the previous owners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Myeni, Modise, and Mphahlele also write in their article that dismissals for reasons related to a transfer of a business are automatically unfair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And in these circumstances, the affected footballers and other employees employed by the football club bought by a new owner, will have legal recourse should they be dismissed for reasons related to the sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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How have players been affected by club sales in this time?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat other options do affected players have when the sale of a club involves relocation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n