FREE MOVEMENT/FOOTBALL : TRAINING: ECJ RULES IN FAVOUR OF COMPENSATION FOR CLUBS.

In Case C-325/08 pitting French football club Olympique Lyonnais against Olivier Bernard and English football club Newcastle United, the European Court of Justice recognised, on 16 March, the right for football clubs to seek compensation for a player in training who wants to sign his first professional contract with a club from another EU member state. The amount of this compensation must be determined by taking account of the expenditure borne by the clubs to train the young talent and not of the damage/interest calculated on the basis of the damage suffered by the clubs.

THE CASE

In 1997, Olivier Bernard signed a joueur espoir' [young talent] contract for three seasons with Olympique Lyonnais. Before the date on which this contract was to expire, the club offered him a contract as a professional player for one year, as from 1 July 2000. The player turned down the offer and accepted another offer, in August 2000, proposed by Newcastle United. At the time, the French Professional Football Charter obliged the young talent, aged between 16 and 22, to sign his first contract as a professional player with the club that trained him. If he were to refuse, he would be open to a three-year ban from signing a contract with another French club without the consent of the club that trained him.

JUSTIFIED RESTRICTION

The ECJ notes that the regime that forces a young talent to sign his first contract as a professional player with the club that trained him (or face damages/interest) constitutes a...