Type of contract There are three types of contracts that are important to a footy player.
Footy club contract What about the player’s contract with his club? Well, the agreement with the club is really a contract of employment. The player agrees to play in matches when he is picked, to turn up to training, do what he is told, play exclusively for his club, maintain fitness, wear the club’s official clothes, submit to medical examinations and drug testing, and to agree to participate in promotional activities arranged by the club. This is different to a tennis player who agrees to play in the Australian Open – why? Because a football player is under the control of the club, whereas the tennis player hires his own coach and uses the tennis facilities only temporarily. Reputations and advertisers The common law has protected a person’s reputation for decades – for instance, there are well-established rules of defamation. This prevents comments that tend to lower a person's reputation . What if a football player has his reputation diminished in some way? Does this have any effect on his relationship with an advertiser or sponsor? Look at it from the sponsor’s point of view. Why do they engage a player in the first place? Because they believe the player can help sell their product. So you can see that a sponsor may be very displeased if the player is suddenly in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. How is this relationship regulated? By contract, of course. Cybergame (part 8)
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