Some peculiarities of labor regulation of foreign players in Russian Federation

Abstract

FIFA World Cup in 2018 and the creation of a new sports infrastructure have been stimulating interest in foreign professional footballers to participate in Russian competitions by the Russian Football Union, this process will undoubtedly increase. As a consequence, it seems timely to bring the scheme of the peculiarities of the labour regulations currently existing in Russian law: work permission, restrictions on participation in official football competitions and medical examinations. In fact, all of the above requirements for a foreign footballer are not unique and fairly common in legal systems. The practice of the FIFA jurisdictional body (Dispute Resolution Chamber) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is a special vector for the development of such regulation. The key issue in the current law practice is the division of responsibilities to initiate and promote the proper legalization of a professional footballer as a foreign employee in the national legal system. The issue of the restriction on participation in official football competitions is revealed to a greater extent not in the sphere of the practice of sports law enforcement bodies, but through the commitments that the Russian Federation has taken as a result of membership in the Eurasian Economic Union. These obligations also affect the work permit for foreign specialists. Medical examinations for professional football players, aimed to determine the key principle of the inadmissibility of the legality of the employment contract, depending on the results of the medical examination, are regulated by the acts of the International Football Federation (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and the national football federation — the Russian Football Union (RFU). The details of conducting medical examinations of professional football players are regulated by the provisions of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation. With respect to all the questions, the authors will demonstrate their position in the present research.