Governance relationships in football between management and labour. Players, clubs, leagues & national associations.

Building on the two prior CIES governance studies, this is the third FIFA-mandated research analysing governance relationships in football. This book focuses on those between football’s employers (clubs, leagues and even NAs) and its labour force. Based on a sample of forty countries across all six confederations and questionnaires from players’ associations, leagues and national associations, this research surveys and compares the diverse ‘management-labour’ approaches and scenarios in both men and women’s professional football worldwide. The authors place a special focus on players’ associations and highlight the variety of structures found world-wide. The findings here contribute to a better understanding of the systems, models and relationships in place around the globe when it comes to ‘management’ and ‘labour’. This book explores the representation of players within decision-making structures at club, league and national association level as well as the regulatory contexts and negotiation instruments linking players and management - such as collaborative agreements/MoUs, CBAs, minimum contract requirements and dispute resolution. In addition, this study provides a first ever global exploration of some of the inner workings of players’ associations and an overview of the key issues in professional football from the player’s perspective. The final chapter offers several models and frameworks illustrating the governance relationships between players and management. All three authors work at the International Centre for Sport Studies (CIES). Kevin Tallec Marston earned his PhD in history and works as research fellow and academic projects manager. Camille Boillat has a masters in geography and works as a scientific collaborator. Fernando Roitman has masters in economics and sport management and works as a project manager.