The Bleuets coach is struggling to obtain the agreement of certain professional football clubs to release the players selected for the France team to participate in the next Olympic Games in Tokyo (July 22 - August 7). This is an opportunity to recall the current regulations regarding the provision of national selections and to explain why French clubs are not not obliged, insofar as FIFA does not include the Olympics in its international calendar, to let their players join the French team for the Olympic Games.
The provision of the French team of professional players, employees of a football club
In accordance with articles L. 131-15 and R. 132-10 of the Sports Code, it is up to the delegated sports federations, having received from the French legislator the mission of organizing the competitions on the national territory as well as that of selecting the corresponding teams, to proceed to "the selection and management of teams bearing the name of the French Team".
The decisions to select players for national teams by the federations delegated to public service missions thus proceed from the implementation of the prerogatives of public power and “therefore have the character of administrative acts"(Council of State, April 8, 2013, n ° 351735).
Obviously, and a fortiori in the world of professional football, the selected players are also employees of their employer clubs. The National Collective Sport Agreement (CCNS) provides details on the legal relationships that may therefore arise between the sports federation, the player and his employing club.
Thus, during the periods of availability, the employment contract between the player and the club is not suspended:
"The athlete (...) is then deemed to fulfill with the federation a mission entrusted by his employer in respect of his salaried activities, and for which he retains all of his employee rights." (CCNS article 12.12)
L'Article L. 222-3 of the Sports Code also recalls that a salaried athlete:
"retains his status as an employee of the sports association or society during the period of provision, as well as the rights attached to this status."
The player benefits in particular from the compensation scheme for industrial accidents in the event of an accident occurring during the time of the provision.
What are the conditions for making football players available for national selections?
The obligation to make it available for ... the meetings scheduled in international calendar set by FIFA
It is up to the delegated sports federation and to the professional league that it has set up to specify "the conditions under which athletes are made available to teams bearing the name of "France Team" (Article R. 132-11 of the Sports Code).
It is therefore necessary to refer to the Agreement between the French Football Federation (FFF) and the Professional Football League (LFP) to find out how these bodies intended to define the conditions of provision.
It is article 13 of this Convention which provides under which conditions the member clubs of the LFP (clubs with professional status) have the obligation to make their salaried players available to the FFF:
« 1. Sports groups LFP members are required to put their players to the disposition full FFF about conditions provided for by the FIFA Regulations et the provisions of General Regulations of the FFF for disputed matches by all national selections within the framework of the international calendar set by FIFA. (...) »
The availability obligation therefore only concerns matches played (planned) within the framework of the FIFA international calendar.
Sanctions in the event of refusal of selection
Article 175 (Obligations of selected players) of General regulations of the FFF specifies:
"1. Any player selected for a training camp, a preparation match, a selection match or an international match is at the disposal of the Federation. (...) ".
Also, the club and / or the professional player who refuses the selection is liable to disciplinary sanctions in accordance with the provisions of 209 articles and following of of General regulations of the FFF:
Item - 209
Is liable to sanction the club who will have advised one of his players to refrain from participating in a training camp, a preparation match, selection or an international meeting.
The manager (s) responsible are subject to suspension.
Is also liable to sanctions, up to and including suspension on time or definitive the effects of the contract that binds him to his club, if he is a professional, elite, trainee, aspiring or apprentice player, or the temporary or permanent withdrawal of the license if he is a player amateur, the player referred to in Article 175 who will not have justified his absence or unavailability.
The player who, during an international match, voluntarily played below his form or contributed to the defeat of the French team is liable to a sanction.
The player referred to in article 175 who has participated in a match within three days preceding the date of the match for which he was selected is liable to suspension.
"A club that has registered a player must make this player available to the association of the country for which the player is qualified, on the basis of his nationality, if he is summoned by the association in question"
This article specifies that "any contrary agreement between a player and a club is prohibited".
It is also stated in article 3 that a club cannot prevent one of its players from responding to the call for the selection on which he depends: « In principle, any player registered with a club is required to respond positively to a summons to play for one of the representative teams of an association that he is authorized to represent on the basis of his nationality. »
The club must therefore make the player available for his selection. "for all international match periods appearing in the international match calendar as well as for all final competitions of the FIFA World Cup ™, the FIFA Confederations Cup and the continental championships organized by the confederations for the teams representative "A", insofar as the association concerned is a member of the organizing confederation".
Provision for the Olympic Games is not compulsory
As has just been specified, the compulsory provision mechanism of players for French football team matches, due to the current wording of Article 13 of the FFF-LFP Convention, therefore only applies to (only) matches on the international calendar set by FIFA.
However, the FIFA calendar for the period 2020-2024 does not provide the Olympics.
As it stands, i.e. as long as the FIFA calendar and / or article 13 of the FFF - LFP Convention do not include the Olympic Games, (French) football clubs are therefore not obliged to to put available their players selected for the French team for the next Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Towards a call for solidarity and the Olympic spirit?
In 2008, FIFA ordered clubs to release players under the age of 23 selected by their national teams for the Beijing Olympics, ruling that the international match schedule was irrelevant in deciding whether the clubs were forced to release the players.
However, Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had been seized by certain clubs and had decided that the clubs had no legal obligation to release their players because the Olympic tournament was not on the official FIFA calendar and no decision of the FIFA Executive Committee had established an obligation to provide players under 23 for this tournament (CAS 2008 / A / 1622-1623-1624).
The referee committee concluded by calling for common sense and goodwill on the part of FIFA and the clubs to find in the future a reasonable solution allowing players who so wish to represent their country at the Olympic Games. The referee panel also expressed its hope and conviction that FIFA and its affiliated members would provide a clear, fair and widely accepted solution to this issue in the light of the Olympic spirit. FIFA then called on clubs to let players participate in the Olympic Games in the name of solidarity and the Olympic spirit.
On the same theme, see the following articles:
[17.01.2017]
[22.01.2020]
