International Centre for
Sports Studies

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2000 Neuchâtel
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Publications

Mon. 12 February 2018

CIES publishes its third governance research project focusing on professional players and the labour-management relationship in world football

Tallec Marston, Kevin, Boillat, Camille and Roitman, Fernando. Governance relationships in football between management and labour – Players, Clubs, Leagues and National Associations. Neuchâtel: CIES, 2017. Pp. 176.

Building on the two prior governance studies, CIES has just released the third FIFA-mandated research analysing governance relationships in football, this time with a focus on the relationships between football’s employers (clubs, leagues and even NAs in some rare cases) and its labour force (the players). Similar to the previous studies, FIFA’s Professional Football Department provided the initial input for the research terms of reference and this time the project was supported by FIFPro which facilitated research access to many of its national players’ associations. The research started in 2016 and is based on a sample of forty countries across all six confederations with completed questionnaires from players’ associations, leagues and national associations. The book 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 across the globe. 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.

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’ in world football.

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 master’s in geography and works as a scientific collaborator. Fernando Roitman has masters in economics and sport management and works as a project manager.

Please click here to order a copy of the book (EUR 26 €).


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