Employment contracts in German Football, with a specific focus on tools regulating their terms

Unilateral termination rights and unilateral options

A unilateral (ordinary) termination right for the employer with no grounds or defined grounds that are not in line with the requirements of German Labour Law is null and void. Even if a clause stipulates that both parties shall be entitled to terminate the employment contract with no ground with effect to certain dates, such clause cannot be enforced against the employee/player, because it would be against the Employment Protection Act that always requires certain grounds for any termination declared by the employer. Even unilateral termination rights that are executed in return for the payment of a termination compensation agreed in the same clause are null and void under German Law, as the Labour Court of Aachen assessed some years ago in a lawsuit of a coach against a club about a clause that allowed the club to dismiss the coach any time in return for the payment of a certain amount - respectively a percentage...

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