[1] In one of the first, if not the first, motivated FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) decisions in the COVID-19 era, the DRC clarified that the FIFA COVID-19 Guidelines (ed. April 2020) and the FIFA COVID-19 FAQ (ed. June 2020) (i) did not declare that the COVID-19 outbreak was a force majeure situation in any specific country or territory per se or that the concept of force majeure impacted any specific employment or transfer agreement and (ii) are only applicable to “unilateral variations to existing employment agreements.” Therefore, except where a contract’s termination occurred following a unilateral variation made due to COVID-19, the FIFA COVID-19 documents do not apply to assess unilateral terminations of existing employment agreements.
Brief facts
The Club and the Player signed a contract, valid from 30 January to 31 May 2020, whereby the Player was entitled to an advance payment of a month’s salary due by 10 February 2020 and four monthly salaries, starting from 5 March 2020. In addition, the Club committed to pay a fee to the Player’s agent. The Club never paid any money to the Player.
On 14 March 2020, the Club announced that “training will be closed until further notice.”
On the same day, the Player put the Club in default in respect of the advance payment and one salary (i.e. the pro-rata value of two salaries) and set a 15-day deadline for payment under Article 14bis of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP). Besides, the Player referred to the COVID-19 outbreak and the Club’s announcement to justify that he could not return to the Islamic Republic of Iran for the time being.
In its...
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