Special Report FL #15 - National Identities - States and National Associations Perspectives
By adopting a pluralist vision of law, sports legal orders are distinct from state or inter-state legal orders. However, they are not without points of contact. Thus, it regularly happens that the conformity of sports rules regarding national rules and regulations is questioned before national or European jurisdictions. The French courts have had to rule on the legality of two types of sports rules relating to questions of nationality. The first concerns locally trained players; the second concerns players who have acquired nationality through naturalization.
Jurisprudence concerning Homegrown Players from the French Training System
Like UEFA, some French sports federations or professional leagues require clubs to have a minimum number of locally trained players in their squad to participate in certain national competitions. This is a possibility expressly offered by Article L. 131-16 of the French Sports Code. Since it was amended by Law no. 2012-158 of 1 February 2012 aimed at strengthening the ethics of sport and the rights of sportsmen and women, this Article provides general rules relating to the legal, administrative and financial conditions that clubs must meet in order to participate in official competitions, which “may contain provisions relating to the minimum number of locally trained athletes in the teams participating in these competitions.”
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