STANDARD CONTRACT FOR PLAYERS NEXT SEASON

MBABANE – Clubs are currently safe for now from penalties for failing to pay players’ salaries, but this is set to chnge as the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) is expected to introduce a standard contract next season.

This come after EFA disclosed the purpose of the proposed developments for professional players in the country. The standard contract will be introduced in an effort to transform the association’s supervisory legal frameworks and administrative systems to assimilate sporting governance. This is outlined in the third goal of the agreed objectives and action plan between the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) and EFA.

The head of the organisation, Peter ‘Samora’ Simelane, in an exclusive interview, said the uniform contract was aimed at aligning existing agreements with national labour laws.
“It will just offer guidance in terms of the national labour laws and it will remain between the employer and the employee to honour those contracts. It will help players and teams meet those standards, and we can’t come up with something that would be inconsistent with the laws of the country,” Simelane said. 

For instance, he mentioned that they could not suggest a minimum pay beyond what the gazette stipulates. The EFA president said clubs and players would still remain responsible for negotiating and abiding by the terms and conditions of their agreements. When asked about the capability of the said contract to enforce salary payment sanctions by teams, the country’s football head honcho said they could not enforce it directly. He also said the issue of sanctions being used to persuade teams to pay players’ salaries was not part of the contract.  

Salaries

Meanwhile, in other countries, football governing bodies have strict laws for teams that fail to honour players’ salaries.  For instance, English Football League (EFL) clubs could be docked points if they fail to pay players on time under new regulations. EFL sides must now ‘self-report’ a failure to pay players’ wages within two working days of the scheduled payment date. However, the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Football Compliance Manual speaks on sanctions for delaying payments for players. It says a contract of employment of a player must be consistent with the Eswatini laws, the PLE Handbook, the statutes of EFA and FIFA.

On overdue payments, it stipulates that clubs are required to comply with the contract’s financial obligations. These are the terms stipulated in the contracts signed with their professional players and in their transfer agreements. “Any member club found to have delayed a due payment for than 30 days without a prima facie contractual basis may be sanctioned by the EFA Player’s Status Committee in accordance with the law,” reads an extract from the PLE Handbook.  The Players Status Committee may impose sporting sanctions such as a warning, reprimand, fine or ban from registering any new players for one or two entire and consecutive registration periods. 

Meanwhile, EFA will today convene at the Happy Valley Hotel and Casino in Ezulwini for the Ordinary General Meeting . It is expected that they will discuss some of the plans they will implement in the upcoming season.

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