Legal brief: England expects that every contract will do its duty
It may be because of the money and personalities involved but footballers and their managers are no strangers to the insides of England’s court rooms - or perhaps it is because they feel so at home - the high stakes, the prima donnas, the long suffering referees and linesmen, the baying crowd, the team bath at the end…
Ex-England manager Fabio Capello
The very latest mutterings of a legal nature surround Former England manager Fabio Capello’s contractual rights following his resignation.
Most football managers’ contracts refer to the right to allocate senior positions such as the captain and training staff, either explicitly or implicitly, said Berwin Leighton Paisner disputes partner Graham Shear.
“In many managers’ contracts there is an entitlement to choose the team and to appoint [senior roles], unless there are certain events that take that out of the manager’s control,” Shear said.
“There may be something in his contract that entitle him to make that decision.”
He added: “I’ve seen some [contracts] where it’s specified and I’ve seen some where it isn’t. I’d suggest that where it isn’t, it’s implied.”
The clause is sensible because the captain is “the on-pitch representation of the manager”, Shear added.
The Football Association (FA) announced Capello’s resignation on its website on Wednesday after the Italian gave an interview to his home country’s state TV network RAI, criticising the FA’s decision to remove Chelsea defender John Terry from his role as England captain.
Terry had been stripped of the captaincy pending his trial this summer over alleged racial abuse of QPR player Anton Ferdinand.
The FA is expected to have taken in-house legal advice on the matter, while Capello usually turns to his son Pierfilippo, a lawyer at Studio Guardamagna e Associati in Milan who negotiated his contract when the former Juventus and Real Madrid manager took on the England role.
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christian.metcalfe@thelawyer.com
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