Semi-professionalism increases the risk of contract disputes. According to lawyer Mika Palmgre, it increases the risk for disputes of the type of recent baseball litigation.
Too vague contracts are still made in Finnish sports. Deputy referee familiar with sports law Mika Palmgren estimates that this increases the risks of disputes escalating and settling them in courtrooms.
According to Palmgren, there are many laws between employers and sports employees that are unknown to the parties.
– We should remember that sport is not an island outside of society. It works according to the same rules as the rest of the contract society, says Palmgren.
Mika Palmgren from Turku consults, among other things, members of the Football Players’ Association on legal issues.
The district court of Pirkanmaa gave its decision on Friday against the baseball club Manse PP and the club’s former game director Toni Kohonen in an argument.
The contract dispute was about the termination of the game manager’s employment contract between Kohonen and Manse PP. Kohonen considered the dismissal to be illegal, while Manse PP believes that Kohonen neglected his duties.
According to Palmgren, this type of court proceedings may increase in sports.
The same rules apply to sports
Toni Kohonen described to during the court proceedings at the beginning of February that he made many kinds of contracts with clubs during his long playing career. Agreements were also made orally.
According to Palmgren, this is still not uncommon. Although not all conflict situations are on the same scale as the dispute between Manse PP and Kohonen, the lawyer points out that similar situations occur regularly under the surface.
– If we think about Kohonen’s case, there is a reason to remember that he was an employee hired by Manse PP. In that setting, the employee cannot act however he likes, but he does his work according to the employer’s will.
In the relationship between the employee and the employer, it is not important what the employee’s background or previous position was like.
Far from professional sports
Mika Palmgren estimates that Finnish sports as a whole is still quite far from professional sports when compared internationally. A full-time club director is a rarity in Finland.
The conflict between Manse PP and Kohonen that went to court provides an example of this. There are people on the board of the club who do sports work in addition to their own work. So they are not full-time sports professionals.
– In Finland, one can talk more about semi-professionalism or even unprofessionalism, notes Palmgren.