The beautiful game : can company law help?

Abstract

Football’s inherent charm is what makes it the world’s most “beautiful game”. Over the past century, football became more than a game of two halves; it became an important part of people’s lives. This thesis explores the possibility of Maltese football clubs setting up companies thereby ensuring the financial viability of football clubs, which will help safeguard the game for future generations. Chapter one seeks to highlight the current situation in Malta, giving an in depth overview of the two main regulatory regimes governing local football clubs, that is the Civil Code and MFA’s own regulations. This chapter also serves to shed light on the illegalities which are carried out in football as an exploitation of badly formed clubs. The second chapter is an exercise in comparative law as it invites the reader to understand that the problems currently being faced in Malta have already been faced in other jurisdictions before, and have also been solved, with a degree of success. The third and final chapter then consolidates the thesis and investigates the best solution for Maltese football clubs, having looked at the problems faced in Malta and the solutions found overseas. In this part, the author proposes new Subsidiary Legislation which would allow clubs to set up companies in order to benefit from their inherent advantages. Throughout this thesis, it is argued that although football has become a commercial activity, generating billions of Euros each year, the game ought to be saved for its own sake, and it is the duty of the legislator and all stakeholders to come up with proactive solutions which will ensure that football remains the Beautiful Game.