The freedom of contract of footballers in Malta in the light of the principles of European Law

Abstract

“The world of football never stands still – the search for innovation, new ideas, fresh departures and consistent progress takes place every day.” The Malta Football Association was founded back in 1900 and today, it is considered as one of the oldest out of the 204 national football associations world-wide. Today, the MFA and all the football enthusiasts in Malta can enjoy a national stadium equipped with all the modern facilities including - individual seating, floodlights, digital scoreboards, a public address system, a media centre, a gymnasium, a physiotherapy clinic, a Technical Centre and other facilities such as the adjacent Centenary Stadium which has an artificial playing surface and the training grounds which have natural turf surface. However, the issue that remains is that besides all this facilities development and other materialistic growth, the Maltese football has not kept the legal development of the game that we know of nowadays. The latter statement can be even more substantiated when comparing the football legal systems in Malta with those of other countries in the UEFA territory. This term paper focuses on the freedom of contract and registrations that Maltese nationals enjoy in their beloved country. Several cases are referred to for a better understanding of the matter. The term paper emphasises on the transfer (including amateur registrations) systems of players in the footballing world and how the Maltese football transfer system is ‘legally late’ by more than 20 years.