Legal study on the Regulation on Professionalism no. 25/2022 issued by the Public Administration for Sports (2 – 4)

The legal reality cannot represent the investment sports sector in the current reality. Kuwaiti sports will not become attractive for investment if it continues to adopt amateur thought as its cornerstone. Can this law pave the way towards investment sports professionalism in the current transitional period?

What is the transitional role of the Sports Act no. 87/2017?

Given the difficulties in applying comprehensive professionalism to the club sector and players in Kuwait, it seems that the legislator issued Law 87/2017 to organize a transitional phase between hobby and professionalism.

According to Law 49/2005, the club was not obliged to apply real professionalism, but since partial professional contracts actually represent a hobby, since the player does not give all his time to the club and does not receive his fair salary accordingly.

Partial professionalism was a kind of hobby, which the Kuwaiti sports sector cannot transfer to true professionalism, and it cannot even pave the way for investment in sports.

As for Law no. 87/2017, although it mainly adopts the idea of ​​an amateur club, and that it will not immediately establish an investment sector, it can contribute to opening the way for an investment sports sector that includes comprehensive professionalism, because this law did not allow clubs to enter into contracts with professionals in hybrid contracts called Partial professionalism and content hobby. Rather, this Regulation on professionalism no.

In fact, every club needs professionals, so every club is forced, de facto, to apply professionalism in at least part of their contracts, and this is a clear prelude to the transition to regular, comprehensive professional contracts with all players and changes in the nature of clubs from non-profit abyss clubs to comprehensively profitable professional investment clubs

This transitional legislative thought was confirmed by the regulation on professionalism from the General Administration for Sports no. 25/2022, which regulated professional contracts.

Will the rules of this regulation contribute to the implementation of the transition phase towards comprehensive professionalism for all players? As well as actually moving from partial to permanent professionalism in the category of professional players?

Is regular professionalization during the sports season a total approach that differs from partial professionalism, or is it stagnation in place?

What is a “total” professional sports curriculum?

After clarifying the meaning of professionalism, we confirm that total professionalism is nothing but a dedicated and strict application of the meaning of professionalism as a term, i.e. total professionalism is associated with the meaning of making a living for the player from playing sports, but with full commitment, which will give the player a high concentration and wider space for development and emphasis

Accordingly, it can be said that professionalism cannot be partial, so a player who devotes part of his time to sports is not considered a professional, because the conditions of the sports season can change, and the club needs a player all day long during the hard days of training and matches, and there lies the gap that may have happened. It has the old Law on Sports no. 49/2005 when partial professionalism was allowed

Therefore, the legislator with the new Law on Sports no. 49/2005 abolished partial professionalism, but:

Was the Law on Sports 87/2017 based on the approach of “complete” professionalism?

If we looked at the definitions contained in the Law on Sports no. 87/2017, we found that the legislator did not define the meaning of professionalism, but this law abolished the definitions of the previous Law no. 49/2005 regarding a professional contract that allowed a player to be part-time, and considered him a professional despite this (Article 1 of the 2005 Law).

If we look at this cancellation, can we consider it a legislative move towards a new approach to professionalism? That is, the adoption of complete professionalism with regard to partial cancellation

Actually no, because Law no. 87/2017 was very narrow in terms of contractual relations between clubs and players, and it is not possible to extrapolate the approach to professionalism adopted from this law, due to the ambiguity of the texts.

In addition, the law described clubs as non-profit sports organizations (Art. 1 of the 2017 Law), and the law limited the purpose of the club’s existence to playing sports for social, cultural, recreational and health purposes (Art. 24), and did not mentioned investment or profitability. ‏

Therefore, it was necessary to enact a regulation on expertise, in order to cover the legal details and remove ambiguities surrounding the new legal concept of expertise.

Rulebook on professionalism for 2022… Access to “regular” professionalism, not “total”

The Rules of Procedure on the profession were adopted by the Administrative Body for Sports by Resolution no. 25 of October 22, 2022, in which there is an explicit definition of regularly practicing sports, as follows:

“Regularly engaging in sports activities at one of the games with the aim of obtaining a monetary refund according to a written contract whose terms are agreed in advance” (Article 1 of the 2017 Law).

The pillars of professionalism, as mentioned in this definition, can be analyzed as follows:

• Playing sports: professionalism merges with hobby in the idea of ​​exercise, but professionalism differs in the level of expertise in this practice with regard to the issue of commitment.

• Regular training: that is, the player must regularly come, train and practice according to the program and binding dates according to the conditions of the sports season, which negates the professionalism of the temperamental hobby. ‏

• The duration of the contract is regulated by the sports season: the player’s time cannot be divided on a daily or monthly basis, as in partial professionalism, but the duration of the contract is limited to the duration of the entire sports season, that is, to the season that the contract lasts (Article 17 of the Professional Rulebook No. 25/2022) ..

However, it is noted that regular training during a full sports season does not mean full-time work, since a professional player, according to this definition, can train regularly and allocate the remaining time for doing other work.

• The aim of the practice is to achieve a financial return: which is the essence of true professionalism, which is not in accordance with the idea of ​​a traditional social sports club

• Practice under a written contract: professionalism contains serious content with high financial values ​​and heavy personal obligations, so the rulebook prescribed a formal condition, which is literacy, to ensure the simplicity of proving the obligations of the two parties in the contract. case of dispute.

• Practice according to agreed terms: It is not allowed to start practicing professional sports before agreeing on clear and written terms in the professional contract, otherwise we will return to the idea of ​​a hobby during the pre-contract period.

How does the concept of “ordinary” professionalism differ from “total” professionalism? ‏

We can say that the professional rulebook approved professionalism by practicing regularly throughout the sports season or seasons (Article 17 of the 2022 rulebook), but this rulebook did not require a professional player’s full dedication to playing sports in his club. .