After the recent Women’s World Cup it’s likely that ever greater numbers of children are dreaming of becoming professional football stars. Few make it to the very top but those who do are richly rewarded – financially and (arguably) emotionally, with adoration and influence giving those of them ready to use it, like Megan Rapinoe, real ‘power’. But life as a top sports star can also get quite lonely and emotionally quite difficult – with Gareth Bale’s current situation potentially a case in point.
Unlike Real Madrid – a massive soulless corporate with historical links to Franco and more recently like Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona people smuggling – Bale is hard to dislike. As a Welshman, he embodies the down to earth ‘not at all up himself’ required from those of us born and bred in Wales. So I admit to bias in the following analysis.
Footballer’s contracts are short term and light on employment protections – there’s no redundancy payment when the contract expires even if the employee has been in post for over 2 years. Despite common language they are not slaves, ‘owned’ by their clubs, although the language does reflect the historic power-owner relationship.
The reasonable expectation would be a contract, if terminating early, is paid up in full . If a player wishes to leave early they’re able to do so but the club will reasonably expect a compensation payment for the early loss if their contracted asset leaves before the end of the contract. Since Bosman, at the end of a contract, the player is free to do what they want.
All that seems broadly fair and reasonable, especially with player unions supporting pensions, CPD training and securing adequate insurance for players who can’t perform due to injury.
There is less reason for anyo player to feel trapped than pre-Bosman.
But you can still get problems as Bale’s case illustrates – producing some potentially interesting HR and employment law questions – whilst also highlighting that even the most powerful player will likely have the eaker hand if they’ve signed for an equally prominent and powerful club.
Bale has ‘almost’ been sacked – his new Manager, without provocation or reason saying he’s surplus and must move clubs. Except Real Madrid haven’t sacked him. To do so would mean paying him up in full, leaving him free to sign for whoever he liked banking around £600k a week for the remaining est 125 weeks of his contract.
If he resigns his risks losing a fortune. I’m no expert on Spanish ET’s but if he was in England an ET for constructive dismissal would cap his losses at a year’s pay so necessarily ease his losses – not a reasonable legal option. In the macho world of football a negotiated legal settlement over a breach of contract isn’t certain and is certainly expensive.
Bale could work with Real and negotiate some type of trade – the normal ‘old way’. This could see him ‘sold’ to whoever offers Real &/or Bale the best offer the other party can accept. 20 years ago Bale would have had no say and literally, like a slave, been sold.
But whilst Real don’t want Bale but they don’t want Champions League or La Liga rivals to have him either. I suspect they’ll pay a fair bit of an affordabilìty gap in a temporary or permanent transfer but only if this helps them to dictate where he moves at limited loss and risk – so 100% not to Barcelona or Athletico Madrid for example.
Bale meanwhile will be reluctant to go somewhere that injures his future earnings, reputation and standing. This is almost certainly his last big move as a player so why should he? Real paying him to play in the Championship for his hometown Cardiff City isn’t happening.
But nor will he want to sit out a season even being paid £600K a week. The effect would be the same if not worse for his future playing earnings and most significantly his reputation.
So he is in an invidious employment position through no fault of his own – he can’t work but can’t afford to leave either and employment law is unlikely to help…not unless he gets desperate.
Us mere fans and mortals will have no idea what’s really going on in Bale and his Agent’s conversations but, because of the character tests outlined above, I’m content to accept on face value the critical human factors that are likely to be what is really driving the stalemate and preventing a traditional solution (the slave is sold but with greatest compo / minimum loss for the owner). Bale says his partner and young family are happy in Madrid. He doesn’t want to move – subtext being especially where it is rainy and he’s not playing at the top, top level (sorry cardiff fans that’s you lot out again).
A rational solution would be he stays in Madrid and moves to fill the space left at Athletico by Griezmann’s move to Barcelona. But Real will not stomach that. So he could sit tight and take his time whilst the pressure builds on Zidane and Real. He could sit tight until January and see if Zidane is even still in post. But the longer he sits tight the more difficult it gets for him and the easier it gets for Madrid to forget him – a transfer fee being less important to them than matching his wages in a loan or who he goes to at whatever price.
Bale will probably have to go to any credible Champions League contender who Real will subsidise / choose, whatever his family feel in whichever part of Europe that takes him – China or the US probably being the final final move when he’s past his peak in say 4 to 5 years time.
Whatever happens, Bale will be in a stronger position than the other 99.5% of professional footballers and almost all professional rugby union and league players. Most of these will have moderate contracts that last a year or two with little prospect of planning for the long term – either risking separation from the family or kids growing up moving school year to year. Many will have skipped Further or Higher education and the qualifications that come with it to “focus” on their fsports career that will end in their 30’s. Injury could happen at anytime, ending their career early and risking future employment options. So many will still envy rather than empathise with Bale.
But even then some will recognise Bale as not being that different. In sport only the very very very few get the real power to dictate their own immediate future. Bale is Britain’s most successful ever footballing export at the peak of his playing powers and he still finds himself losing control of his future.
The moral being – however rich and powerful you are in an organisation a time can come where your hand is weaker than the boss and the ‘owner’ is still likely to have the upper hand. The law will be of little help to anyone except your lawyer’s accountant.
LOOKING UP! 