There are no doubts about the fact that, in Portugal, football is considered the true king sport. What is certain is that, as JOÃO LEAL AMADO says, “we live in a sportive society” – in which the sports phenomenon is constantly being replayed in our daily lives, through television channels, newspapers and other media. The Portuguese legislator, as can be seen, tries as much as possible to keep up with the growing evolution that is noticeable in sport, drawing up diversified legal frameworks that we will later develop. The law n.º 54/2017, of July 14th, was the last text that dealt with the sports employment contract - however, we will see that this legal text suffers from numerous flaws that, hopefully, will one day be completely filled. These are related in particular to the fact that they do not include the figure of the sports coach, a theme that will be the focus of the dissertation in question. It will be our intention to find out in circumstances that this category of workers will be contractually bound. Is there a specific and proper regime for them? As a matter of fact, it is necessary to clarify that, as in any other employment relationship, it must, due to its specialty, enjoy its own rules, capable of guaranteeing legal certainty. In any case, since there is no specific regime for this category of professionals, it has been observed (both within the doctrine and in jurisprudence) the analogical application of the legal regime of the sports practitioner, currently regulated by Law n. º 54/2017, of the 14th of July. We will also see that the doctrine has criticized the fact that we subsume the concept of sports coach in the legal regime of the sports practitioner, since a coach does not practice the modality in question (let us think of football for example), but faces the figure of a true teacher in front of his players (those yes, sports practitioners). In addition to this discussion, we will consider if the figure of the “plurality of workers” (a concept still little known in our order) has applicability to the category of football coaches, always having in attention, of course, the central role that Comparative Law plays. The study of legal solutions in other legal systems – especially those that are closest to us – is fundamental, in order to inspire us on a certain matter. In this way, we will be able to see that the solutions provided for in other European legal systems concerning the sports employment contract tend to diverge from ours, but they are nonetheless interesting in terms of their applicability. As the role of the sports coach, especially that of football, has become increasingly strong, the legislator will have to find out if the solution that is currently in force is up to date, or out of step with reality. It is with the addition of all the small details that are provided to us, whether by jurisprudence, doctrine or Comparative Law, that the legislator will establish a regime consistent with the present. Indeed, and based on the present study, we will consider the possibility of creating a new regime that incorporates the professional category of football coaches, thus guaranteeing security and adequate applicability of the Law.
| Date of Award | 5 Jul 2022 |
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| Original language | Portuguese |
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| Awarding Institution | - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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| Supervisor | João Carlos da Conceição Leal Amado (Supervisor) |
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