March 23, 1981. The Italian government promulgated the first law to regulate sports professionalism, sports clubs and national sports federations: 1981/91 law. He was born of need after years of injustices suffered by football players in the labor market. Through the establishment of sports professionalism, this law seeks to guarantee the labor rights of athletes, including employment contracts, medical care and insurance benefits. The recognition of professional athletes as workers may seem a great achievement and before their time; However, there is an escape in the legislation. Law 81/91 leaves the decision before the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) and its federations to determine whether they join the professional sector. Currently, only four 61 federations recognize sports professionalism: the Italy Football Federation (Figc), the Italian Cycling Federation, the Italian Golf Federation and the Italian Basketball Federation. The system described by Law 81/91 has excluded practical all cases of professionalism de facto. Professional de facto The athletes are those classified as fans only in the Federation to which they did not make a distinction between fans and professionals, even they carry out sports activities in a continuous basic and paid as their only source of income. This lack of definition of amateur and professional athletes causes a legislative gap in which several professionals de facto Athletes have no social security protection. The lack of definition in daily life can lead to lack of clarity; The lack of definition within a legislative framework leads to structured injustice
Athlete women experience heavier consequences due to this injustice. First, of the four professional federations, only Figc adopted professionalism for both women. Second, this law reinforces the gender wage gap. The problem of the gender wage gap arises when there are different awards, scholarships, compensation for athletes of the national team of men and women or awards in championships and tournament for male and female categories. That is a problem because federations determine these benefits and, as public institutions, they must guarantee a fair treatment for both sexes. Third, athletes do not have access to maternity license. Therefore, athletes can only trust the military body to receive the essential protection of workers. Gender inequality in sports is nothing new in Italy.
Of the most recently statistics18.1% of Sport Club managers and 12.7% of the managers of the Federation are women, while there are 15% of gender diversity in Coni Ahn and Cunningham, 2017). In addition, Italy is among the last countries of Europe, with only 2% of the seats in the hands of women (Ellig et al., 2020). Since few women participate in these critical elections in leadership positions, women’s opinions are not heard and, in any case, it is likely that the development of women’s sports slows down. However, he never has bone years since women and men have worked to resolve this legislative gap and to improve the Sports Professional Law in Italy.
With the support of Assistant[1] – The Italian Association of Women Athletes, some politicians fought for gender equality in sports and a new definition of sports professionalism. In 2018, the Government instituted a fund to resolve the absence of athletes maternity license and, currently, the Italian sports legislation is being reviewed for regulatory simplification. The action of the letter includes reformulate Law 81/91, re -review the definition of amateur and professional athletes and, together with, allowing financial and economic maneuvas that will facilitate the transition to the athletes of women and men. With the new set of laws[2]Athletes will be able to work as occasional employees or workers.
Therefore, sports workers will generate income and be subject to social security taxes and obligations. At the same time, fans cannot receive remuneration. Even so, organizations can grant occasional bonds and compensation in relation to the results obeyed in sports competitions, as well as travel subsidies and expenses. Fans are also incompatible with any type of salaried work package with an organization where they carry out amateur activities. This technicalism can create a limbo in which sports activities will continue to be compensated through reimbursements.
Sports professionalism was born for football. After forty years, Law 81/91 is still for football: Figc is the only federation that recognizes professionalism for players who depend on the fund provided by the Government. Despite the funds reserved from 2020 to 2022 for the transition to professional sports and the extension of labor protections in women’s sports, the common criticism raised by federations is that this passage is too expectation for sports clubs. If federations and clubs had little interest in the adoption of professionalism before 2020, the situation worsened with the economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sports employment problems are not only related to Italy, but also to other European countries, as highlighted in the Employee facts reportA research project throughout the EU funded by the European Commission. The growing conflicts between elite athletes and international sports organizations show the need to adapt national laws to EU rules about sports labor relations to provide athletes with social security protection and protect their labor rights. However, the change cannot simply be imposed by law; The intermediate steps and provisions that help the transition to professionalism are necessary. Clubs and federations do not have a sincere interest in opening to professionalism because it would require a significant increase in funds to cover the costs that arise from the classification of athletes such as workers or workers, and many federations. The real question at this point is whether the argument that professionalization will be too exhaustive is an implicit admission that the existing system exploits athletes.
Graduated student, international sports and political development
Colony of the German Sports University
Grades
[1] Assist is a non -profit organization that aims to raise awareness about all issues related to equal rights in sports, equal access to sports and sports culture in general.
[2] Legislative decrees (decreti legislativi) 36” 37” 38” 39and 40 (February 28, 2021) Implementation of the Enabling Law (Legge Delega) No. 86 (August 8, 2019) On the review of Italian sports legislation, sports professions and greater regulatory simplification.
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