the sports they play. It is not a single legal topic with generally applicable principles. Sports law touches on a variety of matters, including contract, tort, agency, antitrust, constitutional, labor, trademark, Sex Discrimination, criminal, and tax issues. Contracts in sports are no different than contracts in everyday life. Professional athletes are compensated for their services with a paycheck just as anyone else. This section examines the nature of personal services contracts of pro athletes. However, even the amateur athlete deals with important contract-related issues. Amateur athletes often have to make tough choices about changing their status from amateur to professional given the dramatic increase in money that may be available to be earned in their sports. Some professional athletes are paid a lot more money in one year than most people ever earns in their lifetimes Sports agents serve a valuable role in terms of securing and negotiating contracts for the professional athlete. Lawyers who represent athletes have generally been trained in the fundamentals of contracts and should be familiar with the current market value of their client relative to other athletes within the same sport. However, it should be noted that hiring a lawyer is not required (nor is an agent for that matter) to secure deals for the athlete. Some athletes do not wish to hire an agent for a variety of reasons, including having to pay commissions or other fees associated with the representation. Since the athlete has unique talents, abilities, and skills, their contracts are categorized as personal services contracts. Technically, a personal service contract may not be assigned to someone else. An assignment is a transfer of rights that a party has under a contract to another person. Why can’t a personal service contract be assigned? The talents of an athlete are unique. For example, Peyton Manning could not assign his contract to another player. His talents are so unique. The team owner would not honor such an assignment. No one can be legally forced to work for someone for whom they do not want to work. The Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution provides: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States. This provision of the Constitution has been interpreted as including a prohibition against requiring someone to work for an employer for whom they do not wish to work. How then do team owners get away with trading players from one team to another, since this in effect is assigning a personal service contract? Any contract may be assigned with permission of the parties. The right to assign is part of a player’s contract. However, some players have enough bargaining power to put in a do not trade clause. This keeps a team from assigning the player to a team for whom he does not want to play. Though general contract principles apply in sports contracts, often such contracts are so important to the particular league or community, that each community has a vested financial and emotional interest in seeing their team perform well. Of course some sports do not receive the same sort of public exposure and generate the same widespread fan support. The occupation of professional athlete has become recognized as one of the most financially rewarding professions. Sports sponsors often pay thousands of dollars to an athlete to promote its product. A sports contract can have an impact on the lives of thousands of people. Today’s amateurs must face crucial issues such as whether to continue to compete as an amateur or be lured away by money to professional teams during their sophomore or junior year of college. College sports such as football, basketball, baseball, and hockey are often regarded as proving grounds for the major professional leagues. Many athletes are urged to abandon amateur status to be compensated for their services as a professional. Contracts for the employment of athletes should always be in writing and should contain covenants by the athlete like promising to refrain from certain acts, such as participating in dangerous activities. A contract is a legally binding agreement. A contract represents the meeting of the minds of the parties. Contracts in sports are subject to the same principles of contract formation as any other form of employment agreement. There six elements that are necessary to a binding and enforceable contract: An agreement; Between competent parties; Based upon the genuine assent of the parties; Supported by consideration; Made for a lawful objective; In the form required by law. Most sports contracts are express contracts. An express contract is a contract in which the agreement of the parties is evidenced by their words, whether spoken or written. There are virtually no more implied contracts in the sports industry. An implied contract is a contract in which the agreement is not evidenced by written or spoken words, but by the acts and conduct of the parties. Agreement It is essential to a contract that there be an offer and, while the offer is still in existence, it must be accepted without qualification. Once an offer is made, the person to whom it is made can respond in four ways: Accept; Reject (this automatically terminates the offer); Counteroffer (again, the offer is automatically terminated); Nothing (the offer then terminates after a reasonable time). Offers may be terminated in any one of the following ways: Revocation of the offer by the person making it (the offeree); Counteroffer by offeree;
Rejection of offer by offeree;
Lapse of time;
Death or disability of either party; or
Performance of the contract becomes illegal after
the offer is made. An issue can arise with regard to the legal “capacity” aspect of a minor signing a contract. Sports such as gymnastics, swimming, and tennis often involve contractual issues regarding minors. Satisfying this element may require the signature of a parent or guardian. Even though minors may enter into contractual arrangements, minors hold the ability to void such contracts at their option. However, if the contract is voided, the other party generally must be placed in the same position as prior to entering into the agreement, or at least at no worse position. The consent or assent of a party to an agreement must be genuine and voluntary. This assent will not be genuine or voluntary in certain cases of mistake, deception or undue pressure or duress. The agreement of parties may be affected by the fact that one or both of them made a mistake. A unilateral mistake is a mistake made by one party to the agreement. A mistake that is unknown to the other party usually does not affect the enforceability of the agreement. professional services contracts (sometimes called standard player contracts) endorsement contracts, and Appearance contracts. The standard player contract (SPK) is usually in a “boilerplate” form. Boilerplate is standard wording that can be reused over and over without change. Whether the athlete is involved in a league with a players association or not, the contract usually offered to the athlete and other athletes are all the same other than the salary and bonus. There can be addendums to the SPK. Unlike the professional services contract, the endorsement contract does not involve an employer-employee relationship. Rather, it is one of contractor- independent contractor. An endorsement contract is one that grants the sponsor the right to use (i.e., license) the athlete’s name, image, or likeness in connection with advertising the sponsor’s products or services. In most professional sports, the leagues prohibit individual players from endorsing alcoholic beverages or tobacco products. Sports in the Philippines is an important part of the country's culture. There are seven major sports in the Philippines. These are basketball, badminton, boxing, football, billiards, tenni s and volleyball. Despite being a tropical nation, ice skating has recently become a popular sport in the Philippines. Sports such as athletics, weightlifting, aerobics, and martial arts are also popular recreations. Among the others there are: baseball, bowling, swimming, taekwondo, wrestling, u nderwater diving, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, cockfighting, horse racing, Cricket, Australian rules football, motor racing, sepak takraw, and jai alai are also appreciated. With the sport of cockfighting being wildly popular in the Philippines, attracting large crowds who bet on the outcome of fights between the birds, and the sport itself a popular form of fertility worship among almost all Southeast Asians. Such sports activity as the sportof cockfighting, related to ritual forms of worship as practices and rituals of ancient worship intended for the blessings of the supernatural, as "in Indus Valley and other ancient civilizations, mother goddess had been invoked for fertility and prosperity"[5] which included that religious cockfight lay as a prime example of "cultural synthesis of 'little' and 'great' cultures" On July 27, 2009, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Republic Act No. 9850 into law, declaring Arnis as the Philippine National Martial Art and Sport. Sports remain a popular aspect of Philippine culture. As such, the country's government has had several attempts at improving its athletics program through various Republic Acts and Senate Bills, however, implementation of such laws have been put aside by many local governments so they can focus more on poverty alleviation. Meanwhile, each sporting community hosts/joins both local and international tournaments with the purpose of building itself and/or gauging itself against its peers. There have been a campaign to mandate the government to give free aid to Filipino athletes in preparation and participation in international sports events. The country has received at least 5 (Summer and Winter) Olympic bronze medals in only three sports since the 1920s, namely in swimming, boxing, and weightlifting. Plans to prioritize the welfare of athletes in the country to improve the Olympic rating of the Philippines are ongoing. The re- establishment of the now defunct Department of Sports (Philippines) or the inclusion of the Sports Commission under the proposed Department of Culture have been subject for debate. The Philippines has participated in all editions of the Olympics except in 1980 when it joined the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics. The country is also the first tropical nation to participate at the Winter Olympics, debuting at the 1972 edition and has participated in three other edition of the winter games. Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) is the National Olympic Committee of the Philippines. The Philippines has also participated in the Summer Paralympics although it has still to make its debut in the Winter Paralympics. The Paralympic Committee of the Philippines is National Paralympic Committee of the country. Cases of graft and corruption are also persists in the Philippine sports industry. Graham Lim, a former secretary general of the Basketball Association of the Philippines, a former POC- recognized national federation for basketball, said in a The Manila Times article that politics and monopoly in Philippine sports started when the present leaders, including Peping Cojuangco, the current Philippine Olympic Committee president and his golfer-friend Richie Garcia, the chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission, took over the control of the sporting sector in 2005 that made Philippine athletes to suffer decline and deterioration on their high-caliber quality due to corruption and politicking. In 2009, Lim arrested and later declared a "undesirable alien" by the Department of Justice due to countless deportation cases, in connection with his questionable citizenship, said that the deportation order is issued because the pressure pushed by his arch- rivals Manny V. Pangilinan, the head of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, the later-recognized NSA for basketball and Cojuangco. Lim also exposed a top government official, through a deputy has asked 6 million pesos to settle the case, also he claims that several NSAs (National Sports Associations) are headed by some people who have "toe the line" to Cojuangco and anyone who do not follow his orders would be dismissed "by hook or by crook". An NSA also questioned the appointment of Cojuangco's daughter Mikee as the representative of the Philippines in the International Olympic Committee without any caution. Former Senator Nikki Coseteng also noted that the suffrage of the athletes was emerged due to lack of foreign exposures and depleted training program as a result on sports bodies' insufficient budget and incompetent sports officials. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the former Table Tennis Association of the Philippines president filed a graft and corruption case against Cojuangco and Garcia in 2012 due to issuance of checks and releasing of funds of PSC to the group of Ting Ledesma who have claimed as TATAP officials despite a court case filed by Manila Regional Title Court on the legitimacy of TATAP officials. A column by Jarius Bondoc in the Philippine Star dated March 2, 2016, reported that more than 1 billion pesos of earnings from casinos that supposed to fund the sports development program of the PSC by the First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corporation, have been diverted into the account of former Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisimafrom 2012 to 2015. In March 2015, Edgardo Cantada, brother of prominent broadcaster Joe Cantada and president of the now-unrecognized by the POC, Philippine Volleyball Federation, also questioned Cojuangco on the removal of the body into the local olympic commission, and replaced by another formed NSA by Cojuangco, Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas. Cantada pointed three reasons that POC is under dictatorship: worsening campaign for the national teams in international tourneys, including the Southeast Asian Games, NSAs in turmoil against POC are involved and the negligence and corruption issues between Cojuangco's favorite national sports associations. The most important type of tort to understand in sports risk management and sports law is negligence. Negligence is conduct that falls below a reasonable person standard. In other words, it is the failure to exercise reasonable care that a reasonably prudent person would have in the same or similar circumstances. This standard applies to acts as well as omissions. There are elements that a plaintiff in a lawsuit has to prove in order for a defendant to be found to be negligent. The four elements of negligence are as follows: 1) Duty or Duty of Care–There is a relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff so that the defendant owes a duty to exercise reasonable care to the plaintiff. This duty could arise out of a relationship, such as between a general manager of a sports team and a spectator. It could arise out of a voluntary assumption of a duty, such as a coach giving a player a ride home from a game. Or, the duty could be imposed by statute, such as a law requiring that spectator’s bags be searched before entering a sports stadium. In these relationships, the defendant has a duty to anticipate foreseeable dangers and take necessary precautions to protect the plaintiff. 2. Breach of Duty–The defendant breached the duty of care that he or she owed to the plaintiff. In other words, did the defendant’s actions or failure to act fall below the standard of care applicable to the given situation? If there is a safety rule that is in place, that rule might be determined to be the standard of care. For example, if there is a rule requiring a soccer field to be inspected for potentially hazardous objects before play can begin, then such inspection may be determined to be the standard of care. If there is no such rule and a standard of care cannot easily be discerned, the question is how a reasonably prudent person would have behaved in the same or similar situation 3. Proximate Cause–There must be a proximate causal connection between the negligent conduct and the resulting injury. For example: there was a hole in the netting that was designed to protect spectators behind home plate at a baseball stadium. A spectator got hit in the face by a foul ball that went through the hole, causing a serious eye injury. Evidence at trial established that the manager of the stadium knew that the hole in the netting was there, failed to fix it and so the court found that his negligence was the proximate cause of the spectator’s injury. If the court found that the spectator had a pre-existing eye injury and the errant ball was not the cause of her injury, the element of proximate cause would not have been met. 4. Damages–The plaintiff has to suffer an actual injury or damages. If in the previous example, the spectator could not prove that she was injured by the ball that hit her, then the fourth element would not have been met.
In order for your organization to avoid lawsuits
alleging negligent behavior, it is best to train employees and volunteers to do their best to exercise reasonable care that a reasonably prudent person would have in the same or similar circumstances. When divers John Fabriga and John Pahoyo earned a score of 0 in the recent 28th Southeast Asian Games, Filipinos who couldn't laugh at the humiliating absurdity tore at their hair in frustration. It was a performance that, for many viewers and lovers of Philippine sports, encapsulated the state of our country's athletic program. Our team's recent performance wouldn’t feel so frustrating if we didn't possess a proud sports history. Our roster of heroes included sprinter Lydia de Vega, taekwondoin and gymnast Bea Lucero, and swimmer Teófilo Yldefonso, dubbed the ‘Ilocano Shark’ and was also the first Southeast Asian to win an Olympic medal. The SEA Games used to be dominated by the Philippines, and our country had been to numerous competitions where it went the distance, including the FIBA. In comparison, Philippine sports today feel like a disappointment. There is always the nagging feeling that we could do better because we can and have done so. The seeming lack of results has caused many Filipinos to abandon their interest in sports. Whenever there’s a discussion about the inadequacy of Philippine sports, a single, predominant cause is often brought up: money. Our sports program is woefully underfunded compared with others in Southeast Asia, with the government struggling to find the budget for more pressing concerns. Additionally, given that athletic programs have been traditionally used to build a country’s international reputation, the situation is not helping the regime’s image. Lacking government support, a few teams have turned to the private sector for a possible savior. The Lhuillier Group's sponsorship of Philippine softball, for instance, has enabled us to compete in the sport and bring home medals. But many other sports lack an altruistic sponsor, especially if they are the type with a high chance of losing. The cycle has been set. A lack of funding has led to a dearth of medals, fueling disinterest which results in bigger budget cuts. Interest in Philippine sports only peaks during well-televised events like the SEA Games, which is also when the woeful budget is discussed. Otherwise, it withers. Some sports have gotten lucky by finding that one shining star who can elevate the sport into public consciousness, such as boxing through Flash Elorde and, now, Manny Pacquiao. However, reliance on such heroes is short-lived. Once its star wanes, the sport follows suit, just like boxing during the period between Elorde and Pacquiao. How do we break the cycle permanently? The problem can’t be solved by forcing the public and private sectors to give money or by finding star athletes. Philippine sports must overcome disinterest. It is unfortunate, but the government will only throw money at problems that catch public attention, and private companies will sponsor anything that catches the eyes of their market. Increased attention will also attract the best people for tryouts, thus widening the talent pool. Generating interest is a familiar problem for a PR agency. The Philippines still has a deep interest in sports thanks to our past glories, so the problem isn't as insurmountable as it seems. It only takes the right campaigns to bring our athletic programs to the spotlight. Sports are only in the limelight a few times a year, but the necessary training, which requires the most funding, happens all year long. Interest must be maintained throughout the year by making the athletes and their preparations just as important as the competition. Many athletes are unknown heroes. Even though the Philippines has earned 29 gold medals in the recent SEA games, the general public still doesn't know the names of the winners. Sports winners are natural celebrities and heroes, with bodies representing peak physical fitness, as well as strong wills that have overcome the harshest challenges. Market and mentor them as such. Press coverage can be fickle, but the fans are not. However, to stay interested, fans also need news and engagement—a job social media can easily fulfill. Train athletes to take advantage of social media to educate, excite, and build love for their respective sports. Despite losses and our unsuitability for the sport, basketball still enjoys overwhelming corporate support. That's because of the deep well of fans who would support the game come hell or high water. By turning fans into evangelists through constant engagement, they would be willing to bat for your sport in boardrooms and committees when sponsorships and budget allocations are under discussion. The day after their disastrous performance at the Men’s 3-meter Springboard Diving Finals, Fabriga and Pahoyo once again climbed the diving board—this time together for the Men’s 3-meter Synchronized Springboard competition. It was then that they proved worthy of being our representatives. Hopefully, as with these two valiant athletes, Philippine sports can once again make a victorious splash on the international stage.
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