The Arbitration Council (CA) decided unilaterally to go ahead with the proposal to create an external entity that would manage the arbitration of professional football leagues, due to a lack of consensus between the three entities involved in the project, the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP) and the Portuguese Football Referee (APAF).
“It has not yet been possible to draw up a common document for the three entities, which is why the Arbitration Council of the FPF (CA) presents its proposal for the sector in Portugal,” reads the document recently submitted to the FPF management was handed over. Thursday -day and to which DN had access.
In the proposal, the CA defends an associative model similar to that of England and Germany, whereby management will be the responsibility of an entity outside the FPF, with its own legal personality. “To achieve this goal, the first step to be taken is to change the current legal framework,” namely Article 24. [Regulamentação das provas desportivas] and 25th [Disciplina e Arbitragem] of Law No. 5/2007 of January 16, Basic Act on Physical Activity and Sport.
In addition to any alternative solution to the current regime “which must necessarily undergo a legislative change of some depth”, the company’s governance must, according to the proposal, reflect the “determining influence of the FPF on the management of arbitration, otherwise the model itself will not be recognized by UEFA and FIFA”.
The entity will have a tripartite leadership (FPF, League and APAF). the general manager will have a four-year mandate, and his appointment “always depends on a positive opinion from the member of management appointed by the Portuguese Football Federation”. The director will be responsible, among other things, for defining the referee panel and video referees, establishing education and training parameters, making appointments, in addition to the obligation to give two interviews per season.
According to the proposal, it should be created and put into operation in the 2023-2024 season, with this period being used for internal training and adaptation processes. And after three seasons, the entity must be 100% autonomous from the FPF and survive on its own income.
The project presented to FPF management is now publicly consulted and open to contributions for future discussion. According to DN, APAF wants more independence for the new body of the Federation, in addition to the implementation of a new financial system that will allow referees to have an employment contract with the new entity, instead of being ‘service providers, with a fixed monthly fee’. , as the proposal advocates.
Liga Portugal also wants to clarify the proposed financial model.
In response to the challenge launched by the Federation on June 6, 2023, a working group was created, with the FPF, the LPFP and the APAF, led by the President of the Arbitration Council, to reflect on the possibility of establishing a management entity to be established for referees at professional competitions.
Something that the CA now considers crucial “to spread injustice and defamatory judgments about the administration of arbitration and the arbitrators themselves”. This is why he advocates “a system of greater guarantees for the impartiality, independence and technical competence of arbitrators, without forgetting the freedom in the management of the staff, which also contributes to the defense of the good name and dignity of arbitration agents”.
Source: DN
