Using the example of soccer, the article deals with the classification of national team players as employees of the respective association, which has not yet been conclusively clarified either by the courts or in the specialist literature.

The payment of so-called transfer fees is common practice in professional sport. This article deals with the question of whether and under what conditions so-called transfer fees can be claimed as compensation from employees, a question that has hardly been examined to date.

The article examines the question of whether premature change announcements are breaches of duty under employment contracts and what measures a club can take against such breaches

Post-contractual non-solicitation clauses are not yet common practice in professional sport, which is surprising given the extensive insight into the financial and contractual details of a club that people in key positions have. This article answers the most important practical questions in connection with post-contractual non-solicitation clauses.

This article deals with the legal classification of unjustified allegations of harassment in the context of labor court proceedings and the possibilities for employers to react in a legally secure manner.

The article classifies the decision of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Labour Court in the case Heinz Müller v. FSV Mainz 05 and deals with the admissibility of fixed-term employment contracts in professional sports.

In this article, the authors deal with a question regarding dismissal on suspicion that has hardly been addressed to date: Is an employee precluded from presenting exculpatory facts in dismissal protection proceedings if he or she was already aware of the facts during the mandatory hearing prior to the dismissal and concealed them from the employer?

They are common in professional sport: so-called point bonuses, which make part of the remuneration dependent on the team’s success in a competitive match. However, there are hidden legal pitfalls here, which can cause considerable costs for the respective employer. Unsuccessful coaches are usually released from their duties with immediate effect, although the employment contract usually continues until the end of the originally agreed contract period or until the coach enters into a new employment relationship.

There is usually no reason for termination and it is therefore not possible to terminate the employment relationship. The agreement of the complete loss of basic salary in the event of such a leave of absence is not permitted. However, it is questionable whether and how clubs can protect themselves from an obligation to continue paying point bonuses in this case. This article outlines the legal principles and assesses the case law to date.

The professional football player Levan Kobiashvilli of Hertha BSC Berlin was given a seven-and-a-half-month ban until 31 December 2012 in a ruling by the DFB sports court on 4. June 2012. The player had physically attacked the referee Wolfgang Stark after the final whistle of the relegation second leg between Fortuna Düsseldorf and Hertha BSC Berlin on 15. Mai 2012.

This case raises the question of the extent to which an employer in the field of professional sport is obliged to pay the salary of professional athletes – in full – for the duration of a suspension. Although suspensions from competition are nothing unusual in the field of professional sport, the question of the obligation to pay remuneration arises in particular when – as in the case of Levan Kobiashvili – suspensions are exorbitantly long and/or are based on the player’s behavior that is not directly related to work performance in the context of a competitive match.