Rafiel Rajinthrakumar | February 4th, 2022
Like many other professional sports, signing contracts is essential in soccer as it represents the legal relationship between a player and their club. Contracts offer clubs legal assurance for the player they purchased and offer players a list of terms and conditions they must follow, as well as information regarding their wages (1). Oftentimes, players will have agents who help them navigate their careers, sort out the intricacies of signing contracts, and choose which club would be the best step in their career. Unfortunately, some agents are blinded by the hefty transfer fees they receive and drag players to whichever club can offer the most lucrative deal.
In the case of Ousmane Dembele, his current contract with FC Barcelona is expiring this summer. However, he and his agent, Moussa Sissoko, have refused to sign a new contract. It is easy to blame Barcelona’s financial crisis, exacerbated by the exit of Lionel Messi (2), but is Dembele’s agent at fault here as well? Is he being too unreasonable with the club in their negotiations, or is the club failing to respect one of their most expensive players? With the risk of Dembele leaving for free in the summer looming in the air, FC Barcelona must come to an agreement with Sissoko to resolve their calamitous legal conundrum.
Before playing for Barcelona, Dembele played for a German club in the Bundesliga called Borussia Dortmund in 2016. He was a young, skillful, ambipedal player, who became hot property in Europe. In 2017, Barcelona splashed an enormous amount of money to buy Dembele, in hopes that he would fill the void of Neymar and replicate his electric form from Germany. Although his career started out with some magical moments, the Frenchman was plagued by a number of injuries that kept him in the club’s physio room for several months. Even when he would return to the team for periods in between injuries, he never looked like the player he used to be. His poor run of form caused concern for fans around the world, who had high expectations for him and never saw him live up to his hefty transfer fee.
While being injured so frequently is not necessarily Dembele’s fault, over the past 4 years, he has demonstrated that he is not a player coaches can count on consistently to be fit and match-ready. These factors could have influenced Barcelona’s contract offer for Dembele. Sissoko alleges that the club has even threatened to bench Dembele for the rest of the season if he fails to renew on their terms (3). Although this is not illegal on Barcelona’s side, benching Dembele for the rest of the season would paint a bad image for any new players who have aspirations to play for the club. On top of that, Dembele would not be able to reap any of the bonuses in his contract that has to do with in-game performances (4). Sissoko asserted that Dembele’s career is not “dictated by money”, but they have “certain demands” which they will find elsewhere if Barcelona is unwilling to negotiate. On the surface, it seems as though Sissoko has Dembele’s best interests in mind.
From a legal standpoint, Sissoko owes Dembele a number of fiduciary duties as his agent. A fiduciary duty is analogous to fiduciary obligations, in which the beneficiary (Dembele) is in a vulnerable state, and relies on his fiduciary (Sissoko) to make important decisions in his career with regards to wages, contract offers, and commercial rights (5). Many sports agents want to make the most money for their client and get a huge chunk of commission fees for themselves, so they typically try to sign their players to the club that offers the best paying contract/transfer fee. However, some of these lucrative contracts can sway players to go to clubs that give them little playtime in exchange for extremely high wages, which can stifle their development as a player. Alex Song’s transfer to Barcelona in 2021 is a prime example of this, as he had no intention to further his playing career, and instead, chose to enjoy a lavish lifestyle (6). These types of transfers have been occurring more frequently in modern-day soccer, as agents and players are beginning to look at the beautiful game as a business, rather than a sport. It is not illegal for a player to sign for a club – out of their own volition – that offers a higher-paying contract. Legal issues arise when agents and individuals who claim to be part of a player’s legal team exploit their players and use them as puppets to gain hidden financial benefits (7). However, there have been some steps taken to reduce this cynical practice.
Last year, FIFA announced a plan to put a cap on the transfer fee agents can receive in order to limit the “exorbitant commissions” some agents are earning (8). This proposed regulation sent shockwaves across the world of soccer, with players and agents detesting FIFA’s intervention in their business. Lucky for Sissoko, threats of serious legal action from many agents across the globe have prevented FIFA from implementing this cap. In Dembele’s situation, it seems as though Sissoko is aiming to extract the highest-paying contract from Barcelona. Despite the fact he wants “certain demands” to be met, Sissoko is held under common law to express numerous fiduciary duties towards Dembele, including, but not limited to, “the duty not to gain undisclosed economic benefit from his position as the principal’s agent” (9). Sissoko must understand that despite the potential Dembele has, his poor run of form and injuries are justifiable reasons for Barcelona to reduce his wages, while Barcelona, on the other hand, must not underestimate the innate talent Dembele has to offer.
In short, Ousmane Dembele’s situation is complicated, with several outcomes on the table for how he chooses to advance his career. Dembele and Sissoko must work together to make a decision that benefits both parties involved in this deal by following fiduciary duties. Additionally, Barcelona must respect the player they paid so much money for and come to a civil agreement on his contract renewal if he is to stay. Although at the time of writing this article it is extremely late in the transfer window, anything can happen. The pressure is on Dembele and his agent’s ability to swiftly negotiate with interested clubs in a timely manner. FC Barcelona is the club Dembele admits he dreamt of playing at when he first signed in 2017 (10). I hope that he and his agent are willing to cut their paychecks to defend the badge and do whatever they can to help Barcelona get through these troubling times.
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