Legal Mechanisms for Ensuring the Stability of Professional Footballers' Contracts

The master's thesis examines the legal mechanisms for maintaining the stability of contracts between professional football players and football clubs. The main attention is paid to the problem of unilateral early termination of contracts in the context of international and national football ecosystems, various legal instruments and solutions are analyzed, which, among other things, cover such multilateral legal relations as labor relations in football. The aim of this work is to identify the specifics of contract termination in Russian professional football and maintain the long – term, integrity and stability of labor relations between football clubs and employees (players). The author has prepared special recommendations that can be used by clubs, players and sports (football) federations. Keywords: stability of contracts, football law, labor relations, Labor Code of the Russian Federation, employment contract, Regulations on the status and transfer of players, CAS, FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber, just cause, buy – out clause, liquidated damages clause, RFU Dispute Resolution Chamber, sports sanctions, compensation payment.