Legal Governance of the Third-party Ownership of Professional Football Players’ Economic Rights

The third-party ownership enables individuals or entities rather than clubs to own partial or entire economic rights of football players.In other words,football clubs could merely share part of the players' economic rights if the economic rights are not totally owned by third parties.The third-party ownership is warmly embraced by South America,but it incurs criticism in the Union of European Football Associations.This is because the third-party ownership is a double-edged sword.As a new type of business model,it helps football clubs to raise money and shares risk of investments with them.However,it also has negative influences on both economy and morality.It may lead to capital flight,impair contractual stability,undermine financial regulatory regimes,or get involved in money laundering.As for the morality,the thirdparty ownership may damage the fairness of football match or deprive the players' freedom of career development.After the transfer scandal of the West Ham United Football Club,the FIFA decided to stop third parties that are entitled to players' economic rights from adversely affecting football clubs.In 2014,the FIFA finally decided to ban the third-party ownership with a transitional period.And the Court of Arbitration for Sports' position towards the third-party ownership has also experienced a change from permission to prohibition.The main purpose is to provide advice for adapting relevant regulations to the FIFA's latest policy development.It first reviews the definition,influences,and international regulations of the third-party ownership.Subsequently,through analysing relevant legal and football regulations in China,this paper suggests introducing administrative regulations concerning third-party ownership and establishing information disclosure system for financing,transfer,and the ownership of players.