The Qualification of the Legal Relationship of Professional Sports Employment from the Perspective of Typology

The qualifications on the legal relationships between athletes and clubs in professional sports employment are different in Chinese theoretical circles and judicial practice, which often results in contradictory rulings in the similar cases. Employment patterns in professional sports can be divided into the“alliance”employment pattern and the“non-alliance”employment pattern in China. Under the“alliance”employment pattern, the athletes-clubs relations may generally be qualified as labor relations because the athletes are subject to the overall management of the alliance. Under the“non-alliance”employment pattern, the athletes-clubs relations are often manifold and complicated that the personality subordination is likely to be out of order for identifying the labor relations. In order to improve the identifying methods of the legal relationships between athletes and clubs under the“non-alliance”employment pattern, several suggestions are made for Chinses courts, such as to divide the professional sports employment patterns correctly, to use the fact-presumption for labor relations actively, and to consider the features of professional sports in taking economic subordination as the criterion rationally. A sports arbitration system is suggested to be established by the revised Sports Law, which provides that disputes from the“alliance”employment pattern and labor relations under the“non-alliance”employment pattern may be resolved by labor arbitration, meanwhile disputes from non-labor relations under the“non-alliance”employment pattern may be resolved by sports arbitration. However, the administrative sports disputes, such as registration, change of club, and disciplinary sanction under professional sports league,should be resolved by sports arbitration. All professional sports employment disputes may be resolved by sports arbitration through agreement by both parties.