Universal Declaration of Players’ Rights

Protect, Respect, Remedy

Every player has the right to a sporting environment that is well governed, free of corruption, manipulation and cheating, and protects, respects and guarantees the fundamental human rights of everyone involved in or affected by sport, including the player.

Access to Sport

Every player has the right to access and pursue sport as a career and profession based solely on merit.

Equality of Opportunity

1. Every player is entitled to equality of opportunity in the pursuit of sport without distinction of any kind and free of discrimination, harassment, and violence.
2. A player’s right to pursue sport cannot be limited because of his or her race, colour, birth, age, language, sexual orientation, gender, pregnancy, religion, political or other opinion, responsibilities as a carer, property, or other status.

Rights of the Child

Every player who is a minor is entitled to the opportunity to freely pursue sport in an inclusive, adapted, and safe manner, and to have his or her rights as a child protected, respected, and guaranteed.

Right to Work

Every player has the right to work and the free choice of employment as an athlete, and to move freely in pursuit of that work and employment.

Rights to Organize & Collectively Bargain

1. Every player has the right to organize and collectively bargain.
2. Every player has the right to form and join player and athlete associations and unions for the protection of his or her interests.

Right to Share in Economic Activity & Wealth

Every player has the right to share fairly in the economic activity and wealth of his or her sport, which players have helped generate.

Fair & Just Working Conditions

1. Every player has the right to just and favourable remuneration and conditions of work, including a minimum wage, fair hours of work, rest, leisure, the protection of wages, the certainty of a secure contract, and the protection of his or her status as a worker within the employment relationship.
2. Every player, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. A player has the right to negotiate the terms and conditions upon which he or she is involved in sport and to be represented by persons and organizations of his or her choosing in those negotiations.
4. A player must only be bound by terms and conditions which are legitimately made and administered through collective bargaining or to which he or she has freely and genuinely consented.

Promotion of Physical Health, Mental Health & Social Wellbeing

1. Every player must be provided with a safe and secure workplace and sporting environment, which promotes the player’s safety, physical and mental health, and his or her social wellbeing.
2. A player must be treated and supported with utmost integrity by healthcare professionals when injured or ill, and have direction and control over that treatment and support.
3. A player’s workplace and sporting environment must be protected from both internal and external risks to his or her safety, health and wellbeing. A player is entitled to decide on the measures necessary to ensure the safety and security of the workplace and sporting environment and to take any action reasonably necessary to avoid those risks or prevent them from materializing.

Right to Education

To achieve fully his or her human potential and personality, every player has the right to an education and the pursuit of work and life beyond sport supplemented by the resources of the sport.

Right to Privacy & the Protection of Personal Data

Every player has the right to a private life, privacy, and protection in relation to the collection, storage, and transfer of personal data.

Protection of Name, Image & Performance

Every player is entitled to have his or her name, image, and performance protected. A player’s name, image, and performance may only be commercially utilized with his or her consent, voluntarily given.

Freedom of Opinion & Expression

Every player has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Protection of & Equity Before the Law

Every player has the right to the protection of the law and equality before it.

Right to Due Process

Every player is entitled to due process including, where charged, to the presumption of innocence. Any penalty must be lawful, proportionate and just.

Right to an Effective Remedy

Every player is entitled to have any dispute resolved through an impartial and expeditious grievance mechanism in which the player has an equal say in the appointment of the grievance panel, arbitrator or other decision-making person or body. His or her sport must ensure he or she is provided with access to an effective remedy where his or her rights under this Declaration have not been protected or respected.

Duty to Respect the Rights of Others

Every player has a duty to respect the rights of his or her fellow players under this Declaration, and to respect the fundamental human rights of everyone involved with or affected by sport.