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Grignani - Studio Legale

On the number 22/2019 of Labor Law and Practice an article by Avv. Andrea Loro on the subject of amateur sports work.

Within our legal system, it is not possible to find a definition of “amateur athlete”. On the contrary, there is a legal definition of a “professional sportsman” that can be found in the specific definition standard contained in art. 2, law n. 91/1981, dedicated exclusively to professional sports.
The aforementioned article states: “athletes, coaches, technical sports directors and athletic trainers are professional athletes, who exercise sports for consideration with continuity in the disciplines regulated by the CONI and who achieve the qualification by the national sports federations, according to the norms issued by the federations themselves, with the observance of the directives established by the CONI for the distinction between amateur and professional activity ”.
With reference to the last of the requirements of the aforementioned regulation, it is specified that the sports federations that provide for “the distinction between amateur and professional activity” are only football, basketball, cycling and golf, all at the male level. All the other sports disciplines (and all women’s sports) fall within the scope of amateurism.

The following art. 3 specifies that the professional athlete’s work carried out for consideration is regulated by an employment contract, with the application of the special discipline envisaged by the aforementioned law. The figure of the amateur athlete, therefore, can be defined exclusively as “opposite” taking as a reference the aforementioned norms.