Rejection of the action of the football player Kurt Zouma, a French international who had attacked AS Saint-Etienne before the industrial tribunal, believing that his fixed-term contract with the latter should be reclassified as a permanent contract.
A little more than two years ago, the football player Kurt Zouma, a French international, attacked AS Saint-Etienne before the industrial tribunal, believing that his fixed-term contract (CDD) with ASSE should be reclassified as an open-ended contract (CDI). In a judgment dated January 23, 2020 (n ° 17/07965), the Lyon Court of Appeal dismissed the former Stéphanois who played at the club between 2011 and 2014.
Facts
Trained by AS Saint-Etienne, Kurt Zouma signs a 3-year fixed-term contract with his training club. His performances being convincing, he signed on July 1, 2011 a professional contract with the club for a period of 3 years, until June 30, 2014.
This first professional contract was then the subject:
– A rider of January 2, 2012 providing for the extension of the contract for the duration of a sports season, ie until June 30, 2015 with a salary reassessment;
– An amendment of April 6, 2012 providing for an extension of the contract until June 30, 2016 with a new salary reassessment;
– A rider of February 4, 2013 again providing for a salary reassessment and various bonuses;
– A rider of August 26, 2013 providing for an extension of the contract until June 30, 2017 and a salary reassessment.
Mr. Zouma, who then multiplies the good performances with his club – the latter makes every effort to revise upward his salary conditions in order to keep the player in his workforce – despite all the solicitations of other clubs, in particular to the stranger.
However, during the 2013/14 season, talks began between ASSE and the English team of Chelsea FC with a view to transferring the player. After many negotiations, an agreement between the player and the two clubs is finally found. The Stéphane club breaks by common agreement the contract which binds it with its player by a termination endorsement of January 30, 2014 providing for the cancellation of the exceptional transfer premium to be paid by ASSE to the player, as stipulated in the article 8 of the addendum of February 4, 2013.
A new CDD is signed between the parties to regulate the end of the season scheduled for June 30, 2014. On July 1, 2014, the player officially leaves ASSE to join the ranks of the club in the English capital.
Everything seemed to be settled …
On January 12, 2015, Kurt Zouma now playing in England, requests his training club by claiming the payment of the sum of € 390,000 as an exceptional bonus on his transfer initially provided for in the endorsement to his employment contract of February 4 2013.
After having refused for the first time to comply with the request of the player who had previously expressly waived the benefit of this bonus when signing the amendment to terminate his employment contract with the club, ASSE finally accepts to sign a transaction with Kurt Zouma on July 30, 2015.
The Loire club then pays the sum of € 100,000 to the player in return for which the latter undertakes to waive all proceedings or actions relating to the execution and termination of the employment contract as well as its successive endorsements.
While everything seemed to be settled, the former Saint-Etienne pursues his former club by a petition procedure on July 18, 2016, by seizing the Labor Court of Saint-Etienne. His objective is clear, the player then aged 22, wishes to reclassify his CDD as a CDI, find the nullity of the endorsement to terminate the employment contract, note that the player’s waiver to benefit from the exceptional bonus was extorted by coercion and obtain various sums as compensation for requalification, dismissal, notice, damages and reminders of wages, paid holidays and bonuses.
In short, the dispute between the Stéphane club and its former player is at its peak.
The procedure
By a court decision, on October 16, 2017, the legal tribunal dismissed the French international and gave reason to ASSE.
The player appeals to the Lyon Court of Appeal, which rendered its judgment on January 23. The magistrates brought a certain number of important clarifications for the professional football clubs, which have the habit of multiplying the endorsements to the contracts which they make sign to the players according to the evolution of their sporting performances.
Thus, regarding the reclassification of the player’s fixed-term contracts as a permanent contract, the Court of Appeal decided to stick to the provisions of the Labor Code only. It recalled at the outset that article L 1471-1 of the Labor Code provides that “any action relating to the execution or termination of the employment contract is prescribed by two years from the day on which the person who exercises it knew or should have known the facts allowing him to exercise his right ”.
The magistrates also consider that the agreement signed by the parties on July 30, 2015, and aimed at settling the end of relations between them, did not make Kurt Zouma’s request to have his fixed-term contracts be reclassified as a permanent contract.
Consequently, the Court decided it was necessary to study whether the player’s request was time-barred under Article L 1471-1 of the Labor Code. Considering that the starting point of the two-year limitation period should be fixed at June 30, 2014 and the request of Kurt Zouma having been introduced on July 18, 2016 before the Labor Court of Saint-Etienne, the magistrates considered the request as prescribed, just as the first judges had held.
Regarding the player’s request to revert to the terms of the amicable agreement found with ASSE on July 30, 2015, concerning the payment of the sum of € 100,000 to the player in return for which the latter undertook to renounce all proceedings or actions relating to the execution and termination of the employment contract as well as its successive endorsements, the Court first recalls that under article 2044, paragraph 1 of the Civil Code, the transaction is “a contract by which the parties, by reciprocal concessions, terminate a dispute arising or prevent a dispute to arise. This contract must be drawn up in writing ”. The courts therefore concluded that the transaction had the force of res judicata for the dispute which it covers and for all the rights already born at the time of its conclusion. And consequently rejected the player’s request. The other points of this judgment are less interesting for our comments and we will not stop there.
What to conclude from it?
The Kurt Zouma vs. ASSE case highlights widely used customs and practices in professional football, namely a particularly rapid development in contractual relations between a player and a club. In this case, the parties sign an employment contract and no less than four endorsements relating to essential and substantial conditions of this contract are added, in just two years.
However, when seized of a dispute between the parties, it should be noted that the Lyon Court of Appeal did not immediately reject the possible reclassification of CDD as CDI on the grounds that professional sport is a sector of activity in which it is common practice not to use the CDI (articles L 1242-2 and D 1242-1 of the Labor Code). On the contrary, it should be considered that if the player’s request had not been time-barred, the Court could have granted it.
In addition, it considers that a transaction aimed at ending the dispute between the parties does not, however, extinguish the claims of seeing CDDs be requalified as CDIs.
If Kurt Zouma’s complaints have not succeeded before the Lyon Court of Appeal, the ruling in question must be read carefully by professional football clubs. The contractual habits of the latter must obviously be better regulated than they are today. At the risk for them of having to take out the checkbook more than they already do.
Thierry GRANTURCO is a lawyer at the Paris and Brussels Bars, specialist in sports law and new technologies. He has been active in professional football for over 20 years after having played at a high level at Olympique Lyonnais (OL). He also chairs, among other things, the Dodecagone investment fund.