User:Mebsbender/sandbox/New Football Law (Colombia)

New article name goes here new article content ... The New Football Law was signed on May 12th, 2011 by Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos. The Law was created to make sure that a Professional Football Club would be punished by suspension or annulment of the club if it did not pay its players. The law was the result of the abuse many Colombian Professional Football Clubs, which had led to a financial crisis where the clubs could not pay their players anymore. The law was created in hopes of maintaining control over Colombian Professional Football Clubs.

Background on Colombian Professional Football Clubs There are only two types of corporate structures that are permitted to operate a Colombian Professional Football Club, which are a non-profit organization or stock/corporate company. The owner of the club can choose a non-profit organization regulated by the Civil Code to be associated with the program or the owner can choose a stock or corporation company regulated by the Commerce Code to be associated with the team. The difference between having the club associated with a non-profit organization or stock/corporation is the intentions behind each corporate structure. A non-profit organization only seeks to be associated with the team and represented by them and does not look for any profits from the team while the stock or corporate company seeks for the well being of their stockholders and as well as profits from the team. However there were no regulations for these corporate structures. Giving these corporate structures the freedom to use the profits however they want such as the unlawful action of laundering money. It was found that even non-profit organizations were actually using the profits from the teams for their benefit. This was the issue in Colombian Professional Football Clubs the owners would allow third parties to operate the clubs and they would use the club’s money for the benefit of the corporate structure in the end the club would not have enough to pay their players. Drug cartels became involved in football and clubs and would use them as a way to launder their money. In the beginning, there is a lot of money in the club, but in the end when the cartel goes down so does the club and all of its money with it.

Statement The Football Law states that a person or company cannot own more than one Professional Football Team so that there is fair competition between teams. There is a cap to how many stockholders are allowed within the Professional Football Clubs. This creates economic stability in the club and equal participation among stockholders in the club. Supervises the financial operations of non-profit organizations preventing illegal actions. Professional Football Clubs must become private limited companies. In general, there will be a strict monitoring of investors and investments in the club. The club must submit their budgets annually to the government to make sure that all the salaries of the club are covered. If the club does not meet up to the standards of the law then the club can face punishment if the club does not pay players within 60 days it can lose its professional license not allowing the club to participate in competition. If the club refuses to pay the salaries of players the government can even disband the team. The Football Law closely monitors the money of Professional Football Clubs.

The New Colombian Football The New Football Law will organize football in Colombia and there will be penalties if the club does not comply with the law. To not have unlawful activities continue to influence Colombian Football. To avoid the unlawful use of money and have unlawful organizations be associated with a club. The hope of the new law is to change Colombian Football in that the clubs will comply with these principles and treat their players right and respect their rights. Colombian Football will be respected and make Colombians proud.