Yasin Patel comments on the major potential impacts of the Employment Rights Act on the football industry, in City AM
- 19 February 2026
- SLAM
Yasin Patel has provided comment in City AM on what the upcoming Employment Rights Act, due to come into force in 2027, will mean for the sports industry, in particular the impacts of the removal of the cap on pay-outs for unfair dismissal for the football industry.
Discussing what the Act will mean for the industry as a whole, Yasin said: “The changes in 2027 will have significant effects upon professional sports including in football. In an industry where there is a great deal of casual labour and many on zero-hour contracts, they will now have some rights and protections – things many have not enjoyed.
“Footballers will have increased workplace rights – those rights include further leave entitlements, sexual harassment protections, better work conditions and most importantly, unfair dismissal protections and potentially greater compensation for unfair dismissal.
He went on to highlight why pay-outs may rise significantly, noting: “With the cap removed, clubs could have to pay players higher pay-outs due to actual loss of earnings over a longer period as opposed to the capped figure. A footballer’s playing time is limited, in some cases less than 15 years – this law change therefore could be very significant, especially when consider players who are loaned out by parent clubs as they no longer want them there and want to effectively force them to leave, or players who are made to train with “bomb-squads”. In most industries, constructive dismissal is compensated properly and punished – professional football in the UK seems to have been immune to it with footballers having few rights, which is now set to change.
“Professional football clubs will now have to pay greater attention to the employment rights of a footballer – something that most footballers will say used to only apply to the very few and elite footballers at the top.”
Yasin’s comments were published in City AM, both online and in print, 18 February 2026.
