Professional footballers' union calls for new pension regime

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In late 2000, the Portuguese Professional Footballers' Union is calling for a special state pensions scheme to cover professional sportspeople, as part of the current implementation of the new Basic Social Security Law. The union wants professional sportspeople's pensions to reflect their earnings when playing professionally, rather than the lower incomes that they often receive between ending their sport career and retiring.

The new Basic Social Security Law (Law No. 17/2000) was published on 8 August 2000 and will come into effect in February 2001 (PT0007100F). Taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the discussions on the reform of the social security system, the Professional Footballers' Union (Sindicato dos Jogadores Profissionais de Futebol, SJPF) is seeking a revision of the social security framework that currently covers professional sportspeople.

At present, professional footballers fall under the general social security regime governing workers employed by third parties. However, they are entitled to declare only one-fifth of their income for the purpose of calculating their social security contributions; on the other hand, they do not enjoy the right to social security payments in the event of illness or medical treatment (benefits that are provided by their clubs). When they stop working as professional sportspeople, they take up other activities that normally involve a much lower level of remuneration than they previously enjoyed. Given that state retirement pensions may generally only be paid from the age of 65 and that the level of the pension is calculated on the basis of the contributions paid during the 15 years prior to retirement, ex-sportspeople cannot take advantage of the higher contributions which they paid when they were playing professionally.

The Professional Footballers' Union considers this to be unfair and is calling for a reduction to 55 of the age at which retirement pensions can be claimed by professional sportspeople, as well as their calculation on the basis of the contributions paid during five of the last eight years of professional sporting activity and the five best years in a subsequent job.

To some extent the solution that has been adopted in the new Basic Social Security Law falls halfway between the existing situation and the solution sought by SJPF. In effect, the new law provides that the calculation of retirement pensions will gradually and progressively come to be based on the value (updated to reflect inflation) of the work income earned throughout the period over which pension contributions have been paid. In any case, given the generic nature of the provisions of the Basic Law and the fact that it requires implementation through subsequent regulations, it may still be possible to introduce specific rules for professional sportspeople - all the more so as the law recognises the need to define specific regimes that respond to a variety of circumstances, such as the diverse nature of the different types of professional activity, the nature of the risks in question and the length of the period during which a person has paid contributions.