Universal Declaration of Players Rights

The world’s leading player associations unveiled the Universal Declaration of Player Rights (the Declaration) to protect players from ongoing and systemic human rights violations in global sport. The Declaration, the first comprehensive articulation of athletes’ rights, sets a benchmark for international sporting organisations to meet their obligations to protect, respect and guarantee the fundamental rights of players.

“The rule books of world sport impose thousands of pages of onerous obligations, but none clearly spell out the internationally recognised human rights of athletes,” said Brendan Schwab, Executive Director of the World Players Association. “The result is an unjust system of sports law that lacks legitimacy and fails to protect the very people who sit at the heart of sport. We are making it clear that athlete rights can no longer be ignored. They must be able to quickly access justice.”

The implementation of the principles set out in the Declaration will introduce long overdue reforms to the governance of sport.