Accident security

If the player contract is an employment contract and the player earns over EUR 13,180 gross from sports, the club must provide athletes' accident and pension insurance coverage.

A player’s accident coverage is determined on the basis of the terms and conditions of licence insurance and/or the provisions of the Act on athletes' accident and pension cover. The terms and conditions of licence insurance policies and their content are determined primarily on the basis of terms and conditions. You should always take them out.

As a general rule, licence insurance policies cover treatment expenses up to a certain amount and permanent injuries based on the degree of disability. However, they do not contain terms and conditions on employment accident pension or daily benefits. If your player contract is not an employment contract or you earn under EUR 11,400 gross from sports, a licence insurance policy is practically the only insurance policy that can pay compensation to you. In addition, players may be entitled to compensation under the Health Insurance Act in the same way as all citizens as a rule.

If the player contract is an employment contract and the player earns over EUR 11,400 gross from sports (the euro-denominated threshold can change annually), the club must provide athletes' accident and pension insurance coverage. This insurance policy covers losses caused by an accident. An accident is a sudden and unexpected event caused by an external factor, such as another player, that causes injury or sickness.

The accident must take place in connection with a match or sports event or in instructed, supervised or training programme-related training or while the athlete is moving from home or accommodation to the location of a competition, match or training or back or on match, competition or training journey in activities pursuant to the training programme or while the athlete is representing the club or community in an event by order of the sports club or on the journey to such an event or back.

Insurance can also pay compensation when there is no accident for a muscle or tendon suddenly becoming sore while performing a stressful individual movement. However, no compensation is paid if the injury is caused by a disease, its primary cause is probably a previous injury or weakening of tissue or tissue damage due to another reason. Usually, a repetitive strain injury without an accident will not be compensated.

The most important losses to be compensated include treatment expenses caused by the injury, compensation for permanent defect and handicap and employment accident pension as a result of incapacity for sports and permanent incapacity for work if the player is unable to do any other work (such as quadriplegia). Fortunately, practice injuries are typically not severe enough for a player to never be able to work again. Often, it is a question of the player not being able to professionally practise their profession, i.e. playing football. In that case, employment accident pension can be granted for five years. In practice, the player is often rehabilitated. In principle, employment accident pension involves a waiting period of 300 days; however, during this time, the player is entitled to daily benefits pursuant to the Health Insurance Act. After this period, the player has right to employment accident pension. The employment accident pension amounts to 85% of the player’s annual earnings from sports (“annual earnings”). In calculating the annual earnings, however, the maximum amount is EUR 100,000. Primarily, if the person is able to do other work during the employment accident pension and is paid for it, the pension to be paid is decreased by the amount of said wages in practice.

Employment accident pension-related matters are quite difficult medical and legal problems in practice. Therefore, you should contact experts immediately after injury. It is very important that the mechanism of the injury is described correctly in the medical records, the patient’s own feelings are recorded accurately and care history is entered correctly in the document with regard to the timeline. Recent legal practice has not prevented receiving compensation in cases of multiple injuries in which several injuries combined cause incapacity for sports, but none of them alone is enough to do so. Compensation has also been paid as employment accident pension in such cases.

I was injured in a match and my leg required an operation. Unfortunately, the insurance company was not willing to compensate for my care right away, claiming medical reasons. I contacted the Players Union and was given instructions on how to deal with it right away. Without the union, I would not not have begun a new attempt to seek compensation and I would not have received part of the compensation. The union gave me excellent expert assistance. -Aftab Hushyar