案例摘要：

在Wigan Athletic v. Heart of Midlothian & Webster (30 January 2008)案中，体育仲裁院（the Court of Arbitration for Sport，CAS） 认定，某职业足球运动员没有正当理由终止合同后需付的赔偿，应相当于该球员依合同应可获得的剩余的报酬。

Mr Andrew Webster is a professional football player. In 2001, he signed an employment contract with Heart of Midlothian PLC ("Hearts"). In 2003, a new employment contract was concluded providing for a term of four years until 30 June 2007. Between January and April 2006, Webster turned down several offers by Hearts to extend the contract. During the same period, he was not selected for several games. After seeking advice from the Scottish Professional Footballer's Association ("SPFA"), he terminated his contract by invoking its clause 18 and claiming a fundamental breakdown in trust. Upon the advice of the SPFA, Webster notified Hearts that he was also unilaterally terminating his contract on the basis of article 17 of the FIFA Status Regulations, i.e. irrespective of the existence of a just cause.

On 9 August 2006, Andrew Webster signed a three-year employment contract with Wigan Athletic AFC Limited ("Wigan"). Neither Webster nor Wigan offered Hearts any compensation upon Webster's departure. Hearts filed a claim against Webster and Wigan in front of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber ("DRC") claiming for compensation in the amount of GBP 5 million. The DRC held that Webster had breached the employment contract without just cause and condemned him, together with Wigan, to pay GBP 625'000 to Hearts.

All parties appealed for different reasons to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The CAS panel relied on Article 17 of the FIFA Status Regulations, which provides that a party who has terminated a contract without just cause shall pay compensation. It came to the conclusion that the DRC had failed to give reasons for its findings when determining the level of compensation owed and that, therefore, the CAS was to issue a new decision on the quantum.

The CAS panel held that it sees no economic, moral or legal justification for a club to be able to claim the market value of a player as lost profit since "it is clear that a club cannot simply assume it is the only source of success of a player and thus claim his entire market value". Instead the CAS panel found it more appropriate to take account of the fact that under a fixed-term employment contract as in the case at hand both parties (club and player) have a similar interest and expectation that the term of the contract will be respected. Thus, just as the player would be entitled in principle to the outstanding remuneration due until expiry of the term of the contract in case of unilateral termination by the club, the club should be entitled to receive an equivalent amount in case of termination by the player. Webster and Wigan were therefore condemned to pay an amount of GBP 150'000 to Hearts, this being the remuneration remaining due to Webster under the employment contract upon its date of termination. Parties: Wigan Athletic AFC Limited v. Heart of Midlothian PLC & Andrew Webster, case no: CAS 2007/A/1298, 1299, 1300, Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Switzerland.