International transfers of underage athletes: Ecuadorian regulatory framework
Keywords:
International transfer, sport, minor, best interestAbstract
Although there are regulations regarding the international transfer of players in soccer, based on various mobility situations, it is noted that these regulations are lacking for other sports disciplines, which in Ecuador have also begun to generate talent. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to establish the regulatory bases within the Ecuadorian legal framework for the international transfer of underage athletes. The study had a qualitative, specifically hermeneutic approach, and combined documentary review with analysis and synthesis. Overall, it was concluded that, while there is a general regulatory basis related to the protection of the best interests of minors, there is no clear framework for their international transfers as amateur or professional athletes, as appropriate. Regulations in this regard should consider elements such as consistency with other previous regulations, maintaining the 16-year limit for beginning an employment relationship in the case of professional sports, and creating conditions for creating explicit legal frameworks between the sending and receiving countries of the player to be transferred.
Downloads
References
AC Afición Central. (2025). Ecuador en la cima: el ascenso imparable en competencias deportivas internacionales. https://aficioncentral.com/public/noticias/ecuatorianos/ecuador-en-la-cima-el-ascenso-imparable-en-competencias-deportivas-internacionales/42484/
Cáceres Lara, M. (2022). Relaciones laborales de los deportistas profesionales en Chile y en la legislación internacional. Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. https://obtienearchivo.bcn.cl/obtienearchivo?id=repositorio/10221/33537/2/BCN__relacion_laboral__deportistas_profesionales_Chile_y_nivel_internacional__MC.pdf
Canal Gomara, X. A. (2016). El difícil encaje del artículo 19 del Reglamento sobre el Esta-tuto y la Transferencia de Jugadores con la Convención Internacional de los Dere-chos del Niño. En A. Millán Garrido (Ed.), Derecho del fútbol: presente y futuro (pp. 10-21). Reus.
Corte Constitucional del Ecuador. (2021). Sentencia No. 2-13-IN y acumulado/21, Casos No. 2-13-IN y 31-19-IN. https://esacc.corteconstitucional.gob.ec/storage/api/v1/10_DWL_FL/e2NhcnBldGE6J3RyYW1pdGUnLCB1dWlkOic3MTQ1NGUyYi04ZTdhLTRjYTUtOTgzNS0wY2NmMjg3OGQ5NzcucGRmJ30=
Duque, M. (2024). Ecuador: Seleccionados menores de edad sin protocolos de protección. https://www.expreso.ec/deportes/ecuador-seleccionados-menores-edad-protocolos-proteccion-196679.html
Ecuador. Asamblea Nacional Constituyente. (2008). Constitución de la República del Ecuador. Registro Oficial 449. https://www.oas.org/juridico/pdfs/mesicic4_ecu_const.pdf
Ecuador. Asamblea Nacional. (2010). Ley del Deporte, Educación Física y Recreación. Re-gistro Oficial, Suplemento 255. https://www.asambleanacional.gob.ec/documentos/LEY-DEPORTES-.pdf
Ecuador. Congreso Nacional. (1994). Ley del Futbolista Profesional. Registro Oficial, Su-plemento 462. https://www.lexis.com.ec/biblioteca/ley-futbolista-profesional
Ecuador. Congreso Nacional. (2003). Código de la Niñez y Adolescencia. Registro Oficial, 737. https://www.igualdad.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2019/12/codigo_ninez_adolescencia_nov2019.pdf
Ecuador. Congreso Nacional. (2005). Código del Trabajo. Registro Oficial Suplemento 167. https://www.trabajo.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2024/01/CODIGO_DEL_TRABAJO.pdf
Ecuador. Ministerio del Deporte. (2022). Estudios definitivos para la optimización de in-fraestructura deportiva con miras a la realización de eventos internacionales. https://www.deporte.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2023/03/2022-10-06_Estudios-Definitivos-signed-signed.pdf#page=28.71
Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol. (2020). Reglamento del Jugador de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol. https://www.fef.ec/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/REGLAMENTO-DEL-JUGADOR-DE-LA-FEF.pdf
Fédération Internationale de Football Association. (2020). Protection of minors. Guide to submitting a minor application. FIFA. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/2130eb84c31cf4e4/original/lb2t6bqgmi2a1x1pr5xs-pdf.pdf#page=2.99
Fédération Internationale de Football Association. (2022). Circular No. 1787. FIFA. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/7d24416c1221a0e4/original/-1787_Temporary-rules-addressing-the-exceptional-situation-deriving-from-the-war-in-Ukraine_ES.pdf
Fédération Internationale de Football Association. (2023). Commentary on the Regula-tions on the Status and Transfer of Players. FIFA. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/40da0f707efdd011/original/FIFA-Commentary-on-the-FIFA-Regulations-for-the-Status-and-Transfer-of-Players-2023-edition.pdf
Fédération Internationale de Football Association. (2025). Reglamento sobre el Estatuto y la Transferencia de Jugadores incl. marco reglamentario provisional. FIFA. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/3bcd407e3ec4839e/original/Reglamento-sobre-el-Estatuto-y-la-Transferencia-de-Jugadores-EdiciSn-de-enero-de-2025.pdf
Fernández Ortega, J. A., Rodríguez Buitrago, J. A., & Sánchez Rodríguez, D. A. (2021). Aspectos centrales de la identificación y desarrollo de talentos deportivos: revisión sistemática. Retos, 39, 915-928. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/7590956.pdf
Forde, P. (2025). La Generación Migrante: el fenómeno del portal de transferencia. Sports Illustrated México. https://www.si.com/mx/basquetbol/la-generacion-migrante-el-fenomeno-del-portal-de-transferencia
Güler, D., Güler, Y., Cengiz, C., Tuncel, S., & Karayiğit, R. (2024). Investigating child abuse in sports: An ecological systems perspective. Children, 11(12), 1487. https://doi.org/10.3390/children11121487
Güllich, A. (2017). International medallists' and non-medallists' developmental sport ac-tivities: A matched-pairs analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(23), 2281-2288. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1265662
Human Rights Watch. (2020). They’re chasing us away from sport”: Human rights viola-tions in sex testing of elite women athletes. https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/12/04/theyre-chasing-us-away-sport/human-rights-violations-sex-testing-elite-women
Jijón Chiriboga, I. S. (2022, febrero 14). Régimen legal de la contratación de adolescen-tes en el fútbol profesional ecuatoriano. USFQ Law Working Papers. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4034806
Latorre Román, P. Á., Garcia Pinillos, F., & López Robles, J. (2018). Early sport dropout: High performance in early years in young athletes is not related with later success. Retos, 33, 210-212. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v0i33.58225
Organización de las Naciones Unidas. (1989). Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño. https://www.un.org/es/events/childrenday/pdf/derechos.pdf
Ospina Ramírez, M. (2023). La protección de los menores de edad en la práctica del fút-bol organizado. Un análisis al reglamento FIFA sobre las transferencias internaciona-les [Tesis de maestría, Universidad Externado de Colombia].
Palazzo, I. (2016). La transferencia internacional del futbolista. Difusión Jurídica.
Rodríguez, J., & Sánchez, J. (2016). El lío de los apellidos de los hijos de Zidane. El Mun-do: https://www.elmundo.es/deportes/2016/01/16/56997ec322601d98228b464e.html
Ros Alvarez, D., Ruiz Angulo, K. P., Habid Barrera, A. J., & Montece Castillo, O. A. (2025). Vacíos legales en la protección de adolescentes futbolistas en Ecuador: análisis mul-tidimensional bajo la doctrina de protección integral. Revista Metropolitana de Cien-cias Aplicadas, 8(3), 167-183. https://doi.org/10.62452/vqabqv98
Sinning Viana, D. A., & Robles Flórez, J. D. (2021). Régimen de protección FIFA en la transferencia internacional de menores futbolistas. Universidad del Rosario. https://repository.urosario.edu.co/server/api/core/bitstreams/7473d035-cbb8-4c69-b8f7-7164e215f853/content
Zhang, Y., Wang, F., Szakál, Z., Bíró, Z., Kovács, M., Őrsi, B., & Kovács, K. (2024). Why do students drop out of regular sport in late adolescent? The experience of a sys-tematic review. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1416558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1416558
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Pedro Mauricio Peña-Camacho, Jorge Alfredo Mendoza-Garces, Rolando Medina-Peña, Duniesky Alfonso-Caveda
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in Revista UGC agree to the following terms:
1. Copyright
Authors retain unrestricted copyright to their work. Authors grant the journal the right of first publication. To this end, they assign the journal non-exclusive exploitation rights (reproduction, distribution, public communication, and transformation). Authors may enter into additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal, provided that acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal is given.
© The authors.
2. License
The articles are published in the journal under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The terms can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en
This license allows:
- Sharing: Copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format.
- Adapting: Remixing, transforming, and building upon the material.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes were made. You may do this in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses or sponsors your use.
- NonCommercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
- ShareAlike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your creation under the same license as the original work.
There are no additional restrictions. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
