{"id":25195,"date":"2026-03-20T15:40:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valloni.ch\/2026\/03\/20\/the-legal-protection-of-minors-in-football-in-germany\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:41:00","slug":"the-legal-protection-of-minors-in-football-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valloni.ch\/de\/2026\/03\/20\/the-legal-protection-of-minors-in-football-in-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF MINORS IN FOOTBALL IN GERMANY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-25193\" src=\"https:\/\/valloni.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/THE-LEGAL-PROTECTION-OF-MINORS-IN-FOOTBALL-IN-GERMANY-VALLONI-2026-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/valloni.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/THE-LEGAL-PROTECTION-OF-MINORS-IN-FOOTBALL-IN-GERMANY-VALLONI-2026-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/valloni.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/THE-LEGAL-PROTECTION-OF-MINORS-IN-FOOTBALL-IN-GERMANY-VALLONI-2026-1-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/valloni.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/THE-LEGAL-PROTECTION-OF-MINORS-IN-FOOTBALL-IN-GERMANY-VALLONI-2026-1-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/valloni.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/THE-LEGAL-PROTECTION-OF-MINORS-IN-FOOTBALL-IN-GERMANY-VALLONI-2026-1-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/valloni.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/THE-LEGAL-PROTECTION-OF-MINORS-IN-FOOTBALL-IN-GERMANY-VALLONI-2026-1-700x1050.png 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The protection of minors, that is persons under the age of 18 years old, in association football in Germany, is focussed on safeguarding them from abuse, violence, and exploitation, which is overseen by the German Football Association (<em>D<\/em><em>eutscher Fu\u00dfball-Bund<\/em>\u00a0(DFB)) and the corresponding legal regulations.<\/p>\n<p>The key protections include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Strict parental consent for contracts<\/em>;<\/li>\n<li><em>FIFA-mandated transfer restrictions for under-18-year-olds<\/em>; and<\/li>\n<li><em>Bans on agents\u2019 fees for representing minors<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The key legal measures for protecting minors include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Legal Protections under the German Civil Code (B\u00fcrgerliches Gesetzbuch)<\/em>:\u00a0contracts for minors must be approved by their parents or their legal guardians.<\/li>\n<li><em>DFB Child Safeguarding<\/em>:\u00a0the DFB mandates that football clubs must create safe environments, often requiring background checks for coaches and trainers to prevent violence or harassment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Transfer Restrictions<\/em>:\u00a0FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players prohibit international transfers of minors, with only limited exceptions, which are strictly monitored to prevent trafficking.<\/p>\n<p><em>Agent Regulation:<\/em>\u00a0In Germany, it is prohibited for clubs or players to pay agents for the representation of minors, a rule, which has been upheld by courts, to protect young players from being moved solely for financial reasons.<\/p>\n<p><em>Agent Contracts:\u00a0<\/em>Any representation contract with a minor must be signed by the player&#8217;s legal guardian and adhere to strict ethical guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>These Regulations, supported by the DFB, aim to protect the physical and mental integrity of young players.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, Germany follows the Council of Europe \u201cStart to Talk\u201d initiative (2018-2019), which is designed to encourage organisations to take concrete action against sexual abuse of children in sport, although Germany has its own \u201cNo Room for Abuse\u201d (<em>Kein Raum f\u00fcr Missbrauch<\/em>) initiative, which was launched in 2013 by the Independent Federal Commissioner Against Child Sexual Abuse (<em>Unabh\u00e4ngige Beauftragte f\u00fcr Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p><strong>We advise on all aspects of the legal protection of minors in sport in Germany and further information is available from Dr Lucien Valloni and Oliver Fischer by emailing them at \u2018valloni@valloni.ch\u2019 and <a href=\"mailto:fischer@valloni.ch\">fischer@valloni.ch<\/a> respectively.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The protection of minors, that is persons under the age of 18 years old, in association football in Germany, is focussed on safeguarding them from abuse, violence, and exploitation, which is overseen by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fu\u00dfball-Bund\u00a0(DFB)) and the corresponding legal regulations. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[639,363,236,621,665],"class_list":["post-25195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-de","tag-sportslaw-valloni","tag-dfb-de","tag-germany-de","tag-minors","tag-protectionofminors"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF MINORS IN FOOTBALL IN GERMANY - Valloni<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/valloni.ch\/de\/2026\/03\/20\/the-legal-protection-of-minors-in-football-in-germany\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF MINORS IN FOOTBALL IN GERMANY - Valloni\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The protection of minors, that is persons under the age of 18 years old, in association football in Germany, is focussed on safeguarding them from abuse, violence, and exploitation, which is overseen by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fu\u00dfball-Bund\u00a0(DFB)) and the corresponding legal regulations. 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