The Barcelona player, currently on loan at Osasuna, will not be in action at Camp Nou this afternoon.
Ez Abde is one of the key absentees for Osasuna in their La Liga Santander Matchday 32 clash with Barcelona at Spotify Camp Nou.
Why doesn’t Ez Abde play Barcelona – Osasuna in La Liga 2022-23?
Abde, a Barcelona talent on loan to Osasuna, will miss Matchday 32 because the Pamplona club chose not to pay a transfer fee so the winger could be available. The reason often cited is the so-called fear clause. Osasuna did not want to risk exposing a top-performing player against the club that owns his economic rights. It is worth noting that Abde did feature in the previous game against Real Sociedad on Matchday 31, which did not incur a suspension despite a red card in a prior match against Cádiz.
What is the ‘fear clause’ in football?
Fear clauses are a familiar feature in Spanish football and recur across seasons. They are included in some loan agreements and allow the parent club to restrict the loaned player’s availability in certain matches to avoid harming the owner of the player’s economic rights. This is sometimes described as a safeguard for the investing club in the transfer arrangement.
What is it and how does it work?
When a loan contract contains such a clause and both clubs accept it, they agree to its terms. The clause prevents the loaning club from fielding the player in specific bouts against the club that owns the player’s rights. If the receiving club wants to count on the player, it may need to compensate the owning club with a predefined amount. In practice, deactivating the clause would require the player to meet his parent club and there would be a monetary payment stipulated in the contract for the right to play against the owner club.
FIFA discourages these practices
FIFA has cautioned against the use of fear clauses. The rules governing player status and transfers emphasize that contracts should not allow third parties to influence employment and transfer matters in a way that undermines the independence or performance of a club’s teams. In short, FIFA does not support such clauses in transfer agreements between clubs.
In Spain there are fear clauses and they are not illegal
While FIFA discourages them, fear clauses remain legal within domestic competitions in Spain. La Liga and the Royal Spanish Football Federation do not prohibit their inclusion if both clubs agree to it in the loan contract. This means that, under Spanish football regulations, a fear clause can be applied to prevent a loaned player from facing his parent club, though it is not mandatory in every loan agreement.
Free choice, consensual decision
Not all clubs opt to activate the fear clause, and many loan agreements do not even contemplate it. Yet there are cases where the clause is activated, with the borrowing club expected to pay a sum to the owner club to feature the player in matches against his parent side. A contrasting example is Atlético de Madrid’s loan of Samuel Lino to Valencia, where both clubs agreed there would be no fear clause. In the Ez Abde case, Osasuna would owe a financial amount to Barcelona if it wants to play the winger against his parent club.