In our case, the question of the existence of an employee-employer relationship between the plaintiff and Hapoel Katamon arises because no contract was signed between the parties from which we can learn about the purpose of the engagement between them. However, it is my opinion that the above statements are important for our case because they indicate the existence of an international practice in which amateur players take part in the team in exchange only for covering expenses and without establishing an employment relationship. The Association's position that a situation in which a soccer player may participate in a team without his participation in it will make him an employee is in line with what is customary in the world in the football industry.
I will note that since the association is the body that coordinates the activities of all the leagues in Israel, its position should be given appropriate weight. This is especially the case where the plaintiff, for his part, did not prove the opposite. In other words, the plaintiff did not prove that he or any of the other players who were defined as volunteers believed that the relationship with the team was supposed to establish a working relationship. Moreover, the plaintiff himself claimed that prior to his participation in Hapoel Katamon he was active in other teams, but he did not claim or prove that there was an employee-employer relationship between him and any of them in a manner that may have implications for the hearing in our case.
My conclusion, therefore, is that the practice that has taken root in the lower leagues is that the parties do not see the relationship between them as a labor relationship, and therefore there is no room to shake up an entire industry by determining that such a relationship does indeed exist between them, especially since this involves bureaucratic organization that has not negligible economic significance. I will argue that the question of the costs of establishing an employee-employer relationship between the parties is within the scope of the knowledge of the judges, and therefore I find it difficult to accept the plaintiff's claim that it is a matter of a few hundred shekels per month.