On the determination of whether or not there is an employee-employer relationship, employee-employer relationship is a question of jurisprudence. It's reasonably well settled, but the facts are always different in every case. So every case requires a separate analysis.
Generally speaking, you would not expect a player who is in a relationship, say, with a team or a coach to be in an employer-employee relationship. They are in a player-coach relationship. That said, once the team begins to pay non-accountable cash allowances, even if it is for something like room and board, there is really nothing more basic in terms of remuneration than that, and that is very suggestive that there is in fact an employer-employee relationship. So this is one of the factors that would have been looked at by the Canada Revenue Agency.
I am also aware, or at least I have been told, that there was a case several years ago of a junior hockey player who ceased to play for the team—I don't remember what the reasons were—who sought employment insurance benefits, and as a result of a review by the Canada Revenue Agency, it was decided that the former player was entitled to those benefits as a result of that employer-employee relationship.