The contract between the governing board and the executive director should include a term of years.

FORBES: 5 Must-Haves in an Executive Director's Employment Agreement

Linfield are now consulting with their lawyers over the governing body's attempt to end the contract.

BBC: SPORT | Football | Irish | Linfield blast IFA over Windsor

In return for this autonomy, the schools must live up to a contract, or charter, signed with the governing authority in their state.

CNN: Documentaries spark education debate

But White, whose contract expires on 31 December, said he was angry at the way the governing body had acted.

BBC: White confirms South Africa exit

Football's governing body handed out a ban until 2011 after they found the Blues guilty of inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007.

BBC: Transfer embargo hope for Chelsea

Our political and civic institutions distribute goods and services, along with the income derived from those goods and services according to the contracts we negotiate at the individual level and the social contract we negotiate whenever we elect the people who we hope will serve our enlightened self-interest in governing the country.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down