The development of young players was identified as the most pressing problem in English football at the moment, at a conference in London entitled ‘Future of Football: The Conference 2007’. Howard Wilkinson, Chairman of the League Manager’s Association, hit the nail on the head when he told delegates: “The players that we are developing are not good enough to compete with those coming in [to the Premier League]”.

Think about this comment for a minute. There has been much talk about the number of foreign players that compete in the Premier League. FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter has said that he wants a ‘quota’ system to limit the number of foreign players in squads, and UEFA President Michel Platini, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Reading Manager Steve Coppell and Liverpool Captain Steven Gerrard have all agreed that this appears a good idea. It was pointed out today that 55% of Premier League players are foreign. Leaving aside the legal difficulties with imposing such a quota, limiting the undeniable input of foreign players into the English game is not the answer, for reasons explained below.

Any football supporter, when pressed, will be able to name a handful of French, Italian and Spanish players that compete in the Premier League. However, ask that same fan to name a handful of English players that play in France, Italy or Spain and they will struggle. Our young players are simply not good enough to make the grade, either in our own league, or abroad, as Wilkinson pointed out in his comment above. The former England Manager outlined that there are perhaps just 70 players that Steve McClaren has to choose from when forming an England squad and, when you add injuries and suspensions, that number is substantially reduced. A panel of Managers consisting of Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Sam Allardyce (Newcastle United), Alan Curbishley (West Ham United) and Lawrie Sanchez (Fulham) agreed that not enough young English players are coming through the youth player development system.

Clearly, something needs to be done about this problem to halt the decline of the England national team. A delegate from Tottenham Hotspur pointed out that French and Portuguese children of between 12 and 16 train eight times a week, compared to between three to six times a week for English children of the same age. “This is not a football problem [in terms of responsibility], however this is where it has got to”, said Allardyce, who complained about the decline of sport in schools, expressing hope that London’s hosting of the 2012 London Olympics might spur some investment into the development of youth sport.

‘Future of Football: The Conference 2007’, organised by Circa Group, provided an excellent environment in which to identify and discuss some of the main issues affecting football today. The issue of foreign player quotas was perhaps the most pressing ‘legal’ issue, however if you would like some more information on other issues raised, please get in touch.

Andy Brown

Christian Salomon of Infront, the provider of host broadcast services for FIFA’s World Cup, revealed that Empire of Sports, a virtual world in which players compete through their ‘avatars’ to win sporting competitions, will be launched tomorrow. Salomon, who is Head of Marketing and Sales for Empire of Sports, said at the International Sports Media Summit, hosted in Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, that Infront was using its network of rights agreements with international federations, national associations and clubs to get sporting organisations involved in the project.

Infront will announce that Empire of Sports will involve four virtual cities and seven sports, including football, basketball, tennis and skiing. Players will have to train, eat the right food and buy the right equipment, as well as practice to improve their performance, and Salomon said that a number of licensing agreements with ‘real world’ sporting brands had been concluded.

Salomon said that players not interested in becoming virtual sporting stars could sign up to become Chairman, Chief Executive or Manager of a sporting organisation. This opens up the whole question of sabotage even further than if just on-field players were involved. For example: what is to stop an Arsenal fan from encouraging his fellow supporters to sign up and sabotage either the Chelsea team or management, for example by training their avatar enough to get picked for the team, then performing badly?

“It will be interesting to see how this develops”, said Salomon, when I questioned him on this. “We are keen for the players to sort these type of developments out for themselves. We will not intervene unless we absolutely have to”.

Infront announced that it was developing Empire of Sports with F4, a European and Asian video game development company, in June this year.

 Andy Brown

International football confederations, clubs, leagues, player agents and lawyers from around the world descended on London’s Selfridge Hotel yesterday, for The Global Game: Ownership of Football Clubs & Players, a briefing organised by World Sports Law Report and Clintons, entertainment, sport and media lawyers.

The event was organised to examine if new investment into football is centred on profiting from the game at the expense of supporters, with wins on the pitch less important than the balance sheet and if so, what should be done about it. There has been concern, in English football in particular, that new investors in the game are taking this approach due to the amount of money newly available in football.

Arsenal’s financial results, released the day before the event, added gravitas, as did comments by Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood, reported by the Daily Telegraph: ‘I would like to think it's a stable business, run by civilised people who understand the values of the club. We are custodians of Arsenal FC’. Alisher Usmanov, a Russian Businessman, is building a stake in Arsenal through his investment vehicle, Red & White holdings. His Wikipedia entry suggests that he has spent time in jail.

It appears, however, that your perspective on investment in the game depends on where you are sitting. “Where opportunities exist, you will find opportunists”, said Nick Craig, the Football League’s solicitor, pointing out that the FA had stopped profits from football being reinvested in the game when it wiped away its rules preventing club directors from receiving salaries or on paying themselves dividends.

This view was supported by Neil Doncaster, Chief Executive of Norwich City, who agreed that “something must be done” to protect the game from unscrupulous investors, perhaps at government level.

However, the viewpoint from Latin America, represented by Miguel Remmer, Estudio Beccar Varela, Argentina; Jose Carlos Meirelles, Pinheiro Neto Advogados, Brazil; and Agustin Mayer, Ferrere Abogados, Uruguay, was that any investment in football is a good thing. On the subject of debt being used to finance football club purchases, it was mentioned that this is normal practice in business, and why should sport be any different? Michael Murphy, of Garlicke & Bousfield of South Africa, agreed with the Latin American view.

The Latin Americans also pointed out that ‘third party ownership’ of players is an incorrect statement about what occurs in Latin American transfers. The owner of player’s registration is the club, which sells the player to another club, however the economic rights to that player are passed over to a third party.

Hitesh Jain, a Partner with ALMT Legal in Mumbai, was concerned with protecting players from possible exploitation by agents. Hitesh made the point that many Indian sports stars come from a poor background and have no experience of managing contracts or wealth.

What became clear over the course of the day was that issues over unsuitable investors in both clubs and players are likely to continue because of the way the football market is now operating as a global game, as pointed out by the Annual Review of the European Football Players’ Labour Market.

Football needs investment, and as our Latin American and African speakers pointed out, it will accept this investment from wherever it can get it. Football is increasingly looking overseas for players, as it is often cheaper to buy a player from a far-flung corner of the globe than to develop a player through the youth system. Player agents and representatives facilitate the movement of players internationally – like it or not. The transfer market is split into two ‘windows’, which can result in clubs taking a gamble on a player they do not know much about if the end of the transfer ‘window’ is drawing near, elevating the player’s and agent’s power over the club.

Agents must navigate their way through a maze of rules and regulations imposed on them by international football confederations, national associations and leagues. It became clear from discussing these differing regulations that perhaps the reason that agents so often attract suspicion is because these regulations are so difficult to decipher. The only people that truly understand these rules are the people that deal with them on a daily basis – the agents themselves. I suggest that the global regulation of agents by FIFA could help to clarify things and remove the stigma that is attached to the word ‘agent’ in football.

Finally, a few statistics from yesterday’s event;
• UEFA’s Club Licensing System is now in place in all 53 member associations;
• Only 19 of the 20 Premier League clubs applied for a UEFA Club Licence, essential for European competition, last season (I did not ask which club had not applied);
• 29.8 million people watched Football League games last season, a 15% increase on the previous season;
• The Football Association of Ireland is to introduce a Salary Cost Protocol system for its Premier Division during the 2008 season.

Presentation packs from the event are available from the event. Please contact Jit Jaswal for more details.

 Andy Brown

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) claims that the International Rugby Board has 'reversed itself' on press restrictions put in place for the Rugby World Cup 2007. Agence France Press, the Associated Press and Reuters suspended coverage of the event in protest at restrictions they viewed as excessive. To read the WAN's press release, which provides details of the compromise reached with the IRB, click here.

Andy Brown

 

News organisation Reuters has suspended coverage of the Rugby World Cup 2007 due to media restrictions imposed by the International Rugby Board (IRB), after issues over use of photographs online and audio-visual content failed to be resolved before the tournament’s 7 September kick-off.

‘Reuters is suspending coverage of all pre-tournament events and training sessions of the Rugby World Cup 2007, across text, pictures and TV’, read a statement from Monique Villa, Managing Director Media, Reuters. ‘Amid growing confusion and uncertainty over reporting terms, and the IRB’s unwillingness to engage with us to resolve the dispute over accreditation terms, Reuters is unable to continue the coverage as planned. Reuters would like to resume coverage…however, freedom of the press and our editorial integrity…must be respected’.

For further details, see the September edition of World Sports Law Report, soon to be published here.

 Andy Brown

Peter Ridsdale, former Leeds United Chairman, is in financially choppy waters again. Langston, the financial backers of Cardiff City, have instructed Hextalls to commence proceedings against the club (which Ridsdale now chairs) to recover funds which ‘amount to more than £30 million’, according to Hextalls.

A press release issued by Hextalls says that Langston is alleging that the Football League Championship club has failed to meet deadlines and has breached the terms of its loan agreement, in respect of the capital sum plus interest.

‘Our client has serious and increasing concerns about the club’s present administration and its ability to manage the club’s financial affairs’, reads the release. ‘In the event that the club cannot meet its liabilities to our client, then the alternative is for the current Board of Directors to resign and our client endorse the appointment of a new Board and new management. The club’s board has also been advised by us that its recently submitted accounts do not reflect its true financial position. Clubs are, of course, governed by the Football League concerning their solvency and (as has recently been seen in the case of Leeds United FC) circumstances can arise causing a 10-point deduction’.

The release accuses Ridsdale of ignoring communications regarding the seriousness of the financial situation, including a final warning giving ten days in which to respond, issued 2 August. Peter Ridsdale is currently completing his book, which is expected to reveal some of the excesses that led to the financial collapse of Leeds United. It had better sell well…

Andy Brown

What do Alexandre Vinokourov, Patrick Sinkewitz and Cristian Moreni have in common? Cycling fans would all answer that all three have been accused of doping offences in this year’s Tour De France, however all three have also signed the Union Cycliste Internationale’s (UCI) anti-doping declaration, which was designed to reassure the public that this year’s Tour is drug free.

The Astana cycling team withdrew from the Tour after Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a banned blood transfusion. The Cofidis team also withdrew after Cristian Moreni tested positive for a banned substance, understood from reports to be testosterone. Patrick Sinkewitz was suspended by the T-Mobile team after a positive A-test for testosterone.

The UCI needs to find a more effective method of asserting that the sport is free of drugs, as German broadcasters ARD and ZDF threatened legal action after pulling out of covering the race, team sponsors (Cofidis) have indicated that they requested their team to withdraw from the race and the World Anti-Doping Agency today offered to convene a summit on how to deal with the problem of doping in cycling.

The Tour has also lost its leader, after the Rabobank team removed Michael Rasmussen from the Tour for violating team rules by giving alleged incorrect information about his whereabouts to the team’s sports director after missing drugs tests on 8 May and 28 June. “We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts became unbearable”, Tour Director Christian Prudhomme told the Associated Press.

It is only the second time in the 104-year history of the Tour de France that the leader of the race has been expelled. The challenge will now be to keep the race going and to keep its corporate sponsors interested in funding an event that has continually involved doping cases.

Perhaps opening the tour to amateurs, such as Londoner Luke Bream, could restore some credibility to the race. Bream is attempting to complete the Tour de France one day ahead of the actual race, assisted by his mum and fuelled by jam butties and Coca-Cola…

Andy Brown

 

An excellent open debate was held yesterday evening by the British Association for Sport and Law, entitled ‘From registration to relegation…the twists and turns of the Premier League, West Ham, Sheffield United saga’. A number of interesting points were raised.

It was agreed that West Ham’s main offence was the breach of its ‘good faith’ requirement under FA Premier League rule B13, as it had not told the League the truth. It was suggested that West Ham’s arrangements to bring Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to the club were not very different from loan agreements, which could be judged to be in breach of FA Premier League rule U18, which prevents clubs singing contracts which enable another party to ‘materially influence’ the policy or performance of teams.

It was pointed out that in loan agreements, it is often the case that clubs agree that a player should not take part in Cup games and that in the case of player transfers, it has been known that the selling club has agreed to pay a player’s wages for a period even after they have been sold. This could be judged to be materially influencing the performance of the team.

Another good point raised was that given that the Arbitration Panel judgment appeared to agree that Scott Duxbury and Paul Aldridge had acted improperly, why had action not been taken against them? In response, a possible reason was that this action may have had little chance of success due to a lack of reliable evidence.

One panellist raised a thorny issue, arguing that the case highlights that sport is not fit to govern itself, as we know little about the people involved in bringing star players to our clubs, or, indeed, buying them clubs. It was suggested that the Premier League should re-examine sports governance in the US. Thankfully, the European Commission’s attempt to set out sport’s ability to self-govern in its White Paper on Sport was not brought up, although cases such as this cannot help sport’s case for autonomy of governance.

 Andy Brown

Sir Alex Ferguson’s defence of Manchester United’s commercial right to tour Asia during the Asian Cup 2007 is likely to accelerate the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) discussions with UEFA about a ban on ban on European club tours during the next Asian Cup, in 2011. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) certainly does not seem to agree with Ferguson’s statement ‘it’s not just about us taking – we also give’ (presumably, United gives tickets away to Asian fans, although United’s internet site states games have ‘sold out’) and is concerned that European club tours could pull fans away from its most lucrative tournament.

“Yes, it is feasible”, said AFC President Mohammed Bin Hammam, when questioned by Asian Football Business Review about the possibility of a total ban on European teams for 2011. “We will be in discussions, either (to ban tours) in the 16 countries participating in the finals or all of Asia. It will be discussed and settled by the end of this year. It is a priority issue to be discussed. I will seek understanding between the Asian Confederation and UEFA and all major leagues in Europe to protect the month of the Asian Cup in 2011. We have two windows to organise our competition. It is the calendar FIFA has drawn up. We cannot organise our competition unless it is in June or July or January, when many European leagues have a break”.

 Andy Brown

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA, in a joint press statement released today, criticised the European Union’s White Paper on Sport, which was adopted by the European Commission today, as a ‘missed opportunity’. A similar statement has been released by the European team sports.

‘The White Paper is structured in full contradiction with the actual architecture of the Olympic movement, ignoring in particular the regulatory competences of the International Federations, the division of responsibilities between the latter and their European Confederations, the global nature of the issues and challenges currently affecting sport as well as the solutions which are today necessary’, read the IOC/FIFA statement. The White Paper was criticised for failing to recognise ‘both the autonomy and specificity of sport’ and for failing to give ‘concrete expression’ to the Nice Declaration of 2000. Sporting bodies feel that the Nice declaration recognised that sport has specific characteristics and should be allowed leeway under EU law, as compared to business, to draw up special rules essential for the integrity of sport.

At World Sports Law Report’s Autonomy of Sport Governance conference, hosted at the London offices of Charles Russell yesterday, Richard Caborn, the UK Prime Minister’s World Cup Ambassador and former Minister of State for Sport, expressed hope that the White Paper would provide “legal certainty”, following on from the Nice Declaration and José Luis Arnaud’s Independent European Sport Review – It looks like he could be disappointed.

Caborn said he hoped that the EU would “empower sport”, and highlighted homegrown player rules and the collective sale of TV rights as two areas that could be taken up by the European Commission on behalf of sport.

This could all still be possible, as the White Paper will be transmitted to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions and its findings will be presented to EU Sport Ministers. In October, the Commission will organise a conference to discuss the White Paper with sport stakeholders. Perhaps progress can still be made – as the IOC and FIFA put it, ‘much work remains to be done’.

 Andy Brown

…Then spare a thought for poor Castleford Tigers. Cas, as they are known by Rugby League aficionados, were relegated from the Super League at the end of last season, after Wigan Warriors made an amazing comeback to win nine of their last 11 games to finish three points above Cas.

This winning streak followed the remarkable signing of Great Britain prop Stuart Fielden, who like former Great Britain coach Brian Noble, decided to leave the relative safety of Bradford Bulls to join a club adrift at the bottom of the table (not counting Catalans Dragons, who as newbies, were exempt from relegation). Perhaps the move had something to do with the ‘much bigger salary’ that Fielden claimed he had been offered.

At the time, Wigan - in their own words - ‘responded angrily’ to suggestions from two other clubs that they might have breached Rugby League’s salary cap, which at the time stood at £1.7 million. A new system based on Australia’s NRL Premiership has since been implemented.

However Wigan’s anger will pale in comparison to Cas’ fury this morning, having learned that the Rugby Football League (RFL) has charged Wigan with breaching the salary cap for the second season running – they were docked two points for breaching the salary cap in 2005.

Cas were one of the clubs that Wigan ‘responded angrily’ to last season and following debate, the RFL increased the minimum and maximum points penalties for salary cap breaches to four and 12 points respectively. Bear in mind that Wigan were just three points ahead of Castleford last season.

Although the RFL announced changes to its salary cap rules in June to make points deductions ‘live’ - i.e. apply during the current season - this system was not in place for the 2006 season, so any points deductions are likely to apply this season, which will not do Cas any good at all. The club told The Guardian that legal action was not its ‘preferred choice’, and said that talks with the RFL would be sought.

The conspiracy arguments I have heard include: Wigan have played the system as they knew that the points deduction would not apply until next season; the RFL allowed the Fielden transfer to go ahead because they were terrified that one of their biggest clubs would go down; the RFL would not have allowed the transfer if Fielden had gone to a smaller club. All or none may be true.

Are we now entering a phase where every painful relegation in UK sport will be challenged through the courts? This is a real possibility, which worries sporting organisations, as previously reported by World Sports Law Report. Cases such as this, which appear blatantly unfair, do not help sport’s argument that it should be free to regulate its own affairs and illustrate why the European Commission is keen to define sport’s position within EU law, which it will do in a soon-to-be-announced White Paper on Sport.

Full marks to those who sensed a sales pitch coming. Guess what? World Sports Law Report is organising a conference to address all of these issues on Tuesday 10 July. For more information, click here.

Andy Brown

 

It’s amazing the stories that can creep through on a slow news day, as The Sun’s infamous headline from 1986 proves. World Sports Law Report was ready to commission an article after The Guardian suggested that the European Commission was ‘considering’ breaking up the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) collective sale of its TV rights to the Winter and Summer Olympics, so that individual sports would be sold separately.

‘It’s none of the EC’s bloody business and they should back off’, said an ‘influential figure’, reported The Guardian.

However, the European Commission has described the story as ‘completely false’, reports Sportcal.com. ‘The Commission is not looking at the way the IOC is selling its media rights’, spokesperson Jonathan Todd told the internet site. ‘By definition, the Commission is not therefore asking the IOC to unbundle its rights or anything else’.

Publicist Max Clifford, who was responsible for the ‘Hamster’ headline, later admitted that Starr had not eaten the Hamster in a television interview with Esther Rantzen. It is understood that The Guardian was reporting on ‘mood music’ from sources at the Commission regarding the next Olympics broadcasting deal.

Although the ‘Hamster’ article proves that you shouldn’t believe everything in the press, it is worth keeping one eye on the issues raised in The Guardian’s article, as the IOC has yet to make any official statements on broadcast tenders for 2014/2016.

 Andy Brown

The Law Society has instructed its solicitors to dispute the Football Association’s (FA) new Football Agents Regulations, it emerged at ‘Agents: What are they for?’, a breakfast seminar that illustrated growing disagreement between agents and the FA about whether the new Regulations are workable. The seminar was hosted this morning by Citi Private Bank on behalf of law firm Clintons’ Sports Law Group in London.

The new Regulations require lawyers, who were previously exempt from FA agent regulations because of their regulation by the Law Society, to register with the FA (as reported in World Sports Law Report, Volume 4, Issue 12, December 2006). This requirement has been disputed by lawyers who act as football agents, who argue that there is no need for them to register with the FA, as the set of ethics that the Law Society requires them to operate under are far more stringent than the FA’s Regulations. It was pointed out that FIFA still exempts lawyers from its Player Agents Regulations.

Not only is there disagreement between agents and the FA over whether the Regulations are workable, there is also dispute over whether agents were consulted at all during the drafting process. David Sheepshanks, Chairman of Ipswich Town and a non-executive Director of the Football Association, said that agents had been “well consulted”, while Mel Stein, a Consultant with Clintons and Chairman of the Association of Football Agents, a grouping of 90 leading football agents formed in response to the new Regulations, countered that agents had “not been consulted at all”. Jon Smith, Chief Executive Officer of First Artist Corporation, an athlete representation company, was careful not to get drawn into the ‘yes we did’, ‘no you didn’t’ pantomime argument.

“The role and image of agents has been tarnished and distorted by the actions of some of their number”, said Sheepshanks. “The FIFA Regulations are lax and have not been applied properly. Too many irresponsible agents have wrecked it for the responsible ones. The new FA Regulations are therefore vital”.

“Agents want to drive the ‘rotten apples’ out of the game”, said Stein, who said that the AFA had sought self-regulation negotiations with the FA Premier League. Stein singled out aspects of the “incomprehensible” Regulations for particularly stinging criticism. He dismissed as “unacceptable” provisions that would allow players to represent themselves in representation contracts, as well as provisions for players to pay agents in instalments rather than a lump sum, because of the danger that a player will simply terminate an agent’s employment and cease to pay them, after a transfer has taken place.

He also dismissed as “cloud cuckoo land” the provision that agents should not be able to act for players under the age of 16, arguing that alternative deals, such as buying a house for the player’s parents, will be done in secret. He used the examples of David Beckham and Wayne Rooney as two players whose talents had been realised long before they reached the age of 16.

Sheepshanks said that the FA would formally announce the new Regulations on 29 June, leaving little time for further consultation, however said that the FA would hold “familiarisation and counselling programmes” with all concerned parties.

However, consultation and co-ordination with FIFA also appears to be needed. A FIFA spokesperson told World Sports Law Report that new player agent regulations, to be introduced 1 January 2008, would “clarify the percentage of a fee that a player can pay to an agent, as well as the period of validity of agent licenses”. This, on the face of it, appears to suggest that FIFA regulations could scupper the FA’s plans to force players to pay their agents in instalments, rather than through a lump sum.

Andy Brown 

In the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games’ (LOCOG) candidature file, two of the key ‘Priorities and potential’ targets were ‘harnessing London’s passion for sport’ and ‘Regenerating east London communities and their environment’. It reads ‘The Olympic Park will become a hub for east London, bringing communities together and acting as catalyst for profound social and economic change. It will become a model of social inclusion, opening up opportunities for education, cultural and skills development and jobs for people across the UK and London, but especially in the Lea Valley and surrounding areas’.

There are increasing signs that LOCOG is veering from that laudable ‘social inclusion’ path. LOCOG could have involved the local schools and colleges in helping to design a logo that accurately reflected the aims and prospects that London 2012 is supposed to bring to an area close to the city in terms of distance, but miles away in terms of socio-economic development. Nothing in LOCOG’s press release suggests even an attempt at canvassing public opinion. Instead, LOCOG commissioned Wolff Ollins to design a London 2012 logo at a reported cost of £400,000.

Unlike LOCOG’s decision to concrete over part of Hackney Marshes, the spiritual home of football where David Beckham learned his trade, this could become a PR disaster that cannot be swept under the carpet.

A campaign entitled ‘Change the London 2012 logo’ had gained almost 20,000 signatures at time of press, just a day after LOGOC launched the logo to widespread criticism. Mine is one of the signatures. The massive costs and lack of consultation with Londoners is in grave danger of alienating the very people the Games are supposed to involve.

 Andy Brown

At its general assembly, held in Glasgow on 16 May, the ‘G-14’ group of 18 of Europe’s most powerful football clubs, appointed Olympique Lyonnais President Jean-Michel Aulas to replace David Dein as G-14 President, following his departure as Vice-Chairman of Arsenal on 18 April.

Aulas immediately prompted suggestions that the organisation should change its name. “We need to work on the details”, he said of the G-14’s expansion. “There is no exact figure, but we are thinking of at least 10 more clubs, if not 12 or 14 or 16. Admission will be based on sporting performances and geographical consideration”.

However, the addition of four clubs in 2002 to the original 14 that formed the organisation in 2000 did not prompt a change, and perhaps the numerically inaccurate name will continue to stick.

One thing is certain - Aulas’ statement will set the conspiracy theorists within the football federations whispering about the renewed possibility of a European super league, first suggested by Media Partners almost ten years ago, back in 1998.

 Andy Brown

The real success story of this past football season has been…Gretna FC. After gaining acceptance into the fourth tier of Scottish Football in 2002, Gretna have won promotion into the Scottish Premier League (SPL) in just five seasons.

I am not sure what the record is for successive promotions, however Gretna won promotion from the Scottish Football League Third Division in 2004/5, from the Second Division in 2005/6 and from the First Division to the SPL in 2006/7 – an amazing record, even by Wimbledon’s (now MK Dons) standards (elected to the Football League in 1977, promoted to the First Division in 1986, inaugural members of the Premier League, 1992).

However, Gretna’s promotion is being contested, and it is not hard to guess by who. The BBC reports that Dunfermline Athletic are joining St. Mirren in writing to the SPL asking if Gretna have met the same stadium criteria as previous First Division champions. You guessed it – Dunfermline were relegated at the end of this season and St. Mirren narrowly avoided relegation on the last day of the season.

Gretna’s promotion hinges on them providing guarantees that a 6,000-seat stadium will be built by March 2008, and St. Mirren is contesting that Gretna have not provided sufficient guarantees. St. Mirren were forced to spend £200,000 on ground improvements last season when they could not offer assurances over a new stadium.

However, before you scoff, let me point out a couple of comments from St. Mirren chairman, Stewart Gilmour. “There is a strong feeling that you cannot have different rules for different clubs”, he told BBC Sport. “I want to make sure that the same ground rules apply, as it has been sore for us financially”.

Sound familiar? That’s because it a similar argument to the one that Sheffield United and Wigan have been putting to the FA Premier League about their failure to dock West Ham points, the only obvious difference being that one argument is about an alleged illegal player, whilst the other is about ground regulations. Both arguments are about money, or the loss of it, and both prove that football authorities need to apply their regulations with an even hand, whether in the fantasy football world of the FA Premier League, or the perhaps more realistic world of Scottish football.

 Andy Brown

On 28 May, the most valuable game ever in world football will take place, with the winner guaranteed around £60 million. In terms of the revenue that it will provide to its winners, the Football League Championship play-off final is more valuable than the World Cup final or Champions League final, according to football accountants Deloitte.

The reason for this is that the FA Premier League’s new domestic and overseas television deals begin to pay the Premier League’s clubs from next season. Clubs relegated this season will receive parachute payments under the FA Premier League’s previous TV arrangements, whereas clubs relegated next season will receive parachute payments under the new TV deals. The difference is striking, as extra figures, kindly provided by Deloitte’s Sport Business Group, illustrate.

The Premier League’s current domestic TV deals, which expire at the end of this season, are worth £1.2 billion with overseas deals worth a further £320 million, a total of £1.52 billion over three seasons. This equates to £507 million per season.

The new domestic TV deals are worth £2.1 billion with overseas TV deals worth £625 million, a total of £2.7 billion over three seasons. This equates to £900 million per season, almost double the previous amount.

Deloitte estimates that the cost of relegation will be £25 million to £30 million over two seasons and warns that should the relegated club fail to win promotion back to the FA Premier League, then that cost could increase further, as parachute payments will cease after two seasons. A relegated club stands to lose a great deal of money, which perhaps explains why clubs in danger of relegation are prepared to pay to employ legal firms to investigate possible action against the FA Premier League, after an Independent Commission decided to fine West Ham United for breaking FA Premier League rules rather than deducting points. This issue is examined in the May edition of World Sports Law Report, soon to appear on the site.

Andy Brown

 

'Mr. Kartnig gambled away some 40 million Schillings (about €2.9 million) in casinos', prosecution spokesman Manfred Kammerer told Austrian broadcaster, ORF. 'That's why the question arises about where the money went, or if it was other money that Mr. Kartnig gambled away'.

The relationship between sport and gambling was examined at World Sports Law Report's briefing, Sports, Sponsorship & Gambling, hosted by DLA Piper in March. For more information on the topics discussed, email Jit Jaswal.

Andy Brown

Andy Brown 

Comments made by the FA Premier League to World Sports Law Report suggest that attendance figures may not accurately reflect the number of people at its grounds.

The Guardian recently highlighted the issue in an article, receiving confirmation from Arsenal that its attendance figure reflects the number of tickets sold, rather than actual bums on seats. The club told the newspaper that as many as 3% of ticket holders – more than 1,800 people – did not take their seats for the 11 February game against Wigan, where a near-capacity attendance of 60,049 was reported.

An FA Premier League spokesperson said that it is for a club to decide how attendance figures are calculated. Apparently, some clubs base attendance on tickets sold and others on ‘gate receipts’, i.e. the number of ticket holders passing through the turnstiles.

Bolton Wanderers recently became the first Premier League club to cut season ticket prices, following concern that high ticket prices, coupled with widespread availability of football on television, may be keeping fans on the sofas and away from the turnstiles. Wigan have also reduced the cost of certain games this season, following concerns over empty seats.

If the FA Premier League wishes to retain the impression that all of its grounds are 100% full all of the time, perhaps it could introduce a rule requiring all clubs to base their attendance figures on numbers of tickets sold. Conversely, if it thinks its clubs should take action to remedy the empty seats appearing on television screens and in newspapers (which both sponsors and broadcasters, who provide revenue, hate to see), perhaps it should require its clubs to report attendance based on gate receipts.

Andy Brown

Marco Villiger has replaced Heinz Tännler as Director of Legal Division at the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), as of 1 January. Tännler is pursuing a political career with the Schweizerische Volkspartei / Union Démocratique du Centre (Swiss People’s Party).

Tännler has written for World Sports Law Report (search for ‘Tännler’ on the internet site), and spoke at our Special Briefing: Club, Country & Players, which received coverage on the BBC. World Sports Law Report wishes Tännler and Villiger all the best in their new roles.
Andy Brown

The British Horseracing Board announced that the Court of Appeal has ‘completely overturned’ a December 2005 High Court judgment obtained by At The Races, which found that BHB’s business practices in the supply of pre-race data constituted an abuse of a dominant position.

For an analysis of the initial High Court judgment by Neil Baylis and Martin King of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP (now K&L Gates), search for ‘Competition Law: At The Races v BHB: abusing a dominant position’ on World Sports Law Report’s internet site.

According to the BHB, ‘the Court of Appeal found that BHB’s business practices did not involve excessive or discriminatory pricing, nor did they amount to a refusal to supply and therefore were not abusive’.

‘If left unchallenged, the first instance judgment would have had far reaching implications beyond Racing, not least that organisations in a position similar to BHB’s would have had effectively had their prices regulated by the courts’, said BHB acting Chief Executive Chris Brand in a statement.

Arena Leisure, which owns television channel ATR, issued a statement confirming that At The Races plans to appeal to the House of Lords.

‘Given the emphatic nature of the ruling in ATR's favour back in December 2005 and following successful injunction proceedings before the Vice Chancellor earlier in 2005, we are very surprised and disappointed with the Court of Appeal's ruling today’, said Matthew Imi, Chief Executive of ATR. ‘We continue to believe that the BHB's treatment of ATR which triggered legal proceedings was unfair, discriminatory and abusive and, given the clear public interest element in this landmark case, we will be seeking leave to appeal to the House of Lords’.

Andy Brown

The World Anti-Doping Agency has published a draft revision of the World Anti-Doping Code, following direct feedback and face-to-face meetings with stakeholders.

The rules recommend a mandatory one year ban for missed tests, the sanction imposed on Commonwealth 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu, however this ‘strict liability’ approach has been criticised by Gregory Ioannidis, a Barrister who acted as Counsel for Greek sprinters Mr Kenteris and Ms Thanou in their case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year, in an article in The Guardian.

The first draft revision of the Code marks a three-stage consultation process, before a final draft of the revised code is presented at the Third World Conference on Doping in Sport, which takes place in Madrid, 15-17 November. To view an outline of the consultation process, click here.
Andy Brown

The BBC reports that David Beckham has agreed to join Major League Soccer (MLS) club LA Galaxy following the conclusion of his contract with Primera División club Real Madrid at the end of the current season.

The US league, which operates a salary budget, changed its rules in November last year to allow one ‘designated player’ for each of its 13 clubs. ‘A Designated Player's salary charge will be capped at $400,000, but his salary could be higher’, said MLS in the November statement.

In accounts filed with Companies House, Footwork Productions Limited - which lists its principal activity as ‘the provision of the services of David Beckham’ – reported a Gross Profit of £15.5 million for the year ended 31 December, 2005. No revenue was listed in the accounts, however wages and salaries of £19.7 million were listed. The company Secretary is listed as ‘V C Beckham’, and directors are ‘A Adams’ and ‘A Thompson’.

Also involved with the deal were 19 Entertainment, which took on representation of Beckham and his wife Victoria in 2003, and Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which has a sports representation arm.
Andy Brown