Whatever your interest in the sports sector may be, our unmatched experience of advising sports businesses means you can rely upon our unique blend of corporate, commercial, insurance and regulatory advice to help you minimise risk and maximise opportunities in your projects and transactions - wherever in the world you are doing business. Our work includes advice on matters such as:

  • Advising owners of English Premier League and Football League football clubs as well as other sporting clubs on mergers, acquisitions, and disposals.
  • Advising sportspersons and directors of sports businesses in relation to commercial agreements including consultancy agreements, agency agreements, service agreements, contractual joint ventures and product and app development.
  • Sponsorship advisory support for sports businesses and sportspersons including athlete sponsorship deals and event and venue sponsorship arrangements.
  • Specialist regulatory advice for professional and amateur sports clubs and organisations including advisory work in relation to English football, English rugby, international cycling and other sporting regulations.
  • Constitutional, structuring, and governance advice for professional and amateur sports clubs and governing bodies.
  • Funding advisory support for organisations operating within the sports sector including debt financing, equity investment and corporate restructuring advice.
  • Specialist intellectual property and data rights protection and solutions in sport.

Recent projects include:

Football
  • Advising the founder of a UK business that owned a Danish Superliga football club in relation to the exit of previous investors, significant additional $120m investment advising the same business on certain elements of the acquisition of a USA Major League Soccer Team.
  • Providing general commercial advice to an international football academy on partnership arrangements worldwide.
  • Advising and completing the acquisition of a Premier League Football Club for its owner.
  • Advising and completing the sale of an English Football League club for its owner.
  • Regulatory advice to the directors and shareholders of an English football club on English Premier League and English Football League Regulations, in particular the owners and directors’ test.
Cycling
  • Legal support for a cycling accident management company operating in the cycling industry on the company’s consultancy arrangements with elite level professional cyclists and their title sponsorship agreement for a UCI Women’s Team.
  • Providing commercial contracts for the primary sponsor of a major national cycling race on their event sponsorship arrangements.
  • Advising the management team of a technology company on their spinout from a contractual partner to the Tour De France to facilitate the protection of key intellectual property rights for the business.
Sports Clubs and Businesses
  • Acting for the trustees of local unincorporated sports clubs on funding and day to day governance matters to enable the building of padel tennis facilities.
  • Legal support relating to the development of educational software for a nutritional and human performance testing organisation providing services to elite level athletes across the sports sector.
  • Advising an unincorporated rugby club on incorporation and its suite of insurances and advising the operating committee on potential liability.
  • Advising a major sports retailer on insurance and regulatory queries for the business.

For further information Phil Bowers, David Malone or Josh Bates.