Sport law
Our expertise
Our expertise
We provide assistance to sportspersons, agents, associations, clubs, federations, professional leagues, marketing agencies, sponsors, equipment manufacturers, etc. with their contractual negotiations and dispute resolutions, including right of publicity issues, sponsorship and advertising contracts, and broadcasting rights. We also advise them in disciplinary or doping-related proceedings, and we have developed a strong expertise in the field of international football player transfers.
What we do
- We set up associations, groupings, and companies involved in sports (both amateur and professional), we draw up internal documentation (articles of association and by-laws, internal rules, contracts between associations and businesses, etc.).
- We draw up contracts governed by the French collective bargaining agreement for the sports business, including agency contracts.
- We assist with the transfer of players and the negotiation of contracts or special insurance policies.
- We draw up and negotiate advertising contracts as well as contracts relating to the organization of sporting events.
- We negotiate and enforce sports federations’ broadcasting and exploitation rights and the sale of audiovisual rights.
- We draw up and negotiate patronage and sponsorship contracts after validating the related trademark, competition, right of publicity, tax, and employment aspects.
- We assist clients when negotiating contracts with equipment manufacturers.
- We represent clients before the disciplinary bodies in sports matters (the disciplinary boards of federations and leagues and the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne).
- We provide advice and assistance in doping matters:
- disciplinary proceedings,
- testing by the AFLD,
- criminal proceedings in case of breach of the French Public Health Code and of the French Criminal Code.
Among our files
- Negotiation of the non-renewal of an “Official Sponsor” licensing agreement for a Grand Slam tennis tournament and management of two succeeding competing official sponsors
- Drafting and negotiation of right of publicity contracts for several tennis players ranking among the world’s top 20
- Negotiation of several right-of-publicity contracts with professional football players (including world champions) and rugby players on behalf of one of the French leaders in the hair-care industry
- Counsel to captain Patrice Évra for the disciplinary hearings before the FFF following the French team’s strike in Knysna at the South Africa 2010 World Cup
- Advice to foreign lawyers on employment regulations for sportspersons in France (national collective bargaining agreement for the sports business and professional football charter)
- Conduct of a dispute relating to training contracts with foreign professional football players in France on behalf of a foreign federation
- Counsel to rugby players in numerous federation proceedings
- Counsel to international football player Edinson Cavani for his transfer to France (PSG)
- Counsel to major worldwide tennis, cycling, and rugby equipment manufacturers
- Review of all legal aspects (sponsoring, authorizations, insurance, etc.) of a world tour by seaplane
- Advice to one of the Euro 2016 sponsors on how to prevent ambush marketing
- Counsel to the French subsidiary of an American corporation during the negotiation of a sponsorship and technical assistance contract with a Formula 1 team
- Counsel to an international football player in the French second division match-fixing case
- Counsel to an international federation within the framework of negotiations with the trustee in bankruptcy and the official sponsors of a French federation undergoing judicial business recovery in order to secure that the federation honour its international commitments and the official sponsors do not terminate their sponsorship