Sports Law Conference

8 December, The Law Society, London. The commercial opportunities available in sport are significant – not only is sport big business every year in the UK in the form of football, rugby, tennis, cricket, and other sports championship and premiership competitions (the premier league TV deal raised £2.2 billion from all domestic contracts this year alone), the 2012 Olympic funding programme has a budget of £550m, which is more than twice the amount provided for the Beijing games.

The financial downturn has added an extra dimension to the market, in that the financial opportunities and potential rewards of investment in contracts and sponsorship are being scrutinised moreso than in the past. Organisations are looking to protect themselves by examining very carefully the way that they leverage media rights and sponsorship in an increasingly competitive market. Some football clubs have also been faced with the challenge of having a reduced budget with which to hire players, or having to renegotiate contracts less favourably with players that they can’t afford to lose. Personal and domestic issues have also continued to pepper the newspapers and to impact the financial and athletic performance of some teams and players, bringing to the fore privacy and media rights issues, as well as considerations about where players fit best in their teams, leading to potential contractual changes.

Regulation of the industry has also been increasing in light of drugs scandals at the previous Olympic games, the opportunities and challenges posed by gambling across the entire legal sector both domestically and internationally, and the perennial issue of sporting disputes that occur in the regular course of the sporting season. Media rights have become an issue again recently, as well, as several “unhealthy” food brands (Coca Cola, McDonalds, and Cadburys) want to sponsor the 2012 Olympics, but UK advertising regulators and health officials have indicated that they plan to intervene and potentially not allow those organisations to sponsor.

Programme
Topics covered in the programme include:

International legal issues
Mike Townley, Head of Sports, Bates Wells & Braithwaite

Key employment law considerations in sport, including contractual issues, discrimination, disciplinary issues, etc.

Practical legal issues in sports and sports management
Edward G Smethurst, Legal Director of Prosperity International Sports Management and Chairman of the Law Society

Commerce & Industry Group North West
Dispute resolution
Stephen Sampson, Hammonds

Media rights

Ambush marketing - lessons learned from FIFA World Cup 2010 and looking forward to London 2012
Jon Walters, Charles LLP

Privacy and media law
Nick Armstrong, Charles Russell LLP

The latest cases and regulation on performance-enhancers and doping
Mike Morgan, Hammonds

0830-0900 Registration and refreshments
0900-1745 Programme

For further information or to book your place please click here.