Sport England announce first suspension of funding for failure to comply with Governance Code

By Squire Patton Boggs on July 12, 2017 Posted in Governance

Table Tennis England has become the first sport to lose access to public funding due to failure to comply with UK Sport and Sport England’s Code for Sports Governance (released in October last year and covered by Sports Shorts here).

The sport was due to receive a total of around £9 million from Sport England over the 2017-21 funding cycle, with the latest tranche being due this month. As a body in receipt of more than £1 million, table tennis is a “Tier 3” organisation, required to comply with the most rigorous set of Mandatory Requirements (“MRs”) in the Code. However, following its AGM on 8 July at which the members voted on some of the Board’s proposed governance reforms, the governing body has found itself in breach of its funding agreement with Sport England.

Sport England has suspended its funding of table tennis with immediate effect.

As Sports Shorts has commented previously, whilst the release of the Code saw the introduction of a ‘gold standard’ of governance principles for sport in the UK, at the time of the its publication there remained some questions relating to aspects such as the precise timeframe for compliance as well and the consequences of failure to comply with the Code’s requirements. Against this background, the case of Table Tennis England is particularly interesting and will no doubt serve as a warning to other governing bodies and organisations in receipt of funds from Sport England or UK Sport.

Cricket Australia v the Australian Cricketers’ Association – Picket lines at the Ashes?!

By Squire Patton Boggs on July 11, 2017 Posted in Cricket, Player contracts, Sponsorship

It has been rumbling on for some time, stories here and there in the press suggesting that negotiations regarding pay in a sporting context were going to come to a head and potentially turn into an ugly dispute. It is not unusual to see such stories in sport, particularly given the salaries some sports stars can command and the high commercial stakes involved.

However, those who think of cricket as a genteel, sepia-tinged world may be surprised that it is Australian cricket currently embroiled in this story. Cricket Australia (CA) is the governing body of cricket in Australia and effectively employs around 200 professional cricketers in the country, including the international stars like Steve Smith, David Warner and Mitchell Starc… or at least did employ…

Every five years, CA negotiates a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), a representative body for the players. This MoU effectively acts as an employment contract and, importantly, sets out the provisions for how those professional cricketers in Australia under the MoU will be paid.

The main point in dispute is the payment model. For 20 years, male players have received a share of the revenue generated by Australian cricket in addition to their annual retainer/salary. CA argue that this model is unsustainable and that the revenue money should be redirected towards supporting the grass-roots of cricket in Australia. So instead, they offered an increase to the fixed income for the domestic players, with no revenue share, and a smaller profit share arrangement for the international players in addition to their fixed income.

Crime and Punishment: Violence in Sport – Part Two

By Squire Patton Boggs on July 6, 2017 Posted in Discipline, Governance, Health & Wellbeing

Having surveyed in Part One some examples of violence in sport that led, or might have led, to the intervention of the law, attention turns in this second installment to why the law is perhaps not always an appropriate way of dealing with such situations.

The case against prosecuting

Aside from the presence of implied consent, one of the main arguments against convicting sports players where their actions would otherwise constitute assault is that most sports have official rules and governing bodies empowered to bring disciplinary measures. What is more, such bodies tend to consist of individuals with expertise that allow them to make an informed assessment of an incident. Amongst the sanctions they can impose are bans as well as fines; that said, some might argue that oftentimes, financial penalties fail to hit sports players where it hurts (excuse the pun).

For what it’s worth, FIFA Rule 12 states, amongst other things, that “violent conduct is when a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball”, and that “a player who, when not challenging for the ball, deliberately strikes an opponent or any other person on the head or face with the hand or arm, is guilty of violent conduct unless the force used was negligible.” Excessive force is adjudged to be “when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off”. The Rule goes on to say that “a tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play”.

The issue is that the rules governing various sports are arguably immaterial to determining whether a player’s actions fall foul of the law of the land. If the officials don’t spot a foul, and even if the governing body doesn’t subsequently address it, the law still applies.

Margin call: Vortex suits & Team Sky’s latest marginal gain

By Squire Patton Boggs on July 4, 2017 Posted in Rules and regulations, Technology, Tour de France

Sport - Road cyclist The Tour de France 2017 began on 1 July 2017 and, in amongst the cyclists’ battle for the Un Maillot, the Green Jersey, the Polka-Dot Jersey and the White Jersey, a controversy began to emerge over Team Sky’s ‘Vortex’ skin suit. The controversy arose as a result of the jersey worn by the Team Sky riders bearing small pellets built into the fabric that create minuscule vortexes when the cyclist moves and therefore improving air flow. In other words, the pellets make the rider more aerodynamic. Team Sky’s opponents claim that such a fabric is a clear infringement of the clothing regulations of the sports’ governing body, Union Cycliste Internationale. Team Sky state that the outfits have been validated by the UCI.

So is the Vortex an example of ‘technical’ doping: the use of technology to create or obtain an unfair advantage over others? Or is it simply Team Sky doing what they have consistently stated they will do: searching for 1 percent improvements everywhere that push the limits of the Regulations but never breach them? Continue Reading

The Chinese player transfer ‘tax’: an analysis

By Squire Patton Boggs on June 30, 2017 Posted in Football, Rules and regulations, Transfers

Ball on the hands with flag of China The summer transfer window has been open for less than two weeks but, at the time of writing, football clubs in the top five European leagues have already completed 454 deals worth a total of £981.4 million. With a month still remaining before the transfer window closes in the majority of countries, there is still plenty of time in which for clubs to do their business.

Recent transfer windows have been notable for a series of high-profile, high-value transfers into the Chinese leagues. 2016 saw Ezequiel Lavezzi move from Paris Saint-Germain to Habei China Fortune, while Carlos Tevez moved from Juventus to Shanghai Shenhua and Brazilian play-maker Oscar joined Shanghai SIPG for around £60 million. Those three players are now in the top five earners in world football. Lavezzi reportedly earns £798,000 a week, Tevez is reportedly paid £634,615 a week and Oscar reportedly takes home £400,000 a week. Last year, China spent more than $450 million on footballers, the fifth-largest such outlay by any country.

Yet noteworthy transfers into the Chinese leagues have so far proved conspicuous by their absence in the present transfer window. The reason for this appears likely to be linked to the implementation by the Chinese Football Association (the “CFA”) of a 100% ‘tax’ on the signing of any new players. The new rule provides that any loss-making clubs buying players will have to pay the same amount as the transfer fee into a fund, which is designed to help the development of young Chinese players. Continue Reading

Crime and Punishment: Violence in Sport – Part One

By Squire Patton Boggs on June 29, 2017 Posted in Discipline, Governance, Health & Wellbeing

Following the unlikely victory of little-known Sport Pacifico over relative giants Estudiantes in an Argentinian cup match this month, came the still more unlikely admission by Sport Pacifico defender Federico Allende that during the game he used a needle to pierce opponents, a tactic he openly bragged about in a radio interview.

The jury is out on how to punish Allende, although the club’s president has hinted at expulsion. Had this incident not taken place in the course of a sports match, or possibly regardless of the fact that it did, many would have expected (or now do expect) the law to intervene.

The incident begs the enduring question of what function should be served by the law in the adjudication of violence perpetrated during sports matches. Or are sports-related offences best left to sports’ various governing bodies to handle? In this two-part article, Sports Shorts looks in Part One at how the law has historically treated violence in sport, and in Part Two considers a few of the arguments typically made against invoking the law in this context.

The America’s Cup returns to New Zealand

By Squire Patton Boggs on June 27, 2017 Posted in Competition

One would safely expect that all (sporting) eyes in New Zealand are currently on the Lions tour after the All Blacks continued their Eden Park winning streak with a comfortable victory in Saturday’s first test. Whilst rugby is unquestionably New Zealand’s national sport, perhaps a close second in the nation’s heart is, surprisingly, America’s Cup racing.

Late last night, Emirates Team New Zealand captured the final race win required to secure the return of the ‘Auld Mug’, often cited to be the oldest international sporting trophy, to the land of the long white cloud.

The history of the America’s cup goes back some 166 years. In 1851 Commodore Jon Cox Stevens, a member of the fledgling New York Yacht Club (“NYYC”), together with a syndicate of friends, commissioned a yacht to be built so that he could travel to England in order to compete in established yachting regattas for which the winners could earn prize money. The yacht, a 101 foot schooner, was called America and it duly won the Royal Yacht Squadron club’s prestigious annual regatta race around the Isle of Wight.

The cup they won was renamed the America’s Cup (after the winning yacht) and duly donated by Stevens to the NYYC specifying that it be held in trust as a perpetual challenge trophy to promote friendly competition among nations.

No further races were held until 1870 when the Royal Thames Yacht Club challenged and lost out to the NYYC in New York. The NYYC held off a similar British challenge the following year. Indeed the NYYC were successful in defeating all challengers between 1870 and 1983 when they finally succumbed (3-4) to the challenge of the Royal Perth Yacht Club from Australia, peaking interest in the Southern Hemisphere to this unique event.

Video Assistant Referees: the future of football?

By Squire Patton Boggs on June 26, 2017 Posted in Football, Rules and regulations, Technology

Tablet On 19 June 2017, FIFA declared video assistant referees (VAR) as the ‘future of football’ as the technology continues to be trialled in live footballing events, this time at the Confederations Cup in Russia. Fast forward to 26 June 2017 and, following a particularly confusing incident of mistaken identity where the match referee incorrectly awarded the Cameroon captain first a yellow card followed (after consultation with VAR) by a red card before finally sending off the correct player, FIFA’s head referee has declared that ‘…many aspects should be improved’.

In April 2017, FIFA announced that VAR would be used at the 2018 World Cup and The FA have announced their intention to use VAR from the third round onward during the Emirates FA Cup in the 2017/2018 season. With such significant international and domestic footballing assets continuing to trial the technology, Sports Shorts takes a brief look at the history of the use of VAR in football. Continue Reading

Breaking up is hard to do: what are the key considerations on ending a commercial partnership?

By Squire Patton Boggs on June 22, 2017 Posted in Brand protection, Football, Olympics, Sponsorship

In the past week, two high-profile, long-term commercial relationships have come to an end.

First came the announcement that the International Olympic Committee (“IOC”) and McDonald’s had mutually agreed to end their worldwide partnership with immediate effect, three years before it was due to expire (the commercial background to the break-up, and any financial terms which accompanied the termination, are not public knowledge). In some respects, this is the end of the Olympics as many of us know it: McDonald’s has been involved in some form of partnership with the Olympics for over 40 years (since the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Games) and was a founding member of the IOC’s TOP scheme (“The Olympic Partner” programme of exclusive global marketing rights relating to the Olympics) in 1985.

Less than a week later came the news that, after half a century of partnership, Adidas and Bundesliga side Schalke 04 will not be renewing their kit partnership beyond the 2017-18 season.

At the outset of any relationship, making detailed plans for the break-up often feels counterintuitive or even counterproductive. In those heady early days, it seems to make little sense to plan for the relationship’s ultimate demise (particularly where that involves considering the possibility that it might involve disagreement). Yet, regardless of whether the ending of such a relationship is mutual, it often pays to ensure that these matters are carefully thought through and set out with in the contract governing the relationship.

With news of these break-ups in the headlines, Sports Shorts looks at some of the key considerations upon ending a commercial relationship: