JCP Solicitors Sports Law team were proud to have supported Sport in Swansea through the recent sponsorship of two categories in the Active Swansea Sports Awards 2011.

The awards provide recognition of the sporting achievements of the Men, Women and Young people and Children in the Swansea region. The awards, organised by the City & County of Swansea’s sports development section, have been going for eleven years and have grown from strength to strength.

Partner at JCP Solicitors and member of the Sports Law team Christian Edwards said:

Carlos Tevez and Manchester City continue to be in the headlines following Tevez’s apparent refusal to play in their recent Champions League match.  This led to City’s manager Roberto Mancini to say that the player would never play for the club again, whilst the player’s representatives were quick to say that it was just a misunderstanding. It is understood that Tevez is currently suspended pending an internal investigation.

The Club’s Perspective

The recent Court of Appeal decision in Fulham Football Club (1987) Ltd v Richards has highlighted the potential pitfall of including arbitration clauses in shareholders’ agreements obliging the parties to use arbitration as a method of resolving shareholder disputes.

It is common place these days to read a number of stories about sports players entering into so-called pre-contract agreements. 

By way of example, the French rugby club Bayonne announced that they had signed, then withdrawn from, a pre-contract agreement with Byron Kelleher. Looking back a few years, Chelsea and Manchester United were locked in a fierce battle arguing over the enforceability of a pre-contract agreement that United had signed with John Obi Mikel.