(28th April, 2005) Several ASPE members, as well as other leading law executives, recently participated in a two-hour General Counsel Forum as part of the recent LawAccord session at SportAccord, which took place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Berlin, 16-20 April. Below is a summary of some of the issues discussed during the session.

LawAccord 2005 - Planning an International Federation’s business

Stephanie Vardavas, Endorsement & Legal Affairs, Nike Inc.

Stephanie explained in her view that there was considerable inconsistency in the size of the manufacturer’s logo that was permitted under the regulations of different sports bodies. She contrasted, for example, the size of the Adidas branding with that of some of the other manufacturers. She felt it would be helpful for sports bodies to look into this further.

Darren Bailey, Head of Legal, International Rugby Board

Darren expressed concern that there had been a number of examples recently where the courts had created a legal precedent without understanding the sporting implications. Darren also felt that the increased litigation targeted at sports officials was beginning to have an effect on the willingness of experienced sports officials to offer their services. Finally, Darren thought that on the whole, federations needed to give some more thought to the problems of how it licensed its media assets as the media markets became more fragmented.

Dirk-Reiner Martens, Partner, Beiten Burkhardt

Dirk felt that an important issue for all federations was the recruitment of underage players and how this might be regulated in the future; as well as the interest of the clubs protected. He also felt that the eligibility issues regarding players’ nationalities were becoming increasingly irrelevant given the ease of players to move from one country to another under new federation regulations.

Paul Renney, Partner, Addleshaw Goddard

Paul believed that all sports should look at the importance of proper management of their data rights and assets . He felt in particular that sports should examine their policy for accrediting journalists and the media to their events to ensure that the agreements contained relevant restrictions.

Manuel J Martin Domingues, Head of Sports Law Group, Gomez-Acebo & Pombo Abogados, SCP

Manuel highlighted an issue that had arisen recently in Spanish football with racism. He explained that this was an issue that needed to be dealt with both at a national government level as well as clear policies and enforcement by federations.

Stephen Townley, Chairman, Active Rights Management

Stephen, as session moderator, ended in response to the request from the audience with a commitment to continue to use the SportAccord/LawAccord forum as a suitable opportunity for lawyers involved in the sports industry to to share their thoughts and ideas for the general benefit of the international federations and the sports community.