Sports Law

As the economic importance of sports has greatly increased, there has also been a greater involvement with legal matters. Corporations and individual athletes who participate in sports clubs, match operations or a professional league accordingly have a need for legal services that has increased in recent years.

Legal services for sports include especially

• contracts with licensed players,
• transfer agreements,
• sponsor agreements,
• merchandising agreements,
• other contracts for marketing rights,
• representation when sanctions are imposed by associations in the case of violations of association rules, as well as
• representation before the courts or associations' own decision making bodies (e.g. before the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body and the UEFA Appeals Body) as well as the International Court of Arbitration for Sports ("CAS") in Lausanne.

Our services, however, are not limited to just the classic issues under sports law and instead include all areas related to carrying out professional sports events and managing a sports club with professional divisions.

We accordingly provide advice, e.g. when

• renting and leasing out stadiums and other sports locations,
• structuring rules of conduct for stadiums and general terms and conditions for tickets,
• contracting for security services and catering, as well as
• structuring articles of association and conducting membership meetings.

Our partner Dr. Stefan Bäune was also a member in the control committee of the Deutscher Fußball Bund ("DFB") from 2010 until 2019.