2 10 October 2004

News:

An English Cricket Board (ECB) proposal to encourage Counties to employ more England qualified players will not have ‘the slightest impact’ claims sports lawyer Stephen Hornsby, a partner with the Simkins Partnership.

The Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) on 21 October dismissed an appeal (CAS 2004/A/704) by Yang Tae Young Korean Gymnast and Olympic bronze Medal winner, who argued that he was denied the Gold Medal as a result of an admitted Judge’s error.

Chelsea Football Club is planning a ground breaking case against sacked player Adrian Mutu in a bid to force him to pay the club compensation for the loss of his transfer value. Mutu admitted taking cocaine after he tested positive in a drugs test. Chelsea paid Italian club Parma a £15.8 million transfer fee for Mutu in August last year and sacked the player for gross misconduct on Friday 29 October.

Features:

What price would you put on taking a “recreational” drug? Significant it appears if you are Chelsea FC. After the initial admission from one of their stars Adrian Mutu that he took cocaine, the club subsequently sacked the player. Purchased for £15.8m (US$29m) in August 2003, the club state they had no option but terminate his contract for gross misconduct. Peter Kenyon, Chief Executive at Chelsea was quoted last Friday as saying, “In coming to a decision on this case, Chelsea believed the club’s social responsibility to it’s fans, players, employees and other stakeholders in football regarding drugs was more important that the major financial considerations to the company.”1

The law and sport is a relationship that often sees considerable tension between the rules of the game and the applicability of legislation and legal principles. With the European Court of Justice making clear in previous decisions how and when it will intervene in sporting disputes, Anne-Marie Blakeley of Hammonds, explores the finely balanced relationship between sporting rules and the application of EU competition law by reference to recent cases.

The role of local Government in stadia developments is of growing significance. Whilst the North American funding model has often seen local authorities play a substantial part in providing the necessary finance, what does the future hold for the United Kingdom? Grant Aitken explores this further.

The development of stadia on a pan European basis has created a range of solutions to the funding of such projects. For many organisations the key part of any financial package is the grant finance available and to what use it can be put. Roger Tunstall considers this in greater detail.

With stadia projects costing significant amounts the rights deals recently announced at Coventry with the Jaguar Arena and Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium have emphasised the importance of commercial rights valuations in contributing to the overall costs of such projects. Andrew Cole Bulgin of Connexus considers this further.

With Jenson Button’s destination as a driver for next season finally resolved, the dispute between the two competing teams brought to the fore the key issues of what terms form the basis of the relationship between driver and team. Jack Bjerke of Baker Hostetler examines from an American perspective the issues that ought to be covered in any contract with his thoughts on driving agreements in open wheel racing.