UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Jamie Singer and Flora Peel, Onside Law
of their participation in the sport. Employment contracts with clubs (see 7. Employment ) also require adherence to the regulations. These disciplinary proceedings tend to be before tribunals or judicial bodies that are administered internally by sports governing bodies, albeit the judges should be independent of the governing body (eg, the FA’s Regulatory Commission). Smaller organisations may elect to provide for external independent tribunals such as Sport Resolutions to both administer their proceed - There is a distinction between disciplinary pro - ceedings related to on-field offences and off- field offences in the UK, as follows: • on-field offences – sports organisations usually have wider discretion and can ren - der decisions very quickly with no external involvement; and • off-field offences (eg, the betting offences described in 1.3 Betting ) – it will take longer for such cases to be investigated, for pro - ceedings to run their course and for deci - sions to be made, and decisions will usually be appealable to an independent body, such as Sport Resolutions panels or the Court of Arbitration for Sport. ings and provide the judges. On-Field/Off-Field Offences 2. Commercial Rights 2.1 Available Sports-Related Rights Aside from sponsorship and broadcasting rights (see 2.2 Sponsorship and 2.3 Broadcasting ) and exploitation of data rights (see 5.5 Sports Data ), there are a number of other commercial rights across the sports landscape in the UK,
including merchandising, ticketing and hospital - ity and “official supplier” rights (where the spon - sor becomes the official supplier of a product or sponsor to the team or club). Merchandising Rights-holders, such as sports teams and event organisers, often seek to exploit the goodwill in their brand by selling branded merchandise. To do this, rights-holders typically enter into licensing arrangements, pursuant to which a licensee (or sub-licensee) is granted the right to design, manufacture and sell a specific range of products that incorporate the rights-holder’s intellectual property in exchange for paying the rights-holder a licence fee and royalties on the licensee’s sales. Rights-holders must ensure rel - evant intellectual property and consumer pro - tection laws are strictly adhered to, particularly as online and digital merchandising continues to surge. Ticketing Income The ability to sell tickets to an event remains a cornerstone of the potential revenues for sports rights-holders in the UK. While fans were allowed back into stadiums during the summer of 2021, with live sporting venues no longer facing any restrictions on fan attendance, loss of ticket income during the COVID-19 pandemic was felt the most by teams and sports that do not benefit from significant broadcasting income. Accord - ing to a Deloitte Football Money League 2025 analysis, an increase in clubs’ stadium capacity, ticket prices and premium matchday offerings have helped matchday revenues grow by 11% year on year. Matchday revenue reportedly sur - passed EUR2 billion, accounting for 18% of total revenue.
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