UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Jamie Singer and Flora Peel, Onside Law
Intellectual Property In relation to the contractual arrangements between rights-holders and broadcasters, the relevant sporting league or event organiser typi - cally grants a licence to the broadcaster(s) to access the relevant venue (and thereby create the broadcast). Ownership of the copyright in the images of the broadcast itself will automatically vest in the pro - ducer/director of the footage under the Copy - right, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and so the relevant contract usually assigns such copyright to the sports event organiser, which licenses it back to the broadcaster so that it may be broad - cast in a specific territory. 3. Sports Events 3.1 Relationships Hosting, Attendance and Participation Presently, there are no proprietary rights in a sports event in the UK. Instead, sports events are primarily protected by the commercial con - tracts that control the various rights attached to the event and the access to the relevant venue. For example, the organisers of sports events may enter hosting or participation agreements with venues, teams and athletes, and issue tick - ets to spectators that include specific restric - tions (eg, to limit sharing of footage from the event and re-selling their tickets to third parties). See also 2.1 Available Sports-Related Rights . Structure and Organisation The structure of sports events will depend on the governance of the specific sport. In UK sports, the national governing body of the relevant sport will often be the organiser of competitions within that sport – where this is the case, the
relationship between athletes/sports clubs and the governing body will be regulated through the governing body’s rulebook or participation agreement. In instances where the competition organiser is not the governing body (eg, the Premier League in English football), a shareholder model can be used to enable the competition’s participants to take decisions collectively in relation to the competition’s rules, commercial arrangements and so on. In the UK, event organisers owe a duty of care to take reasonable steps to prevent injuries to peo - ple at their event and provide access to proper medical equipment and treatment should anyone be injured. Should this duty of care be breached, event organisers may be liable on the grounds of negligence. Two primary pieces of legislation that deal with the applicable civil liability of event organisers in the UK are the Occupiers’ Liability Acts 1957 and 1984. It is rare for athletes themselves to be deemed liable to spectators (since spectators are gener - ally treated as having consented to being at risk of reasonably foreseeable events). Safety Legislation has been introduced to increase the safety of sporting events and reduce the risk of public disorder – for example, the Criminal Jus - tice and Public Order Act 1994 made it illegal to stand at specific football matches. 3.2 Liability Duty of Care The Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 also makes it a criminal offence for event organisers to admit spectators into sports grounds unless the grounds have a safety certificate from local
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