Paul Ononye

Paul Ononye is a University of Nottingham and University of Law graduate, having completed the GDL and LPC at the latter institution. Paul has a keen interest in sports law and is currently studying a PhD in Sports Governance and Regulations at the University of Salford. 

1. When did your interest in sports law begin? 

I’ve always been quite a sports fanatic. I played rugby at school and played football as well. I have known for quite a while that I wanted to work in the sports industry in some capacity. I went on to study the GDL and the LPC, and I found the interesting part to be the contract law side of things. Because I knew I wanted to be involved in sports and to work in sport in some capacity, I thought that would have pushed me to go for the contract law aspect a lot more. On the GDL and the LPC, we had a talk by Mark Hovell and he spoke to us about being a sports lawyer and I just found it so interesting. I love how diverse sports law is. One day, he’s been a CAS administrator, the next day, he’s at the Olympics doing some work there, but then also working with clubs and governing bodies. It was good to hear about the diverse range of work that’s available in sports law. 

2. What do you find interesting about sports law?

I think again, I like the diverse nature of the industry, and I like the idea of working with all the different stakeholders as well. I also like the fact there is a continued commercialisation of the area, particularly in football, but you see it emerging in other sports, such as The Hundred cricket tournament that started last year. It’s run for two seasons now and you can see the commercial side to it, trying to make cricket more interesting and more attractive particularly to younger players. I think the legitimacy and autonomy of sports law itself is also very interesting, such as the notion that sports bodies can operate without undue external political or legal influence. I always find myself arguing with colleagues or friends about whether there is law that’s applied to sporting matters, or whether there is actually a particular body of law that forms sports law, which you might have heard referred to as ‘lex sportiva’. You can see the interactions (and lack of) between the public and private sector, so for example, even though you have FIFA being the governing body in football, it’s still a private entity who aren’t always keen on government intervention in its affairs. 

Currently my research area is concerned with the impact of Brexit on sports, and I do find the recent regulatory changes particularly interesting, such as the application in sports to the EU freedom of movement for workers and reshaping regulations such as the Governing Body Endorsements (GBE).

3. Please can you tell us more about your PhD? 

I started it a few years ago. At the point I’m at now, I’m conducting an exploratory study into the impact of Brexit on sports governance through the lens of football. So, it’s looking at developments in aspects such as corporate governance and sports governance. I’m also looking at the implications of leaving the EU, and the practical consequences such as to free movement of workers and how it affects leagues and foreign players themselves. I’m also looking at amended regulations such as the governing body endorsement (GBE) to examine the impact of these across the first few years of leaving the EU, how effective they are and what impact they have on areas such as the transfer market in football. 

4. What are some of the legal trends in sport at the moment that you have noticed?  

I think one of the main things, following on from the fan-led review by Tracey Crouch, is the current position of fans being seen as key stakeholders in football. There’s an onus on fans right now to take control of the game, and they want to be more involved or at least have a bit more say in the things that clubs do. Another key recommendation is the need for an independent regulator in football, but we will have to wait and see if that’s implemented.
 
Another interesting trend is the rise of NFTs and cryptocurrency within football. One example is Manchester United having a sponsorship agreement with Tezos, a cryptocurrency firm. I’ve noticed cryptocurrency agreements seem to be being used by clubs trying to recuperate a loss of finances from the period of Covid and Brexit, likely as a way to try and find different financial avenues to make money. There seem to be lots of commercial agreements coming about that we’re not used to seeing.

5. Please can you tell us about a recent sports law news story? 

I think the one that caught my interest recently was the Diego Costa transfer, and then the Justin Kluivert transfer to Fulham which didn’t go through. I found these stories interesting because both stories revolved around newly introduced regulations for foreign international players which, since Brexit, includes players from the EU. Diego Costa, when you look at it at face value, is a Premier League player who’s played a key role at Chelsea FC in the Premier League before, and you wouldn’t think there would have been any issue with getting him signed at Wolves. The GBE rules require a player to accumulate a certain number of points under the six objective criteria, one of which is international appearances. The period used for the assessment is the preceding two years from the date of the application. Once the GBE is granted, then they can carry on proceeding to apply for a visa. Diego Costa would have fallen short based on his lack of international appearances. His appeal to the exceptions panel was heard, and he was granted the GBE in the end. Justin Kluivert, despite different circumstances, was unable to accumulate enough points for the GBE and was also unable to use the Exceptions Panel.

6. What is a common misconception in sport or sports law? 

This may not be a misconception but rather a debate in which I find the opposing side to be a misconception. In academia, and most likely in practice, there is a notion that there is no such thing as sports law but rather it is the law as we know it being applied to sports. Although you do get a range of principles of commercial law, competition law, EU law, and so on being applied to sporting matters, I would say there is still an existence of a ‘lex sportiva’ which are underlying principles that supplement those other areas of the law. The notion is that lex sportiva fills in gaps in inconsistent regulations and assists in the efficient application of common legal principles to the sports industry. I think there is an argument to suggest sports law has its own separate body of law that consists of CAS decisions, Panel decisions from governing bodies, as well as Regulations set by Governing Bodies such as FIFA. 

There is also quite a misconception about the work that agents do in sports. There’s quite a bit of uproar about what they actually do, and why they get paid so much, with some people saying they do nothing at all.  If we compare that to any other industry, so let’s say you’re buying a house, you’d go through an agent, you wouldn’t do it yourself as there are a lot of intricate and technical aspects you wouldn’t understand. I would say the majority of agents and intermediaries play a key role in representing and protecting player’s interests, both on and off the field. They have to be experienced in transfer and contract negotiations, sponsorship and commercial dealings, and establishing key relationships between a number of stakeholders within the industry to be able to facilitate the workings of commercial football. I do believe they are crucial to ensuring that there is no significant imbalance in bargaining power between the player and the club, particularly in transfer and contract negotiations. You get agents who represent the football clubs themselves as well. 

It might be a general statement, but I know it’s one that people often make, particularly when you see how much they earn, but I would say there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.

7. Where do you see the future of sports law? 

It’s very interesting to see the recent GBE regulations applied in practice and I am curious to see if there will be any material changes made to them further down the line. I am also keen to see what follows on from the Tracey Crouch fan-led review. I know that one of the recommendations was to commission a separate review for Women’s football. I believe this was recently commissioned to be led by Karen Carney. I’m looking forward to seeing what the findings are from that and how similar or dissimilar it is from the fan-led review. It will also be interesting to see what other recommendations will be implemented from the fan-led review, one I would note being any implementation of an independent regulator. Following the situation after Derby County’s administration, which is just one of a number of clubs that have gone through the administration process in recent years, it will be interesting to see if there will be more regulatory introductions that come in to help facilitate sustainability of football clubs. 

There’s also talk about further regulations being placed on intermediaries by FIFA in the near future. It could mean setting a percentage cap on agent commission, agents needing to pass exams to obtain a licence to operate, use of a FIFA clearing house for payment of agency fees, dual representation, and changes to the processes involved in the representation of minors.

Finally, I would say that I’m interested how far the incorporation of the ever talked about cryptocurrency and NFT’s can go in the sports industry.  

8. If you could put one message on a billboard for thousands of people to see every day, what would that message be?
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Well, that’s a hard one! I would say, take time to do what makes you happy.