Sports Law Round-Up

MCFC CAS appeal 

This month saw Manchester City present their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), via video link, as they seek to overturn the sanctions handed to them by UEFA.
 
In February 2020, City were found to have committed “serious breaches” of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations by the Adjudicatory Chamber of UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB). As a result, the club were banned from UEFA competition for two seasons and presented with a €30 million fine. This came after the Premier League side allegedly overstated its sponsorship revenue in accounts submitted between 2012 and 2016 and failed to cooperate with the investigation. City immediately signalled their intention to appeal the decision to CAS in a strong-worded statement, which labelled UEFA’s process as “prejudicial”.  
 
An investigation began after German magazine Der Spiegel claimed, in November 2018, that Manchester City and their sponsors manipulated contracts to bypass FFP regulations. For example, it was alleged that the club had inflated the size of sponsorship deals, thus enabling owner Sheikh Mansour to invest more money into City than allowed by FFP rules. 
 
Following the hearing earlier this month, CAS announced that we can expect the outcome of the case to be issued in early July. 
 
MUFC sue Football Manager makers

It has been revealed that Manchester United are suing the makers of the Football Manager series for allegedly infringing the side’s trademark. 
 
The Premier League club have taken legal action against Sega Publishing and Sports Interactive (SI), the publisher and developer of the popular simulation respectively. Manchester United claim that its trademark has been infringed through the use of the club’s name “extensively throughout the game” and also through a failure to use the official Manchester United crest. Instead, Football Manager are said to have used “a simplified red and white striped logo” which allegedly "deprives the registered proprietor of its right to have the club crest licensed".    
 
In response, Sega and SI claim that the use of the side's name is "a legitimate reference to the Manchester United football team in a football context" and has been used in Football Manager and Championship Manager (its predecessor) since 1992 "without complaint by the claimant".
 
Whyte takes legal action against WBC

It has been confirmed by WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman that heavyweight boxer Dillian Whyte has taken legal action against the organisation over the date of his mandatory WBC title fight. 
 
Whyte, also known as ‘The Body Snatcher’, defeated Oscar Rivas in a WBC final eliminator last July, securing a mandatory shot at Tyson Fury’s WBC belt. Last month, Sulaiman reiterated that Whyte would be granted the world title fight by February 2021. However, Fury is lined up to fight Deontay Wilder again by the end of the year and recently confirmed that an agreement has been made in principle for a fight with Anthony Joshua. 
 
Bob Arum, Tyson Fury’s US promoter, has expressed his desire to delay or ‘eliminate’ the Whyte fight, whilst Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has insisted that Whyte should be granted the opportunity to fight Fury early next year. 
 
As it stands, Whyte is the WBC ‘interim’ champion and is set to fight Alexander Povetkin on Saturday 22 August.