Football – Soccer | CULTURE SPAIN

In the wake of the publication of the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan for youth development, VisionPro Sports Institutes (VSI) offers a unique opportunity to professional clubs to keep talented young players in the game. VSI has been set up to develop and operate elite football academies for the benefit of young players who at 16 are often not [...]

I recently had the chance to catch up with my client Salif Diao to get his views on Stoke City’s Wembley semi final clash with Bolton – and an update on his football academy projects in Senegal. ‘It’s been a long time coming for Stoke fans,’ Saif said, ‘but at last we have the chance to get back to Wembley [...]

I travelled to Serbia last week to further cement Beswicks Sports connections in Eastern Europe. Following a previous meeting in London, an affiliation has now been forged with a sports law firm in Belgrade headed by Zoran Damjanovic.   Zoran Damjanovic is a well known and respected figure in Serbian football and a former chief executive of Red Star. Discussions also [...]

Another crazy end to the January 2011 transfer window with a record breaking £225 million spent on football player transfers compared to only £30 million last January. However, an analysis of the figures shows that 80% of the money was spent by four Premier League teams – on six players! The influence of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Regulations seems to [...]

I’m a lucky man!  I’m passionate about football and it’s part of my day job as a sports lawyer! This year has been continually exciting – as I have been called in as a professional sports lawyer to advise on many different issues, from high profile transfers to coaches being sacked and image rights needing protection. However, these are my [...]

My final day at the Aspire 4 Sport Conference in Qatar saw me meet the legendary Carlos Alberto, captain of Brazil’s 1970 World Cup winning team. What an honour! Sir Clive Woodward, the performance director for the GB team at London 2012, showed why he has been so successful as a coach. His analysis of coaching methods and coaching education [...]

Today’s events in Qatar began with the leading football finance guru, Keith Harris in a question and answer session with Qatar’s Mohammed bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Conference. We were given a fascinating insight into Mohammed bin Hammam’s vision for Asian football and the challenges he has faced in relation to Qatar’s bid for the World Cup in [...]

An interesting day here in Qatar, not least for Brazil and Argentina who teamed up for table football with Carlos Alberto and Ossie Ardiles showing great form! In fact, the combined talents of Carlos Alberto and Ossie Ardiles, not surprisingly, resulted in the beating of the local Qatar pairing! Meanwhile, interest in sports law was provided by a lively discussion [...]

SPORTS LAW – TIM BAILEY SPECIALIST SPORTS LAWYER You may have noticed that yesterday Tim Bailey put up a Post on a very interesting legal development relating to compensation after a football contract had gone ‘sour’ between Stephen Appiah and Fenerbahce. What was this about – you may have been asking? Well, Tim Bailey is a specialist sports lawyer based [...]