Introduction

Sports law is not lawyer-friendly nor a familiar term for many legal practitioners in India mainly due to lack of ample opportunities and lack of awareness amongst many members of the legal fraternity. The career of a lawyer in the sports sector hasn’t emerged as a considerable option in India. There are not many sports Law firms in India even in tier I or metropolitan cities therefore they don’t even feature in this list of law firms visiting the National Law Schools in the country for recruitment.

Scope of legal practice in the Sports sector:

To become a sports lawyer, one requires an interest in the know-how, administration, and overall management of the sporting activity. The scope for legal practice in the sports sector extends to predominantly contracts and many other areas like gaming, agency, Intellectual Property, competition law, media law, sport-specific codes and regulations, anti-doping issues, labour law, and taxation. Sports lawyers also surface celebrity management issues and may provide legal advice in certain cases such as drafting opinions on the legality of controversial issues as well as providing a legal opinion on new legislations which may impact sports and related contracts, disclosures, licensing and agreements, advising to gaming industry clients like casino owners, lottery operators, and fantasy gaming companies both in India and abroad. 

An athlete or sportsman may require the assistance of a lawyer in understanding the terms/terminology of their contracts pertaining to tournaments, teams, brand endorsements, etc, and understanding the different provisions of agreements in simple language by them may need a lawyer’s assistance. Also, the scope extends to availing legal services at all stages ranging from contract negotiations to representation of sports personalities and/or their professional teams before the various authorities much like a litigating lawyer or represent or work for a sports brand as their in-house Counsel. A sports lawyer could also be tasked with few completely unrelated legal assignments such as the sudden migration of a player to a foreign country for a sports event who may be involved in any serious controversy etc.

Apart from these tasks, a sports lawyer may also need to be cautious of any future legal disputes that may arise in respect of his clients who may belong to such sports sector be the individual sportsperson or sports club, a sports association, a gaming company, sports brand, etc. and sports lawyer may also require to carry out the work of agents, which also includes managerial work of maintaining the player’s portfolio, advertisement, sponsorship, etc in certain cases.

Enhancement of scope of the career of a lawyer under sports sector:

Players/sportspeople are these days filing for trademarks and/or doing various other assignments such as advertisements of sports brands or fitness products, guest appearances in certain films and comedy shows, and attending certain social events or write books, etc leading to increasing scope for lawyers in intellectual property and entertainment and such other intertwined fields leaving a lot of scope for lawyers to grant legal services in contracts work of such assignments and registration work of such trademarks, etc. to prevent any form of trademark infringement to protect the brand/sportsperson from getting diluted. 

Also, there are a lot many sports leagues taking place in respect of different games like cricket, kabaddi, etc. and to make it a grand success, the organizers usually get into broadcasting rights deal with the right network provider, obtain good sponsorships, having the player assign their image rights to the league and team owners and so on; therefore services of the lawyers in such activities play an important part to minimize any kind of disputes/disagreements among people involved which at times lead to heavy litigations and may affect the goodwill of such involved parties in some or the other way. With the advent of such leagues, many international players/sportspersons are now looking at the Indian market as an avenue. So there is a lot of work where lawyers may play a crucial part. Apart from that, we have heard of scandals like match-fixing, evasion of tax in an illegal manner, temporary or permanent termination/ban of the sportsperson from the team due to violation of disciplinary guidelines/norms of certain leagues or associations, or inappropriate statements made by them on any public platform, sensitive matters like sexual harassment of any female sportsperson or female associate of such managing team of a sports personality or other female employee part of such event and such other matters may also require a sports lawyer to work on matters that may fall under the ambit of criminal law. Issues of gender discrimination and the increase in punishment under the new anti-doping code of 2021 have also given rise to human rights and constitutional issues in sports. 

In addition to that, now a lot of broadcasters are looking to either terminate existing contracts due to the league’s poor performance or owners feel that they have not made the right choice in terms of broadcasters are looking to terminate their contracts and sign new agreements and all such matters opens new scope for lawyers to grow their practice in the sports sector and consider sports law as an emerging career. 

Skills of a lawyer working in the Sports sector:

If one has an interest in sport and in terms of wanting to understand the framework of administration and governance and is keen to make a career out of it, then sports law can be an immensely rewarding and fascinating career even though so far it is at its evolving stage. A lawyer working in the Sports sector requires to have good knowledge and to have great proficiency in laws applicable to commercial activities. One should have expertise in law related to Contracts, Agreements, Media, Competition, and have expertise in reviewing, negotiating and effective drafting in accordance with the negotiations. Also, a lawyer must be always enthusiastic and have a readiness to research upon new emerging trends globally and possess good research skills, and must always be ready to learn new things as well. Interns who work under such lawyers may need to research untiringly on some of the most unheard-of issues related to the sporting scenario in India. The study of the legislation controlling sporting activities and its structure of management in India would prepare one to take up sports law as a career in India.

Way forward:

Sports law is yet to be taught as a full-fledged subject in law schools in India. By its very nature, Sports Law spans various different laws such as the law of contracts and negotiation, media law, public competition, the laws on drugs, narcotics, and artificial stimulants, corporate laws, laws pertaining to intellectual property rights, etc. India needs expert sports law consultants to meet diverse legal disciplines such as sports law and policy to understand, develop and encourage and ethically practice sports law in India.

Conclusion:

Sports can play in the lives of individuals, organizations, communities, and beyond. Therefore Sports Law shall be considered to be a viable career option in India. The first priority must be on the development of legal aptitude and experience and, alongside, one can work to develop sensitivity and understanding of sports context in India and then such opportunity can be approached where you get to use the legal skills on projects that directly or indirectly involve sport. The sports lawyers are globally carving out a respectable position for themselves and career in the field of sports as they know where they can earn well therefore lawyers in the sports industry are more like a sports professional in the legal industry.

Written by: Vaidehi Harshad Samant

                    Advocate, Mumbai