Mills & Reeve | Sport

(Re-)Introducing the chronicles of Mills, Reevaldo & Elle – brought to you by Mills & Reeve | Sport   Through this series, the sports law team at Mills & Reeve will highlight common and topical issues faced by professional footballers behind the scenes.   Keep an eye on the comments as the story develops ⬇

It was a pleasure to help Bristol City Football Club implement this exciting new initiative. Fan Advisory Boards are becoming increasingly popular in the EFL, and with the impending introduction of the Independent Football Regulator an FAB is a great way to demonstrate effective fan engagement. Mills & Reeve | Sport are experts in this area and are open to discussing how clubs and fans can work together to form a meaningful advisory board that benefits all parties.

Last week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion with Michelle Gallen, Frans de Weger, William Sternheimer and Marianne Saroli at the International Dispute Resolution in Sport conference at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. We discussed the features of an effective sports arbitration procedure: ⚖️ Procedural rigour and flexibility do not necessarily exist at odds with each other and an approach that is human centric and party specific is always preferable. 🧐 Disclosure and evidence taking at CAS is generally not as involved as commercial (or even PL) arbitration, but is that a bad thing, given time / cost / party constraints? 📑 Effectiveness includes transparency. CAS has started publishing awards a week after being issued. These are now all on the “Recent Decisions” section of the website, and not searchable via the database, but still helpful if you know what you’re looking for (who knew?). ⚽️ As to expediency, the FIFA Football Tribunal targets issuing decisions within 6-8 weeks, up from approx. 1 year, back in the day. 🏃Expedited proceedings on the merits at CAS still need both parties’ consent, and an application for provisional measures is the best tool for a quick, preliminary decision in some cases. 🪢 We also discussed how FIFA approaches the issue of jurisdiction under the new NDRC regime. Not only must NDRC’s be recognised, but dispute resolution clauses must be clear and exclusive. Thank you to the LawInSport team for the opportunity and credit to the impressive student teams from Singapore and Chicago at the #SLAM Grand Finals - arguing before 3 CAS arbitrators and a room of 100+ sports lawyers cannot have been easy! #SportsLaw

🚀 Mastering Sports Development Projects 🏟️ Sophia Mitropoulos and I explore the essential phases of sports development projects, guiding you through everything from initial planning and securing funding to construction, community engagement, and successful completion. 📖 read more: https://lnkd.in/e34u_jEy

Our Senior Associate, Rustam Sethna, will be moderating the session on "The Effectiveness of Procedural Rules in Sports Arbitration" at the International Dispute Resolution in Sport 2025 conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. Don't miss this chance to hear from leading experts! 

We are thrilled to welcome back Phil Hutchinson from Mills & Reeve as a guest speaker for our upcoming FTF13, sponsored by Premier Relocation Ltd. Tony Sharkey Ryan McKnight

Delighted to have acted for Yulong Investments on their acquisition of the stallions Shaquille and Soldier's Call from Clipper Logistics as both the Mills and Reeve Bloodstock Team and Sport & Media Sector continue to enjoy a busy start to the year. Thank you to my colleagues Alastair Cotton and Sophia Bell for their help in delivering this in near record time! https://lnkd.in/dQCk8fa8

Last April, the AbuDhabi Autonomous Racing League held its inaugural race, which saw a grid of wholly self-driving race cars competing on track at the Yas Marina Circuit. Needless to say, the event captured my interest and got me thinking of the role that #motorsport can play in driving (pun intended) advancements in self-driving tech and the #automotive sector more generally. So much so that I wrote an article about it (which can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eBQv76Fu). Almost a full year later, at the BlackBook Motorsport forum last Thursday, I was fortunate enough to catch up with (and attend a panel hosted by) Sam Bernardon, Marvin Klemp, Curtis Casados and the team at AIPEX, a number of whom were actually on the ground that weekend in Abu Dhabi keeping the cars on track. It was great to hear from AIPEX about the progress they are making in the pursuit of self-driving technologies that are fast, responsive and safe for human occupants/road users. When innovative engineering start-ups like AIPEX succeed, the benefits are felt across society. And it is great to see how #motorsport can continue to be a testbed in which bleeding edge #technology solutions can be tested in safe, controlled environments. Pictured below is AIPEX's latest McLaren Group self-driving concept, together with a photo from the panel (featuring a question posed by yours truly).

En route to the BlackBook Motorsport forum 2025. Looking forward to hearing from today’s speakers and panellists considering the #commercial, #environmental and #technological revolution underway globally across the #motorsport sector. It looks like a packed itinerary, but happy to make time to connect with fellow attendees and discuss the work we are doing in the space and how Mills & Reeve can help organisations across the #sport and #automotive sectors achieve their #strategic, #regulatory, and #ESG objectives. If you’re keen to chat through then let me know and we can put some time in the diary for a coffee. Mills & Reeve | Sport

Nominees for Legal Team of the Year, recognising a team supporting female football and advancing women’s football. #WFA2025 🏆