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The world of football continues to develop rapidly and legal matters are affecting clubs more and more on a day-to-day basis, hence, it is important to stay up-to-date with the most recent developments.

In 2011, the ECA Legal Advisory Panel (LAP) and the ECA Legal Services were created to assist clubs in legal matters and to represent the clubs' common interests in the legal debates within the game. The LAP is composed of 20 club lawyers from ECA Member Clubs with a vast experience in the field of sports law.

Following a proposal by the Legal Advisory Panel chaired by Ivan Gazidis (Arsenal FC), the European Club Association organised its first Legal Workshop for club lawyers on the 3rd of May at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

The aim of this workshop was to provide insights into recent developments on both regulatory and jurisprudence level as well as on recurrent problematic issues. The workshop was organized in the way of a plenary session, during which members of the ECA Legal Advisory Panel and guest speakes made presentations followed by extensive Q&A Sessions. The list of speakers included:

  • Daniel Lorenz, Head of Legal FC Porto ("Third Party Ownership");
  • Mark Goddard, General Manager FIFA TMS ("FIFA TMS: Role of FIFA TMS and its Disciplinary Powers");
  • Eugene Krechetov, Head of Legal FC Lokomotiv Moskva ("Contractual Promises & Unilateral Options, FIFA & CAS Jurisprudence");
  • Wouter Lambrecht, Legal Manager ECA ("Match Fixing: UEFA Disciplinary Powers & jurisprudence");
  • Dr. Michael Gerlinger, Legal Director FC Bayern München ("Decision Swiss Federal Tribunal: Enforcement of CAS Awards").

The plenary session was followed by group discussions in the afternoon dealing with two specific cases, the so-called "Matuzalem" and "Tevez" case, which were thouroghly presented by Andrey Kharitonchuk, Head of Legal FC Shakhtar Donetsk and Simon Cliff, Head of Legal Manchester City FC. Both cases led to very lively discussions and interesting conlusions.

The Legal Workshop was attended by 60 club representatives and was the third event of its kinds following the succesful staging of the New Media Workshop and the Fan Relations Workshop in the past year.