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Sports

Leading organizations in global sports rely on expert counsel for governance, commercial rights and regulatory compliance. Our team helps clients navigate opportunities and challenges on and off the field.

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Transforming global sport through high-stakes deals, disputes and regulatory insight.

Our sports lawyers advise investors, teams, leagues and rightsholders across the global sports ecosystem, pairing expert transactional capability with market-leading disputes and regulatory experience.

Our transactional team provides counsel on complex M&A, investments and financing, intellectual property, branding, media and entertainment licensing, employment, tax, real estate, and antitrust, competition and state aid. This breadth allows us to deliver integrated, practical advice on club and league investments, sales, acquisitions, reorganizations, joint ventures and strategic alliances, long-term commercial partnerships, and the full spectrum of rights commercialization in broadcasting, licensing, sponsorship and direct-to-consumer and OTT distribution.

Our disputes team advises on high-stakes litigation, arbitration, investigations, and regulatory strategy across multiple jurisdictions. This team has acted in more than one hundred arbitrations before specialist sports tribunals, including the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and routinely handles key mandates for major sports bodies, sporting organisations and other leading players in the industry.

Our partners bring practical industry perspective to every mandate, including a former Premier League team chairman and arbitrators who have served on numerous sports arbitrations. That experience - combined with our global platform and a broad client base spanning investors, federations, leagues, teams, broadcasters, sponsors and technology companies - gives us a comprehensive view of the issues that matter most, and the judgment to help our clients move forward with clarity and confidence - on and off the field.  

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Capital markets
Corporate advisory and governance
Data, privacy and cyber security
Employment, incentives and pensions
Intellectual property
Investigations
Media, entertainment and sports
Mergers and acquisitions
Regulatory and compliance advisory

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Contacts

Meet the team
London

Chris Mort

Global Co-Head of Capital Markets, Global Head of Sports
London

Rhodri Thomas

Partner
London

David Brooks

Partner
Riyadh

Amani Khalifa

Partner, Head of KSA Disputes Practice
Milan

Giancarlo D'Ambrosio

Partner
Washington, DC, New York

Eric B. Bruce

Partner
Paris

Anne-Laure Vincent

Partner
New York

Damian Ridealgh

Global Co-Head of Private Credit and Capital Solutions
Silicon Valley

Vinita Kailasanath

Partner
New York

Claire E. James

Head of New York Private Equity
London, Dublin

Deba Das

Partner
Frankfurt am Main

Martina de Lind van Wijngaarden

Partner
Meet the team

Awards & recognition

Chambers UK 2026

Ranked - Sport

Our thinking

Our thinking

Mar 2 2026

Concussion and head-injury risks in football: recent decisions and litigation

Football’s intensifying debate about the risks of heading has moved from the training ground to the tribunal room. In late 2025, the...
Jan 28 2025

Game-changing sports disputes: a new normal

The sports industry is undergoing rapid transformation, with tech companies competing with legacy broadcasters for lucrative media rights, while institutional investors are acquiring stakes in leagues and teams.

May 13 2024

Update: The EU keeps the ball rolling in its battle against money laundering – next on the agenda: professional football

Professional football is not just an entertaining happening for millions of fans around the world; it is also a big money game. During...
Mar 10 2023

Football, Fan Tokens and Financial Services Regulation – A very 2023 phenomenon

As readers of the TQ blog may have seen in the recent post on 6 February 2023, the UK Treasury has published a consultation paper which...
Apr 6 2022

How To Approach ‘ESG Criteria’ When Hosting Major Sports Events

This article looks at ESG in sports, with a particular focus on the Rugby World Cup 2023 in France.  

Mar 11 2021

How sports leagues & federations around the world are sanctioning players breaking Covid-19 rules

This article examines how sporting regulatory bodies have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, looking at various guidelines, protocols and other approaches.  

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