Onside Law

Onside Law has been honored once again for its outstanding work in entertainment and sport by The Times Best Law Firms 2025.✨ A heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to the nomination process, the report highlights the top lawyers in business, public, and private-client law, as selected by their peers. Congratulations to everyone nominated!

Onside Law has been honored once again for its outstanding work in entertainment and sport by The Times Best Law Firms 2025.✨ A heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to the nomination process, the report highlights the top lawyers in business, public, and private-client law, as selected by their peers. Congratulations to everyone nominated!

In this edition of Onside Law’s quarterly update on data and technology in the sports sector we focus on newly announced data protection reforms and the ICO’s continued enforcement action around cookies. If you have any questions or would like to discuss any data-related issue, please contact our specialist, Roisín Cregan. #data #tech #dataprotection

Congratulations to our client Sproud and its backers VGC Partners on their exciting deal to partner with Maya Jama as an investor and strategic ambassador. With Sproud aiming to increase its brand awareness in the UK and beyond, Maya and her brand profile will “help Sproud to further normalise plant-based choices for everyone – whether in the supermarket aisle or at the coffee shop counter”. Ben Hanglin, Paul Musa, Jamie Singer

Onside Law senior associate Hannah Kent recently spoke with The Athletic regarding the tragic Adam Johnson manslaughter case. ⬇️ Full article below.

"Welcome to the new era of the NSL (Netball Super League)!"   Fantastic to attend Netball Super League’s Business Breakfast last week. A huge milestone in netball’s journey to professionalisation in the UK.   We have enjoyed working closely with England Netball and Netball Super League over recent years to help bring their vision to life.   It was great to share our morning with the netball and women’s sport community, investors, partners and brands as excitement builds ahead of the 2025 launch season.   Simon Thorp Harriet Leach    #womenssport #sportsbusiness #sportslaw

Onside Law partner Stevie Loughrey has participated in a “lawyer’s roundtable” for The Athletic discussing Man City’s case against the Premier League in relation to its Associated Party Transaction rules. ⬇️ Full article below.

Onside Law Partner, Stevie Loughrey, is quoted in the The Athletic today on what happens next following the Tribunal’s Award, published last week, in Man City’s challenge to the Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules. 

Man City's case against the Premier League (PL) re the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules. A lot has been written about this - some of it hyperbolic and not entirely accurate. Some headline thoughts below: ⚫ Man City (MC) will, and should be, the happier of the two sides. Although the vast majority of MC's challenges on competition law and procedural unfairness were not upheld by the Tribunal, MC is right to say it only needed to succeed on one ground, which it has (indeed it succeeded on three grounds as explained below).   First, the Tribunal has found that the APT rules (introduced in December 2021) and the Amended APT rules (introduced in February 2024) are unlawful because they breach competition law. This is on the basis that they exclude from their scope shareholder loans provided at non market rates (e.g with no or low interest rates). The Tribunal found that the shareholder loan exclusion amounts to a sufficient degree of harm for it to be categorised as a restriction by object i.e. it has found that the object of the rules was to “prevent, distort or restrict” competition, as opposed to finding the lesser charge that this was the “effect” of the rules.   Second, the Tribunal has found that the APT rules and the Amended APT rules are procedurally unfair because they preclude a club having access to, and therefore ability to comment on, comparable transaction data relied upon by the PL before the PL Board determines whether a transaction is at Fair Market Value.   The third ground on which MC succeeded was in relation to the First Abu Dhabi transaction. The Tribunal found that the decision was reached in a procedurally unfair manner in that the PL did not provide MC, prior to its Final Determination, with the Databank transactions entered into by other clubs, which the PL Board referred to in its Final Determination.   ⚫ So what happens next? The Tribunal has reserved its jurisdiction to grant injunctive relief and damages to MC. There will need to be a further hearing in which the parties have the opportunity to make submissions on this. All PL Board decisions made since December 2021 on APTs will likely need to be revisited. The PL will need to amend its rules to expressly include shareholder loans. It remains to be seen whether this is to be from December 2021 or just going forwards. Whichever route the PL takes, it appears likely further legal challenges will follow (e.g. clubs with high amounts of shareholder loans (often interest free), may find themselves charged with breach of the Profitability and Sustainability Rules if those loans need to be recalculated at commercial rates of interest at say 8% pa).

With yesterday’s release of the new Employment Rights Bill creating a lot of discussion about a possible reset of UK employment laws, our Employment team looks at some of the most significant changes for employers across sport (and generally). Alex Clarke, Nathan Chambers