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Sisu are to get a replay in February 2016 their ongoing legal battle with Coventry City Council. Their original claim that the council’s loan to Arena Coventry Limited was illegal state aid was rejected. Two judges refused to allow an appeal, but it was a case of third time lucky.
Bristol Rovers have lost a court case with Sainsbury’s over the sale of the Memorial Ground. Sainsbury’s had agreed to pay £30m for the ground to build a supermarket, then pulled out of the deal. However, the court ruled that the supermarket chain were within their rights.
Bristol Rovers had alleged that Sainsbury’s decided long ago not to proceed with the scheme but kept ‘stringing along’ the club to prevent a competitor accessing the site and eating into its market share.
The Euroean Union’s Court of First Instance has struck a blow at Uefa’s financial fair play (FFP) rules, reinforcing the widely held belief that the rules lack a strong legal foundation.
A Madrid court issued a last-minute ruling to end a player strike that had threatened to bring the La Liga season to a premature end, as well as preventing the final of the Copa del Ray being played. According to the interim ruling by Spain’s national court, the strike would have caused ‘grave organisational disorder’.
There would have been little prospect of playing the cancelled matches at a later date. Javier Tebas, the president of Spain’s professional league, had earlier warned that the stoppage could inflict financial damage of €100m.
Queens Park Rangers have challenged the legality of the Football League’s financial fair play (FFP) rules. With the Football League they have issued a joint statement to confirm that legal proceedings are under way, but shielded from the glare of publicity in the courts.
As Bristol Rovers prepare for a play-off final that could return them to the Football League after one season, they are also appearing in the High Court to sue Sainsbury’s.
The supermarket chain was going to bulldoze the Memorial Ground to build a supermarket. However, with the changes in the retail sector, they have pulled out of the scheme. They claim that it is because they are unhappy with conditions in the planning permission that restrict the number of trucks that can deliver at night.
To compound their misery at relegation from the Premier League, Queens Park Rangers face the prospect of a fine in excess of £50m for breach of financial fair play regulations. They could even be expelled from professional football.
Police have visited the headquarters of Sports Direct in Derbyshire as part of an ongoing investigation into takeovers at Rangers. Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley has a nine per cent stake in Rangers.
Reference is sometimes made to the British equivalent of the ‘California effect’ in the United States. This means that legislation pioneered in California is then adopted by other states or used as a model at a federal level. Air quality law offers a good example.
The equivalent in the UK is the Scottish Parliament passing laws which might then be adopted elsewhere in the UK. However, the ‘Barnett formula’ does ensure that the Scottish Government has more money to play with.
We have often commented on the growing number of sports lawyers for whom football is an important and potentially lucrative area of work. EU competition law is also highly relevant and it is often forgotten that the way in which Premier League television rights are sold in seven packages was a formula devised to satisfy the European Commission after an investigation.