Does FIFA's approach to Football Agent Regulations suggest a deliberate strategy to erode industry credibility and make individual agents obsolete rather than genuinely regulate the sector....
Using mediation as a litmus test for client-centered legal representation. Discover how a lawyer's approach to mediation might reveal their true commitment to fiduciary duty and client interests versus their own financial gain....
Many may understandably be looking ahead to next week's long-anticipated public hearing at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR) of 2023, and then hopefully being able to breathe a huge sigh of relief should a final ruling be delivered not long thereafter. But...
The decision by a mediator to withdraw from its role as ‘mediator’ demonstrates one key aspect of mediation that any party to a mediation can exercise (including the mediator) without any direct repercussion ……. and that is the right to walk away at any point....
Whilst it's welcome to hear that sport increasingly supports and utilises mediation, BUT the role played by the likes of in-house legal teams in sports organisations, their mediation understanding and the way in which they practice mediation is increasingly concerning in some cases....
The FFAR dispute between FIFA and football agents could have been resolved (if not largely averted) long before now – and in a far more timely, efficient and cost-effective manner. That is if the values, attitudes, timelines, planning and approaches of all parties to the FFAR dispute had been better...
Whilst there is currently a considerable amount of uncertainty over the regulations and the relatively new FFAR (‘FIFA Football Agent Regulations’) with the industry awaiting a key ruling from the ECJ (European Court of Justice), does the football agent industry really need a belated intervention from yet another authority?...
Following my move into the mediation profession, I have noted several factors that I believe are evidence of the growth of mediation being stifled, if not an element of self-destruction somewhat from within. This article may seem pretty much a paradox in itself, and I may come to contradict myself...
When the term 'equality of arms’ is used in the same context as mediation, it immediately prompts consideration as to whether mediation was a very useful, if not the ultimate tool in providing an ‘equality of arms’ in a dispute....
So, in endeavouring to bring mediation to the professional sports world and most notably football (soccer), my own journey has been one littered with huge frustration, bewilderment and annoyance at the seeming resistance of many to contemplate mediation or even understand it....
