Matt has spent more than 25 years working for businesses in the media and sports sectors, with over 10 years spent working in-house as a football club general counsel and having led the legal and broadcast compliance teams at a sports broadcaster and television platform operator. Before working in-house, Matt was a media- and technology-focused partner at a leading UK law firm.
From these roles, Matt brings broad and deep sector knowledge. His sports-specific experience includes negotiating agreements with players, agents, and coaches and for the transfer of players’ registrations, both domestically and internationally, and advising on sports regulatory issues, including compliance with relevant Premier League, EFL, FA, UEFA, and FIFA rules and regulations for men’s, women’s, and youth team activities.
Matt has also advised on a wide range of commercial legal projects within sport, including sponsorship and partnership agreements (such as front of shirt agreements and apparel partnerships), retail and IP licensing agreements, agreements associated with the management of operations at sporting venues (including for the provision of outsourced catering, hospitality, and ticketing services), and arrangements for the provision of IT systems and digital services to support sporting functions and deliver enterprise infrastructure requirements.
Although Matt is primarily a commercial lawyer, his wider experience in the sports sector includes managing disputes and claims, high-profile regulatory investigations, reputation management, consumer-facing terms and fan engagement issues, finance-related legal matters, and IP portfolio management and infringement, as well as providing practical advice on sports industry employment and safeguarding issues and operational matters.
Matt has worked extensively on commercial arrangements for the acquisition and exploitation of sports media rights (including UEFA club competition rights and Premier League media rights) and, more broadly in media, he has worked across the full range of arrangements required for the creation, transmission, and distribution of audiovisual channels, services, and content across multiple platforms, and on complex media technology services arrangements, including for the development and implementation of innovative new broadcast technologies and distribution methods.
Matt’s prior in-house experience means that he genuinely understands the practical issues and challenges uniquely faced by senior leaders and in-house counsel working in highly dynamic industries such as sport. Matt combines his understanding of these practical challenges with his industry insight and commercial awareness to provide pragmatic, focused legal advice that meets the specific needs and requirements of clients working in these fast-moving sectors.
