Sports Law

  • Providing advice to the sports world is our passion

Our firm’s founder, Dr Dirk-Reiner Martens liked to say: “Sports law is actually everything, except maybe family law” – only to take back even this small qualification immediately because he once advised one of the most successful German football players on his divorce. The term “sports law” is glamorous, but difficult to define. Ultimately, it can best be described as the law of an industry, i.e., as a cross-sectional area of law comprising those sub-areas of many different areas of law that are particularly relevant in the sports industry.

Our law firm has always specialised in this law of the sports sector like very few others. We have an intimate knowledge of the sports industry and its peculiarities and have extensive experience in most of the (sub) areas of law that are particularly relevant for this industry. Not least, we are very familiar with the special rules and regulations to be observed in sport, the most important dispute settlement mechanisms, and the many special contracts and clauses that reflect the specificity of sport.

Although we also advise our clients in sport on more “remote” areas of law (especially athletes in immigration or tenancy law), the fact that sports law is a cross-sectional area of law means that in some cases it is necessary to involve specialists for consultation in the respective area of law. Prime examples of this are tax or criminal law. In such cases, we can draw on our strong network of specialised lawyers, tax consultants, and auditors in order to be able to offer you advice from one single source, combined with our sport-specific expertise that always meets the highest professional standards.

You can find more information about our core competencies in sports law by clicking on the relevant area of law in the navigation bar.