The news that the West Indies Cricket Board has settled a dispute with at least some of its players over conflicting endorsements, will have been welcomed around the sports world.
Conflict is not simply possible but likely in any team sport and not only in the international arena. But it is in major international competitions that the scale of the problem is most obvious.
It’s a scenario that you’ll find at all manner of world championships in team sports: player A is sponsored by brand B but plays in a team which is, in turn, sponsored by brand C. If those sponsors operate in the same category then, Houston, we certainly do have a problem.
The situation is further exasperated when the international team plays in a tournament which is itself sponsored by brand D which also operates in the same category.
Ultimately it will, as ever, come down to the lawyers and enlightened self-interest to find a generally acceptable solution. In doing so they will inevitably draw up a pecking order that determines the relative importance of sports sponsorships and how they relate to one another.
As is always the case, this is a frighteningly complex area that takes in a full range of issues from standard commercial contracts to basic civil liberties.
But perhaps it will be self-interest that plays the major role in ensuring that future disputes are minimised. A young player would be foolish to jeopardise an international career for the sake of a personal sponsorship. For those with the requisite talent, the international arena provides a platform for building the individual’s brand and making them global rather than local figures. And that, of course, is where the Big Bucks are to be found.
Perhaps the major area for dispute arises when the player has effectively outgrown the team. The team may have helped to establish a player as a powerful commercial property but there must come a time when he (or she) is so well established, that it is professional pride and patriotism rather than commercial considerations that keep them hungry for international action. Those who have achieved the standing and the money but lack that hunger may well eventually decide that they would rather take a personal sponsor’s dollar than bow to the pressures of a team. There is a school of thought that suggests that by the time you’ve reached that stage, the team is better off without the player in any case.
And then the wheel spins one more time. Without international exposure – and the negative publicity that is inevitably associated with walking out on your country - does that player have the same cachet and value to a sponsor? Probably not, other than in the most exceptional cases.
Cases such as these will give agents, sponsors and their respective lawyers plenty to think about in the years ahead, but it would seem that some kind of internationally agreed order of precedence on sponsorships, backed by agreements on the exploitation of rights within and between each level, will ultimately have to be thrashed out.
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Interesting to read in this morning’s Times newspaper of the FA’s plans to revamp the Premier League along the lines of the NFL’s Super Bowl, with an expanded club base playing in locally based conferences and the season building towards a grand final. Interesting too, to note the dateline: April 1.
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Something remarkable happened this week. Having drunk more sauvignon blanc that was strictly necessary (actually perhaps that’s not so unusual) I found myself enjoying basketball. Clearly, I have the choice of embracing the NBA or ditching the booze.
No contest. Go Rockets!
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With sport no longer the only game in town, brands continue to search high and low for suitable properties to sponsor. Social responsibility programmes are high on the priority list at present, but look out for a wave of interest in cerebral sports including chess in its many guises.
Chess is already confirmed on the schedule for the Asian Games in Doha next year, and plans are advanced for the World Chinese Chess Championship, due to take place in Beijing later this year.
Mind games come in many guises but they are linked by a thread of inclusivity, and the credibility associated with intellectual pursuits. The online environment works for sports such as chess in a unique way, and the numbers playing chess and the games that share some of its genes are simply staggering.
On the face of it there are tremendous opportunities for brands. It will be interesting how they might be developed.
