Author: Robert Ryall

This time last week our team of 13 cyclists completed their 330-mile trek from Land’s End to St Albans for Keech Hospice Care.  Thankfully they all made it back in one piece!

The Journey

Day 1, 77 miles – The legendary Cornish hills lived up to their reputation.  After a gentle start through very pretty lanes, we dropped down to a sweeping curve around Mounts Bay during which the sun made a rare appearance.  Leaving the sea behind us, we picked up a headwind as we climbed slowly up to Truro for our first lunch stop.  After that the relentless crossing of steep valley sides can only be described as brutal!  A seemingly endless succession of steep drops followed by ever steeper climbs took us to our first overnight stop in Liskeard.  The last few cyclists came in at 8.30pm and agreed that a Premier Inn has never looked so inviting.

Day 2, 90 miles – The Cornish valleys were not done with us yet as they carried on towards Devon and dropped us down into the beautiful Tamar Valley.  The Devon border offered no respite as we climbed up to 1,000 feet against a strong head wind to get over Dartmoor and onto Okehampton.  From here the going got progressively easier as the hills became more undulating the closer we got to Somerset, although its famous Levels stubbornly refused to show themselves!  After going through Crediton and Tiverton we eventually rolled, after a very long day, into Taunton for our second overnight stop.  To a (wo)man we were very grateful for all the training the Health Performance Centre had given us to condition our legs for such hard work.

Day 3, 81 miles – With the sun shining we soon left Somerset behind us.  Passing through Castle Cary, Warminster and Westbury we were all enjoying the lack of hills, head winds and pot holes of the last two days.  Our spirits were also lifted by a group of SA Law’s friends in Devizes who had a banner out to see us on our way towards our overnight stop in Marlborough.  However, the dreaded hills returned about 20 miles or so from the finish as we had to climb up and over Pewsey Vale.  The last 15 miles in particular were torture for some, with injuries, an accident and map reading issues taking their toll towards the end of the day.  Despite these setbacks everyone eventually arrived safely and thoughts turned to the final day: would the sun shine again and could we really cover our distance in 4 days?

Day 4, 83 miles – What a difference a day makes!  This was a typical British Bank Holiday with heavy rain and strong winds which, naturally, blew in exactly the wrong direction for us.  Undeterred, we battled on to a well deserved coffee stop in Wantage, although quite what the staff in Costa Coffee made of the drowned rats that nearly flooded their floor, is another question!  The session before lunch saw only our second puncture of the trip, and with this fixed, we were more than ready for lunch as we climbed up into the Chilterns.  Rejuvenated by some hot food, and with the rain easing, spirits were lifted further as familiar place names started to appear on road signs and before too long we were back on familiar roads that we’d pounded to put our training miles in.  These just seemed to fly by with the prospect of a warm welcome back at the office – and that’s just what we got from a large crowd of colleagues, friends and family who cheered us up London Road to the finish.

Whilst our epic journey has come to an end, our fund raising efforts have not.  We’re very close to reaching our £12,012 target but not quite there yet.  So far we’ve raised £7,347.85 online and £2,425.13 offline.  Adding Gift Aid of £1,450.71, gives a current total of £11,223.69.  We only need another £788.31, so if you haven’t donated, please dig as deep as you can and donate here.

We would like thank the corporate sponsors who  made the bike ride possible: Beechwood Homes, Cantura, Giles Insurance, Hillier Hopkins, Portman Finance, Martin Pooley Associates, ProVision, PCF Limited, Brasier Freeth, Eurochange, Calor Gas and LRG.

Further Information
SA Law’s Just Giving donations page
Read more about SA Law’s Gold Challenge
About Keech Hospice care
Meet the cycling team
SA Law Partner Rob Ryall appointed Trustee for Keech
Health Performance Centre

Author: Nathanael Young

There has been plenty of sport in court over the last few months, what with super-injunctions, Sky decoders and match fixing. Now a libel case brought by former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns has hit the headlines.

As with many recent libel actions, it all started on Twitter. In this case, the offending tweet was posted by Lalit Modi, former chairman of the Indian Premier League, accusing Cairns of involvement in match fixing.

The tweet was soon posted on Cricinfo, a cricketing website with a worldwide audience. After Cairns objected, Cricinfo swiftly made peace – they withdrew the report, apologised and paid damages.

Modi took a different route. He defended on the ground of justification, calling evidence from a number of Cairns’s team mates in an effort to show the allegations were true.

In his judgment however, Mr Justice Bean was scathing about the reliability of some of Mr Modi’s witnesses, and accepted Mr Cairns evidence, noting he had emerged ‘essentially unscathed’ from prolonged questioning.

In a particularly interesting move, the judge then ruled that damages would be increased from £75,000 to £90,000 in view of the ‘sustained and aggressive’ attack on Mr Cairns by the Mr Modi’s lawyers. Apparently the words ‘liar’, ‘lie’ and ‘lies’ were used 24 times in Modi’s barrister’s closing speech.

The case is yet another reminder of the dangers of careless tweets. It is also a reminder of the dangers of trying to justify allegations in libel cases. Although the defendant only needs to prove on the balance of probabilities that they are true, not all attempts at justification survive the intense scrutiny of trial. When they go wrong, they can then lead to additional damages, and certainly far more costs than a quick early settlement.

It seems that the damages awarded may yet be the subject of an appeal. However, the principle that vindictive behaviour can aggravate damages is a long standing one. Defendants to libel trials should be warned: justification is not for the faint-hearted, nor for those without the greatest confidence in their evidence.

Author: Peter Goodman

“After 14 victories in the last 16 races, including a double at the Le Mans 24 Hours 2009 as part of the ILMC championship won by Peugeot two years running, in 2010 and 2011, the Brand has decided to close its 2012 endurance programme and will not be taking part in the next Le Mans 24 Hours.”

These words hit the press around 3.30pm on Wednesday 18 January.

The news was quite a shock to motorsports fans across the World but their shock was nothing compared to the shock suffered by my client and, to a lesser extent, by myself. Let me back up a bit.

Peugeot has an excellent history in Le Mans type racing and in the last few years they have been the quickest car. Last year they didn’t win Le Mans but they won just about everything else and, to the outsider, all looked great for the Team. There was no hint of a withdrawal.

I have quite a few motorsports clients, both drivers and teams. Some are multi millionaires, some are on the fast track to the glamour and riches of formula One but many are hard working talented drivers who don’t have wealthy or well connected parents or a manufacturer supporting them. One such client, let’s call him client A, has worked really hard against the odds for years, like Robert Bruce’s spider, and was on the cusp of achieving the top rung on the ladder when Wednesday’s news came in.

The timeline is really quite extraordinary. Client A’s manager contacted me last Sunday afternoon. Client A had finally made it after many years of slow progress up the sportscar ladder. A final test in the all conquering Peugeot 908 was to take place in Sebring, Florida. There was every chance that the test would lead to a race seat at Le Mans and possibly also in the new World Endurance Championship. At the very least it would give him a chance to impress one of the two top teams in endurance sportscar racing.

Then there was a delay. So often there is a delay in the world of motor racing. It seems to me that the cars are the only things that work efficiently. There is no shortage of speed but this is usually caused by the last minute panic caused by a failure to plan ahead, and so it was on this occasion!

It was Wednesday afternoon before things started moving. I received the contract at 2.18pm on 18 January. By this time client A had given up waiting for the contract and, being assured that the contract was on its way, he was in the air flying to Florida at his own expense. There was a requirement that he sign the contract upon his arrival. The contract was in French, which didn’t help, but by 3.28 I’d translated it, checked it and given my client’s manager a short and largely favourable report on the contract.

Ten minutes later the news came in! Without warning there’s no programme, no test, no sportscars, no contract, nothing – all terminated just a few hours after the contract was sent out. Extraordinary! Another ridiculous story for my autobiography.

Peter Goodman is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer.
Peter has particular niche, and many years experience, in sports law in which he once worked as a celebrity manager. He continues to advise a number of sporting celebrities and institutions. He has an international reputation in the field of motor sport, is quoted in the press and has spoken at a number of conferences on many different aspects of commercial law.

If you would like more information or advice relating to a specific matter, please do not hesitate to contact Peter Goodman on 01727 798061 or by email at peter.goodman@salaw.com.

© SA LAW 2012
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual cases.

Author: Nathanael Young

Hot on the heels of the Advocate General’s opinion on the use of foreign decoders (well, 8 months later) the Court of Justice has now given its ruling on the issue. As expected, the Advocate General’s opinion has been followed, and prohibitions on using or selling foreign decoder cards have been held contrary to European law.

Although the judgment runs to 212 paragraphs, it has already been scrutinised and re-scrutinised across the EU. This is because, as mentioned in my previous blog piece, it strikes at the heart of the current licensing system used for football in the UK and elsewhere.

In principle, the Court held that national legislation which prohibits the import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards is contrary to the freedom to provide services. It also held that a system of exclusive licences is itself contrary to competition law if the licences prohibit the supply of decoder cards to television viewers outside the licensee’s territory.

However, in an odd quirk, the Court also held that the opening video sequence, the Premier League anthem, pre-recorded films showing highlights of recent Premier League matches and certain other graphics fell into a separate category. These works could only be used with authorisation from the rights holder.

Although pub owners can protect themselves from this exception by only screening games from kick off, rights holders are no doubt looking at whether they can use this additional material in an effort to preserve the status quo. However, given the fundamental antagonism in the judgment towards the notion of partitioning rights, and towards artificial price differentials resulting from such partitioning, this may be hard to achieve.

Whilst broadcasters and rights holders will be disappointed at the decision, it was hardly unexpected after the Advocate General’s opinion. They must therefore have given some thought to contingency plans, and to new business models to cover just this eventuality. Whether these will involve the pan-European licences the Advocate General seemed to envisage is another question. So too is the issue that has the widest interest – the effect of such new models on football itself.

The importance of this decision on football has resulted in considerable media attention already, with much speculation as to whether the result will be business as usual or fundamental change. However, the case is worth noting for other reasons as well. Apart from anything else, it is a vivid illustration of how the importance of a single market and competition across member states is hard-wired into European law. Intellectual property rights have not proved sacrosanct when they have come into conflict with competition law, as even Microsoft has found to its cost.

Author: Chris Cook

I am pleased to report that SA Law recorded a resounding victory against Rayner Essex earlier this week.

Electing to bat in wet conditions, SA Law’s innings got off to a poor start with Satinder falling for a second ball duck.  Terrence and the skipper set about steadying the ship, both scoring 25 before retiring.  To the dismay of the onlookers, star ringers Guy and Josh both failed with the bat, scoring two runs between them.  It was left to Gary, Simon and the particularly impressive Chris A to score the middle-order runs, each scoring at a decent rate to keep the SA Law innings moving along at about a run a ball.  Hayley, supported by Andrew and Nat, played her maiden innings for the team, tweaking her quad muscles in the process (a la Peter Baines) but struck a strong blow off the last ball of the innings before being run out pushing for a third run.  SA Law finished on a respectable 116 for 9 from their 20 overs.

Josh and Guy, clearly riled at their batting failures, were handed the ball at the start of the Rayner Essex innings, with both bowling well to keep the run rate down.  The SA Law fielding was unusually sharp given the slippery conditions, with Josh and Steve F both producing smart run outs and Hayley, Gary, Nat and Andrew “the ball won’t go past me if I stamp on it” Nellist all pulling off decent stops.  Rik, batting for the opposition, benefitted from the “golden duck reprieve” rule and went on to score 8 before being bowled by Guy.  Terrence and Chris A came on as change bowlers and both kept up the pressure on the batsmen, with Chris taking two wickets in the process and Terrence bowling a very economical spell as darkness descended.  It was left to Satinder and the “golden arm” of Simon Walsh to bowl the last few overs, with Satinder picking up a wicket with a deceptively-slow first ball, while Simon took two wickets in the last over of the match to leave the opposition on 90 for 9 from their 20 overs, giving SA Law a victory by 26 runs.

Our next match is at 6.00pm on 2 August against Kingston Smith at Harpenden Cricket Ground, with the team: Omar Qassim, Simon Walsh, Nat Young, Terrence Trainor, Rik Patel, Andrew Nellist, Rob Ryall, Ben Ashworth, David Tanner, Guy Pettigrew and myself.

Author: Peter Goodman

On Friday 7 July it was time for my annual business trip to Silverstone for the Grand Prix and supporting races. The weekend always starts the same way. Before I can go to Silverstone I have to go elsewhere to collect my passes. Sometimes this can involve a trip as far north as Coventry but, on this occasion, I was lucky. My passes were in a hotel in Northampton, less than 20 miles from the circuit.

The journey, I’m very pleased to say,  was uneventful. I had a parking place inside the track. This is great in two ways, firstly it means that you can drive nearly the whole way to the Paddock and secondly you can feel very self important and smug, especially if the weather is bad. On the other hand, as many self important people discover each year, it can be a nightmare trying to leave the circuit.

Upon arrival I went to the GP2 hospitality complex and, to cut a long story short, spent most of the day there. The weather in Silverstone, on Friday 7 July was awful. Enough sunny intervals to encourage the unwary to venture out followed by a summer’s worth of sharp summer downpours. The TV screens showed many pictures of poor unfortunates, either with no umbrella or a demolished umbrella, bravely watching the cars, or were they boats, standing on one of Silverstone’s many uncovered grassy (muddy) banks.

After 5-6 hours in the hospitality area discussing international motorsport with the denizens of GP2 it was time to visit the F1 paddock.  It’s perhaps worth mentioning that GP2 is far more cosmopolitan than F1. In F1 nearly all of the teams are English, whereas GP2 is a good mix of British, French, Italian and German. This year Silverstone has a new F1 paddock (GP2 was in the old F1 paddock) and it seemed that most of the teams had new hospitality buildings, once called motor homes but now something out of a science fiction movie. It was the usual scene. A few lucky punters, who had somehow gained entry, showing their total lack of cool by walking up and down the Paddock looking for celebrities. Occasionally a race driver or a famous engineer would make an appearance, be mobbed by these people and retire back to their space craft swearing never to come out again. Incidentally, a word of advice from an experienced Paddock person – if you want to see somebody really famous like Rihanna or Nicole Scherzinger you have to be there early or stay really late. Autographs? Forget it!

Against this background I had a fairly tense meeting with a famous team owner and my client. It’s the usual thing. Brilliant young driver, experienced old team owner and a game of double bluff. Who will win? Watch for this blog next year.

Then followed brief but pleasant social visits to Williams, Force India and Red Bull catching up with longstanding colleagues and then it was time to get back to the car.

I finally got away just before 7pm and it was back to St Albans, not an easy journey. Firstly big queues out of the circuit – yes at 7pm on the Friday night, followed by fun and games through the road works on the M1.

The next day it was back to Silverstone for a non business day. I had only two tasks and both were pleasurable. Watching Paul di Resta in F1 qualifying and then watching the GP2 race. I had the usual dilemma – do you go early or late? Late is a big gamble but, in theory a great idea. As usual I didn’t have the nerve to go late and arrived at the circuit before 9.30.

Most of Saturday was like Friday all over again and like countless days spent as such places as Charlotte, Monaco, Monza, Indianapolis, Long Beach, Barcelona, Daytona and an endless list of seemingly exotic locations that are essentially the same place. One paddock is much the same as another and one hospitality area, once you’re inside, is much the same as the rest. The weather was a little better and there were more people about. Otherwise all looked exactly the same. The picture on the TV screen wasn’t great and at one point I got very excited when I thought that Alonso (Alo) was about to be eliminated in round one of qualifying when, in fact, it was Alguersuari (Alg).

Immediately after this came, for me, the highlight of the weekend. I had the right passes for a trip to the new pits at Silverstone and to be on the grid for the GP2 race. It’s great to be on the grid. You can get a good look at the cars and the drivers being prepared for the race plus that hopeful feeling that the eyes of the world are on you. Tiring quickly of the cars and drivers I noticed that there was an extremely attractive track marshal standing near my client’s car so I went up to her and said “It’s my first time on this grid.” “Yes”, she said “it’s everybody’s first time on this grid. It’s not been used before.” At this moment I felt elated and stupid at the same time. The various buzzers sounded and it was time to get off the grid before the race started and I walked back to my car watching the cars whiz by me as they did. I managed to leave the circuit by 4.30 and was rewarded with a swift journey home.

Sunday? I watched the race on TV like every other sensible person.

© SA LAW 2011
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual cases.

Author: Peter Goodman

The Indy 500 is not well known in Europe but it should be. In most of the world it is perceived as the world’s number one motor race, ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix (held on the same day), the Daytona 500, the Le Mans 24 hours race and the Monte Carlo Rally. Indisputably it is the world’s largest single day sporting event. There are 250,000 seats outside the two and a half mile oval, many tens of thousands of seats inside the track and many large corporate boxes. It is also a race of great heritage, last week’s event was the 95th Indy 500. By contrast last weekend’s Monaco GP was “only” the 69th!

I have been lucky enough to watch the Indy 500 on four occasions; from the pits, the iconic Pagoda and from the hospitality suites. The atmosphere is incredible. The cars corner at more than 200 mph and average 230mph around the lap. Formula One cars never reach these speeds.

In last week’s race there were two SA Law clients. Dario Franchitti, who won last year and in 2007 and Dan Wheldon who won in 2005 and had been second in 2009 and 2010. Dario was hot favourite, being also the reigning IRL Champion but Dan was a complete outsider. Bizarrely he doesn’t even have a drive in this year’s IRL Championship. Imagine, if you can, a driver without a regular drive in Formula One taking part in the Monaco GP.

The race was gripping with its fair share of accidents on track and misfortunes in the pit lane. As with the Monaco GP it also had its element of tension as some cars struggled to stretch the fuel in their tanks over the last few laps. One by one these cars had to stop to refuel and so lost their chance of winning the race. Included in this group were Dario Franchitti and America’s darling, Danica Patrick.

Amazingly it looked as though American rookie Jay Hildebrand was going to win. Jay’s a young but not a particularly successful driver but his race engineer did by far the best job in the fuel conservation gamble. Jay was leading by 8 seconds (getting on for half a mile at those speeds) as he entered the last lap and by 5 seconds as he entered the last corner. Incredibly he lost control as he entered the home straight and crashed into the barriers sliding at high speed towards the chequered flag. As he did this only one car was close enough to overtake him, Dan Wheldon! What an amazing, and fortuitous victory, but perhaps after coming second two years in a row he deserved a bit of luck.

The only British drivers to win the Indy 500 are Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti, Jim Clark and Graham Hill.

Author: Peter Goodman

How long I’ve waited to write those words! On Wednesday 26 January Force India finally announced that Paul will race for them in Formula One in 2011.

For me, part of the unseen support group that surrounds every successful driver, it was the end of a long road – in two senses.

Paul is the cousin of Dario Franchitti, double Indy 500 Champion and a client of mine since 1991. in 2003 Dario told me that he had a cousin racing in Formula Renault and would I please make sure that his “legals” were in order and that he wasn’t stitched up.

Over the years I’ve worked with many drivers from the most famous in the history of the sport to those who are known only to their parents and some very sad petrol heads. I had no idea what to expect when I first saw Paul race. Was he the undeserving son of rich parents, the victim of a father obsessed with motorsport, or a genuine talent?

Paul was, and is, a charming young man but at that time he was very shy and the few races that I saw in 2003 did not go well for him. It also didn’t help that most of the races I was watching in those days were in glamorous places like Long Beach, Charlotte and Barcelona and I wasn’t too keen to return to circuits like Snetterton, Thruxton and Knockhill.

Paul then had two impressive years in Formula 3 winning the Euro Series title in the second year beating his German teammate Sebastien Vettel, now the reigning Formula One champion. Paul really needed to do GP2 the next year but he could not find the substantial financial backing required to participate. Fortunately he’d impressed Mercedes and they offered him employment in DTM, a title that Paul won in 2010 after finishing 5th, 2nd and 3rd in the other seasons.

Paul is a very talented driver but without the money to do GP2, or to pay for an F1 drive, it’s just about impossible to get into Formula One. So, how did he do it? First he impressed Mercedes in F3 and DTM and second he took on a manager whose job spec was simple – get Paul an F1 drive. The manager was Anthony Hamilton, father of Lewis. Anthony brought so many contacts and so much passion to his job that in December 2009 Paul signed a reserve driver contract with Force India, giving them an option to sign Paul as a race driver for 2011.

So it’s been a long road to get Paul to Formula One, but it’s also taken a long time to finalise the deal that was announced on 26 January. It’s been more than three months of negotiation and amending contracts to get the deal done. I read in the press that part of the reason for this is that Force India has had to strike a deal with Vitantonio Liuzzi. I know nothing of that but I do know that a great deal of specialist advice has been needed to  get Paul’s contract into its final shape.

All we need to do now is wish Paul, our third UK driver in F1 in 2011, a fast, reliable car and his fair share of good luck.

Peter Goodman is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer.
Peter has particular niche, and many years experience, in sports law in which he once worked as a celebrity manager. He continues to advise a number of sporting celebrities and institutions. He has an international reputation in the field of motor sport, is quoted in the press and has spoken at a number of conferences on many different aspects of commercial law.

Author: Nathanael Young

Attack and Counterattack

Recent news stories have highlighted the lengths FIFA are prepared to go to in protecting its brand.

Last Monday’s Holland v Denmark game saw 36 female supporters wearing orange mini dresses participating in an ambush marketing stunt for the Dutch beer brand Bavaria.

Ambush marketing, the practice of finding a way to promote a brand at a high profile event without paying a sponsorship, has long been a marketing strategy of Bavaria. At the 2006 world cup in Germany, 1000 fans wearing branded underwear were denied entry to a Holland game, and more recently it has been targeting the Dutch national team matches.

FIFA has promised to come down hard on any brand trying to highjack the tournament and this was the case last Monday. The group of women were ejected from the stadium and two of the 36 were later arrested. In addition to this, the ITV pundit Robbie Earl has been sacked by ITV as it has emerged that some of the tickets used by Bavaria were from the ex-Jamaica and Wimbledon midfielder’s  allocation;  which he was  prohibited from redistributing to third parties.

Logo or No Logo

With the world cup now in full swing, businesses around the country have included references to the event in their advertising and promotional activity in a bid to cash in on its popularity. Some of those are official sponsors, who have paid millions to be able to do so; however, a considerably large number of businesses haven’t paid for the privilege. They simply seek to associate their business  with the  pride and passion that the tournament evokes, with the ultimate aim of increasing sales. However it does come with some risks attached.

Many business may not be aware of the extent to which FIFA have rights over and above ordinary trademark or copyright protection in South Africa.  FIFA has every motivation to stamp out such practices, which threaten the sponsorship revenues from their official partners. It already has trademark protection over a number of words, like ‘2010 FIFA World Cup’ and images, such as its official emblem for the tournament. The host country has gone so far to keep FIFA and its sponsors happy, it has created a new list of prohibited marks under special legislation, even including the use of ‘2010’ on its own, which is not a trademark.

For businesses operating in the UK, the situation is rather less draconian.  However,  there are reports that FIFA has obtained a ruling against a sports bar near the Loftus stadium using phrases such as ‘World Cup 2010’.

Things to Remember…

The most important guidance is to always avoid the using of any FIFA artwork or branding – such as its logo or the ‘man kicking ball’ official 2010 world cup emblem. For more information and guidance about when you can cannot use World Cup related terms, FIFA has provided a Public Information Sheet which states what is acceptable and the terms of use.
Use of the term ‘World Cup’ or similar phrases is less likely to be an issue, although each situation is different, so it is important to take legal advice in order to avoid prosecution.

Author: Chris Cook

When I think of the world cup I think of 3 things: Gazza’s tears, penalty shoot out disappointments and…unexplained work place absence!

There is simply no getting away from the fact that some fans are so passionate about the team they support that they might be tempted to ‘pull a sickie’ to watch critical matches.

Here are my tip tips for managing “World Cup Fever”

1. Flexible hours  – allow employees to take the time off to watch the games provided that they make up the hours at a different time
2. Shift swaps – allow employees to swap shifts in order for them to be able to watch the games as long as an appropriate level of cover is organised
3. Unpaid leave – allow employees to take unpaid leave provided that this does not interfere with business operations
4. Annual leave – remind employees that they will need to book annual leave in advance if they wish to watch the games, with approval of such request based on maintaining adequate staffing levels.
5. TV/radio in the background – allow employees to have the TV or radio on in the background so that they can keep track of the games as they work or having special screenings of the games on the premises.  Remember if you are planning to show the matches at work make sure you have a TV licence and you have paid your PRS licence
6. Not everyone is a football fan – employees should be treated fairly and equally at all times. You could therefore consider offering an incentive to anyone who agrees to work through the matches when they are being screened in the office

In summary when managing your employees’ during the world cup ……..

“You’ve got to hold and give , But do it at the right time , You can be slow or fast , But you must get to the line , They’ll always hit you and hurt you , Defend and attack , There’s only one way to beat them
Get round the back”  New order  “World in Motion”  1990

Come on England!!!!