Sports law, untapped goldmine, stakeholders say

SPORTlawyers and practitioners have declared that sports law and its associated businesses are unexploited money- spinner in Nigeria.

They came to this conclusion at the 2022 Sports Business and Development Summit hosted by Olisa Agbakoba Legal ( OAL) in Lagos last week with the theme “Let’s Develop the Game”.

According to the chief host, Beverly Onyejiaka- Agbakoba, following the prevailing climate and rapid changes underway in the sport industry worldwide, there is an urgent need to harness the full potential in sports, which is currently lying dormant.

Sport, she said, is a billiondollar industry globally but the opportunities remain untapped in Nigeria.

Speaking at the pre- summit cocktail, the lawyer said: “The event is targeted at sports lawyers, commercial sports business people, sports bodies and regulators.

“The objective of the two- day virtual summit is to connect international and national stakeholders in the sports industry.

“Fundamentally, counsels act as the backbone. They support all the commercial transactions in sports industry right from picking players, immigrations and building of infrastructure.

“We have seen the building of more and more stadia and construction of pitches in many communities. Those require signing of contracts. The contracts would guide the terms of the agreements between parties. So, lawyers have a lot to do. We need to stop seeing sports as just people playing football. It covers training, awareness, sports medicines, manufacturing of sports kits.”