What can rugby tell us about the future of football?

A recurring question in discussions of the future of football in light of safety concerns is whether, and how, you can have a "safer" tackling sport. Thoughts generally turn towards rugby--dre did a workshop at FIU in February and this came up during that conversation. Having just watched the Tokyo Sevens rugby tournament, I wonder if the answer is in there somewhere. Without question it is a tough, brutal, physical sport and in all likelihood players are suffering some head trauma, as well as other physical injuries. But rugby seems to involve more tackling and less "big hits" or high-speed/high-impact collisions. Players (especially off the ball) do not get the same running start or head of steam, so they are not moving as fast when the hit one another.

So am I correct as to nature of the hitting and tackling in rugby compared with football? And if so, is there a way to change the rules of football and the way it is played to make the hitting more like rugby? And would it work to preserve football or would it so fundamentally alter the game?

MLB v. Biogenesis

In recently suing a Miami clinic, Major League Baseball signaled a new legal strategy for combating steroids: sue those who allegedly sell to players on grounds the sellers are intentionally interfering with players' employment contracts. I wrote an article titled "Squeeze Play" in the April 1, 2013 issue of Sports Illustrated that examines this strategy.

Hope you can check it out on page 20 of the magazine.

State Bill Challenges NCAA Amateurism Rules

The battle over the future of college athletics continues to evolve as more and more people view the NCAA's failure to compensate student-athletes from the revenue created by their labor as hypocritical.  Most challeneges have come from either public commentary--Taylor Branch, Joe Nocera, Jay Bilas, etc.--or the court system, i.e. O'Bannon v NCAA.  However, the state of California continues to advocate on behalf of the college student-athletes, not surprising given that it's also home to the National College Players Association (NCPA)--a nonprofit student-athlete advocacy group.

The latest effort by the California legislature is Assembly Bill 475.  This Bill would require all public universities and colleges in California that offer full athletic scholarships and receive media and licensing revenues in excess of $20 million to provide each athlete $3,600 stipends and guarantee full-ride athletic scholarships for five years, instead of the year-to-year guarantee.  As of now, the only schools that meet these thresholds are USC and UCalifornia, Berkeley.

Of import is that this Bill directly conflicts with current NCAA rules regarding amateurism.  Any stipend will be defined as an "extra benefit" violating the NCAA's self-defined amateurism rules.  The $3,600 stipend, not coincidentally, is close to the average amount that the NCPA determined is the cost of attendance shortfall for student-athletes receiving a "full grant-in-aid" scholarship.  For more on this research, please see their study, conducted by Ramogi Huma and Dr. Ellen Staurowsky, entitled "The $6 Billion Heist: Robbing College Athletes Under the Guise of Amateurism."

Finally, from a strict legal standpoint, we may be heading for a showdown--does a state have the right to impose laws that supercede the NCAA's regulations?  I'd say yes.  Will the NCAA challenge this rule?  I'd say yes again.  The result, perhaps an expedited judicial hearing, and ruling on the merits, on the claim that the NCAA's rules impose an unreasonable restraint of trade under the antitrust laws.  Stay tuned.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/30/5303876/bill-would-guarantee-5-year-athletic.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpystr

Consumers and NCAA-licensed products: new findings

New empirical findings by Anastasios Kaburakis and his research team on how consumers perceive NCAA licensed products in relation to athletes featured in them. Key finding: consumers associate video game representations with actual NCAA players & a good number of consumers mistakenly believe that players endorse (and are perhaps paid to be in) these games. These findings clearly connect to O'Bannon v. NCAA and more broadly to evolving conceptions of amateurism in college sports.

Turkey gears up to give Gulf states a run for their money

By James M. Dorsey

The Gulf states dominate headlines with Qatar’s controversial hosting of a World Cup and the high profile acquisition of European soccer teams, but they may be meeting their match in an emerging competition for being the Middle East and North Africa’s prime sports, transportation and economic hub.

Turkey may not have the Gulf’s financial muscle, but on virtually every other front it brings assets to the table that smaller oil-rich states lack: geographic and demographic depth; a soccer-crazy population that fills stadium; storied, internationally accomplished and recognized clubs; a respectable international track record in a variety of other sports, including basketball and volleyball; ethnic, cultural and ex-colonial links across a swath of land stretching from China to the Atlantic coast of Africa; a functioning democracy with all its warts that many see as a model for the Muslim world; a highly developed educational sector; one of the world’s largest standing armies; and a state-of-the-art industrial base that drives on indigenous labor.

Turkey ranks number 18 on the list of the world’s largest economies ahead of Saudi Arabia at number 20, the United Arab Emirates at 30 and Qatar at 51 despite the fact that many Gulf states have a nominally higher GDP.

A look at Turkey’s sporting ambitions as well as the expansion of its national airline, Turkish Airlines, and its plans for a third Istanbul airport tell the story. Turkish sports minister Suat Kilic hinted this week at his country’s ambition, telling World Football Insider that Turkey’s hosting this summer of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, the biggest sporting event to be held in Turkey to date, would be a platform to “showcase Turkey’s capabilities” to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

To be sure, its not all smooth sailing for Turkey. Its premier soccer has been wracked by a major match-fixing scandal exasperated by a power struggle among Islamists and financial crisis as a result of over spending. And European soccer body UEFA’s opposition to Turkey’s simultaneous bid for the Olympics and the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2020) prompted it to spread that year’s tournament over a multitude of European nations. Qatar, the UAE and China moreover have easier access to capital compared to Turkey

But putting such concerns aside, the future looks promising. Beyond bringing a greater number of key assets to the table, Turkey, the literal dividing line in Eurasia, and the Gulf compete on a level playing field in exploiting geography to create an air transportation hub at the meeting point of Europe, Asia and Africa: like Qatar and the UAE, Istanbul is at flying equidistance from Sao Paolo and Sydney with easy access to Africa and Central Asia.

Turkish Airlines flies to 200 destinations and to more countries than any other carrier in the world as opposed to Emirates’ 120 and Qatar Airways’ 115 destinations. Turkey’s plans for a new, six runway airport, the world’s largest in terms of passenger capacity, capture its global ambitions. Turkey is currently entertaining bids at the very moment that Qatar is about to open its long-touted new air hub. The new airport would also surpass Dubai, which currently claims the honor.

Both Turkey and the Gulf states populate a volatile region that has embarked on what is likely to be a decade of messy and at times violent and bloody change. At this point, Turkey is closer than the Gulf to the turmoil with its long border with Syria and close cross-border links as well as its proximity to Lebanon that increasingly is teetering on the brink.

But contrary to the autocratic Gulf, which so far has largely been able to ring-fence itself against the wave of popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, few predict upheaval in Turkey, a traditionally politically instable country that is witnessing a decade of stability and near unprecedented rule by one party that has gone from one electoral victory to another.

Turkey’s position as the regional powerhouse could be further boosted by a potential agreement with the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) that would grant the country’s estimated 20 million Kurds greater rights and end almost 30 years of conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead as well as last week’s restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel.

Reconciliation with Israel potentially paves the way to closer cooperation on Syria and cooperation in developing significant energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean. It also holds out hope for crisis-ridden Cyprus and progress in resolving the decades-old inter-communal dispute on the island by opening the door to the unthinkable: energy cooperation between Turkey and the Greek-Cypriot dominated government in Nicosia.

Turkey expects its sporting ambitions to be boosted by the ongoing visit of a 14-member committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to evaluate Istanbul’s bid as well as by world soccer body FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke for the U-20 World Cup draw. The tournament in late June and early July involves 52 matches in seven host cities and will immediately follow the 24-nation Mediterranean Games. The IOC last year rejected Qatar’s bid for the 2020 Olympics.

“International sports authorities will think that if Turkey is capable of hosting two great sporting events at the same time, it’s capable of host the Olympics,” sports minister Kilic told World Football Insider.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a soccer fan and former player, makes no bones about Turkey’s strategy that includes sports. “The whole world must know that Turkey has big ambitions, based on national will and a strong State,” he told Turkish diplomats almost a decade ago.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, visiting scholar at the University of Würzburg’s Institute of Sport Science, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.

Legality of NFL teams asking College Players about their Sexual Orientation

Can NFL teams legally ask college players about their sexual orientation? They clearly shouldn't, but legally it's a complicated issue involving states' anti-discrimination laws and federal labor law, as I write about in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated (March 25, 2013 issue). My article is titled "Loaded Question" and it's on page 16. Special thanks to the smartest lawyer around, Alan Milstein, for his insights.

Here's a brief excerpt:

But in Washington, D.C., where the NFLPA is based, and in 21 states, including those that are home to 13 NFL teams, it is unlawful for private employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. When local laws are taken into account, as many as 25 teams could be barred from asking prospective employees about sexual orientation. 

The jurisdiction with one of the toughest laws against such bias is New York, where the NFL is headquartered. The CBA, which amends the standard NFL player contract, stipulates that New York state law applies when federal law does not. In other words, a prospect who sued the league for discrimination could make a reasonable case.

Hope you have a chance to read the rest in this week's issue.

Qatar broaches sensitive demography through soccer

By James M. Dorsey

Qatar's soccer league, in a break with a reluctance among Gulf states to give their largely expatriate majorities a sense of belonging, is next month organizing the region's first cup for foreign workers' teams.

The cup, involving up to 24 teams formed by foreign workers primarily from Asia who account for the bulk of Qatar's 1.5 million expatriates, is part of an effort to improve working and living conditions as well as a bid to fend off international trade union demands to meet global labor standards.

Meeting those standards would involve abolishing the widely criticied sponsorship system common to various Gulf states that effectively gives employees full control of their employees; allowing the creation of independent trade unions; and adopting the principle of collective bargaining – changes Qatar until now has shown no inclination to entertain.

The cup further fits into Qatar's sports strategy that aims to make sports part of the country's national identity and constitutes a key pillar of its cultural and public diplomacy as well as its global projection of soft power as part of its foreign, defense and security policy.

International trade unions have threatened Qatar with a boycott of its hosting of the 2022 World Cup if it failed to adopt international labor standards. Human rights groups are meanwhile documenting individual cases of workers that they consider to be violations and in some case are intervening to improve their conditions. The government's tacit cooperation like the soccer cup and moves to improve worker safety and security as well as living conditions constitute small but not insignificant steps forward.  

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) charges that Qatar’s steps so far that also include drafting a charter of rights expected to be announced at the end of this month and a review of the much criticized recruitment system that often exposes workers to extortionary fees fall short of its promise to fully comply with international labor standards and are being implemented unilaterally rather than in consultation.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow last month said she was "disappointed to hear that the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee has publicly asserted that it has 'sought out concrete suggestions on best practice'. The ITUC, representing the worlds working people, has not been consulted nor seen the draft charter. The UN, IMF, World Bank and the G20 all see fit to discuss labour issues with the ITUC, and consult with worker representatives in formal and informal dialogues.  Yet Qatar's Supreme Committee appears to ignore these accepted protocols in their failure to discuss the workers charter with the ITUC.”

While forward-looking Qataris acknowledge the need to improve workers' conditions as well as their country’s unsustainable demographic dilemma, the breaking point at this point in ongoing discussions with the ITUC is likely to be the demands for independent unions and collective bargaining.

A recent survey by the Permanent Population Committee (PPC) concluded that more than 80 percent of Qataris worry about the country’s dependence on foreign labor expected to increase with the import of more workers needed to complete $150 billion worth of infrastructure projects in advance of the World Cup.

The government this week said that it would establish an independent committee to protect the rights of private sector workers that would help them in disputes with their employers and offer legal aid in cases of work-related injuries or deaths. It said the 50-member committee would be populated by employers and employees, seven of which would be appointed as board members. The committee’s status would fall short of that of an independent union that could engage in collective bargaining.

The unions charged last month that the number of construction site injuries in Qatar was increasing and that workers in Doha’s Sports City stadium were eight times more likely to die in a fatal accident than construction workers in Britain. “They are reckoning that more than 1,000 workers were injured in falls last year; that’s very serious. The problem in Qatar is that the workers don’t have rights to be involved in any prevention measures, they don’t have training, they don’t have the equipment,” said Fiona Murie of the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI).

The ITUC said earlier that it would put a promise made last year by Qatar Labor Minister Sultan bin Hassan that his government would not penalize workers who formed their own unions to the test later this year. Critics caution that Mr. Bin Hassan’s oral pledge was not legally binding.

Progressive Qataris acknowledge privately that their country's demography is unsustainable with less than 300,000 nationals in an increasing foreign population that is currently estimated at 1.7 million. That demography has until now persuaded Qataris and other Gulf nationals to ensure that foreigners are continuously reminded that they are only temporary residents for the duration of their contract.

Those reminders included a reluctance of sports clubs to attract non-nationals as fans. Soccer stadiums in the region with the exception of Saudi Arabia are as a result largely empty. Qataris further admit that stadium attendance is also low because they perceive their country's clubs that are often owned by members of the royal family as the 'sheikh's clubs.' The foreign workers’ cuo, while not intended to reverse that policy constitutes a potential chink in its armor.

To increase stadium audiences and increase the local population's involvement with clubs, Qatar is looking at the possibility of transferring ownership to publicly held companies. The foreign workers’ cup is viewed by many as a first step towards creating a fan base for Qatari clubs among the country’s a non-Qatari population – an initiative long shied by clubs across the region because that could be a first step towards a greater attachment to their host countries.

Qatar University sociologist Kaltham Al Al-Ghanim recentlu called on the country’s sports clubs to set up branches in the Industrial Zone where many of foreign workers are housed “to channel their energy to productive avenues and hunt for sporting talent.” Ms. Al-Ghanim cautioned that if foreign workers were allowed to “live on the social fringes, the danger is they would take to illegal activities and emerge as a threat to social security.” She said the need to engage them socially was enhanced by the fact that many of them were unmarried or in Qatar without their families.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the Institute for Fan Culture and a visiting scholar at the Institute of Sport Science at the University of Würzburg, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.

From Tweeting to Meeting Lance Armstrong

I was a guest on NPR's All Things Considered this past weekend to talk about my interview with Lance Armstrong at his home in Austin, Texas.  I'll have more to write about it later this spring.

Egyptian crackdown on soccer fans likely to unite militants

Members of the Black Bloc, a secretive group of black-clad soccer fans 

By James M. Dorsey

Egypt’s judiciary and security forces appear posed to crack down on militant, highly politicised and street battle-hardened soccer fans in a bid to exploit internal differences among them.

The crackdown however could boomerang by uniting rather than further dividing the fans in their opposition to the security forces, Egypt’s most hated institution because of its role in enforcing the repression of the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

The security forces and the judiciary hope to capitalize on cracks among the fans, one of Egypt’s largest civic groups, that have emerged beyond their traditional rivalries over who was responsible for the death last year of 74 supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahli SC in a politically loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said and how to respond to recent sentences handed down by a court against those responsible.

The crackdown would likely reinforce the conviction of all fans that security forces allowed the brawl to happen, if they did not instigate it, in an attempt that got out of hand to punish them for their key role in the popular uprising that toppled Mr. Mubarak and their opposition to the military rulers that succeeded him.

President Mohammed Morsi, who last summer replaced the military as Egypt’s first freely elected leader, would risk another round of vicious street battles that in the past two years have cost the lives of more than 900 people and injured thousands by initiating the crackdown without embarking at the same time on far-reaching reform of the security sector.

The likelihood of resistance to the crackdown is heightened by the leaking this week of a report that concluded that security forces shot to kill protesters with the full knowledge of Mr. Mubarak during the uprising two years ago that forced him out of office; continued police brutality that highlights Mr. Morsi’s failure to reform the 1.7 million-strong police and security forces; discontent over the fact that of the nine security officials involved in the Port Said trial only two were convicted; and a six-week old revolt in the Suez Canal city that feels it has been made the scapegoat in Egypt’s worst sporting incident.

Al Ahli fans celebrated the sentencing to death in January of 21 supporters of Port Said’s Al Masri SC believing that they conspired with the security forces while Port Said charged that it was paying the price for a police action. The pereception of being made a scapegoate reinforced a pattern in the mind of Port Said resident of years of neglect of thei city by the central government in Cairo. The judiciary and the security forces also hope to benefit from divisions within Ultras Ahlawy, the Al Ahli support group, on whether the court verdict satisfied their demand for justice.

The ultras have nevertheless vowed to target the security forces until all of those responsible have been brought to justice. They torched last Saturday a police officers’ club and the offices of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) after the court announced the acquittal of 28 of the 73 defendants, including the seven security officials.

Militants in both Cairo and Port Said saw the acquittal as reaffirmation of the failure of Mr. Morsi and his military predecessors to hold any security officers accountable for the deaths of protesters in the past two years. The two convicted officers in the Port Said case were the first to be sentenced. The perception that the government is shielding the security forces is enhanced by the leaked report that among other things charged that police two years ago used snipers on rooftops overlooking Cairo's Tahrir Square to shoot into the huge crowd demanding Mr. Mubarak's’departure.

The report that summarizes the conclusions of a fact-finding mission initiated by Mr. Morsi could influence the upcoming retrial of Mr. Mubarak, former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, and six top police commanders on charges of responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the protests that toppled the Egyptian leader two years ago.

Messrs. Mubarak and el-Adly were convicted and sentenced to life in jail last June for failing to stop the killings, but the two successfully appealed their convictions. The six commanders- including the head of security in Cairo and the commander of the riot police - were acquitted. The prosecution appealed that verdict and a new trial of the eight is scheduled to start next month.

The judiciary and security forces appeared to be testing the waters with the arrest this week in the Nile Delta province of Menoufia of 38 alleged members of the Black Bloc, a secretive group of black-clad soccer fans founded to protect protesters from attacks by the security forces and supporters of Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. The fans are accused of attempting to set fire to a provincial court house and insulting police officers, lawyers said.

The crackdown in the absence of security sector reform would harden the battle lines between the militant soccer fans and the police that have been drawn in four years of regular confrontation in the stadiums under Mr. Mubarak and in street battles since then. For many ultras as well as many Egyptians, the security forces have come to symbolize state repression that controlled and made their lives difficult not only on the pitch but in their daily lives. A recent human rights report charged that the security forces were a law unto themselves and that abuse and torture continued to be their standard practice.

Police brutality in Port Said earlier this year left scores of people dead and persuaded Mr. Morsi to last week replace security forces in the city with military troops. Sources close to Mr. Morsi argue that the president is seeking to gradually reform law enforcement but has been hampered by the need to restore law and order and protect government offices amid mounting protests in recent weeks sparked by the Port Said verdicts as well as growing criticism of his haughty style of government and charges that he is proving to be no less authoritarian than his predecessor.

Meanwhile, a series of recent strikes and walk-outs by police and security forces, some of which demanded the resignation of the interior minister, have on the one hand increased fear of a further breakdown of law and order, but on the other hand opened a door for security sector reform. The protests indicate significant support for change within the police and the security forces that were until now widely seen as implacably beholden to the former regime as well as opposed to Mr. Morsi’s brotherhood whom they suspect of trying to islamicize their ranks.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.

Pepperdine Law Review Symposium: The New Normal in College Sports: Realigned and Reckoning Friday April 5

I can't wait to fly to Malibu for this (and great work by Pepperdine Law Professor Maureen Weston in putting this together and Pepperdine Law Review symposium editor Michael Wood for all of his excellent work)

Description:

The Pepperdine Law Review is pleased to invite you to a symposium discussing the status of big-time college sports and legal issues facing college athletics today. The symposium will consist of four panel discussions with leading academics, university leaders, and practitioners in a variety of areas, including: a conversation with institutional leaders of major intercollegiate athletic programs; a consideration of the possibility of an antitrust exemption for the NCAA; the impact of conference realignment, digital media, broadcasting, and commercialization; and other emerging hot topics in college sports.

This symposium has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit by the State Bar of California. Pepperdine University School of Law certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.If you have any questions, please contact us by phone at (310) 506-4653.

Register by Friday, March 29, 2013!

Symposium Speakers & Brochure / Mail Registration: Click here to view all of the symposium speakers or to register by mail.

Online Registration: Click here to register online.

Schedule: Click here to view the day’s schedule of events.

Additional Information: Click here for additional information.

Friday, April 5, 2013
7:45-8:30am	Check-In & Continental Breakfast
8:30-8:45am	Introductions and Welcome: Margot Parmenter, Editor-in-Chief, Law Review Deanell Tacha, Dean, Pepperdine University School of Law
8:45-10:45am	Panel One: Institutional Control: A View From the Top Moderator: Roger Cossack, ESPN Legal Analyst & Pepperdine University School of Law Distinguished Visiting Professor  Panelists: Ken Starr, President, Baylor University Britt Banowsky, Commissioner, Conference USA Steve Potts, Athletic Director, Pepperdine University Dave Roberts, Vice President for Compliance, USC
10:45-11:00am	Morning Coffee Break
11:00-12:30pm	Panel Two: NCAA, Legal Exemptions, and Liability  Moderator: Maureen Weston, Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law  Panelists: Daniel E. Lazaroff, Professor of Law and Director, Loyola Sports Law Institute at Loyola Law School Gabe Feldman, Associate Professor, Tulane Law School; Director, Tulane Sports Law Program; and Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance Jeffrey Standen, Professor, Willamette University Michael McCann, Professor of Law and Director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute, University of New Hampshire School of Law; Legal Analyst and Writer, Sports Illustrated
12:30-1:45pm	Luncheon in Cafeteria Address by Jeff Moorad, Founder, Moorad Sports Management
1:45-3:15pm	Panel Three: NCAA: Enforcement, Sanctions, and Relationship with Universities Moderator: Professor Ed Larson  Panelists: Matt Mitten, Professor of Law and Director, National Sports Law Institute, Marquette University Law School Rod Smith, Director of Sports Law & Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law Brian Halloran, NCAA Perspective Britt Banowsky, Commissioner, Conference USA
3:15-3:30pm	Afternoon Coffee & Cookie Break
3:30-5:00pm	Panel Four: The Money: Broadcasting, Digital Media & What Drives the Machine Moderator: Roger Cossack, ESPN Legal Analyst & Pepperdine University School of Law Distinguished Visiting Professor  Panelists: Andrew Brandt, NFL Business Analyst, ESPN; Columnist for ESPN.com; Director, Moorad Center for Sports Law at Villanova Law School; and Co-Founder, The National Football Post  Brian Marler, Director, Houlihan Lokey Babette E. Boliek, Associate Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law Mark Fainaru-Wada, Reporter, ESPN Investigations/Enterprise Unit
5:00pm	Concluding Remarks Maureen Weston & Margot Parmenter

Loyola Los Angeles Law School Sports Law Sympsium Saturday April 6

Looks like an excellent event:

SYMPOSIUM: CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PLAYER HEALTH AND SAFETY

LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL, LOS ANGELES

ROBINSON COURTROOM

SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2013

9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

MODERATOR: Daniel E. Lazaroff, Cohen Chair in Law and Economics and Director, Loyola Sports Law Institute

CHECK-IN – 8:30 – 9:00 AM

PANEL: DRUGS, DOPING AND DRUG TESTING – 9:00 – 11:00 AM

Adolpho A. Birch III, Senior Vice President of Law & Labor Policy, National Football League

Anthony Butch, Ph.D., Director, UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Matthew Fedoruk, Ph.D., Science Director, United States Anti-Doping Agency

Onye Ikwuakor, Legal Affairs Director, United States Anti-Doping Agency

Maidie E. Oliveau, Counsel, Arent Fox LLP and Arbitrator, Court of Arbitration for Sport

BREAK: 11:00 -11:15

PANEL: CONCUSSIONS AND HEAD TRAUMA – 11:15 – 1:15

Modesto (“Doc”) Diaz, Managing Partner, Leviton Diaz and Ginocchio, Workers’ Compensation Attorney

Thomas V. Girardi, Founding Partner, Girardi/Keese and Member, Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame

Joseph M. Miller, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Former Chair, Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board

Tony L. Strickland, M.S., Ph.D., FNAN, FACPN, Chairman & CEO, Sports Concussion Institute and Associate Clinical Professor of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

LUNCH: 1:30 – 3:00

Speaker: Ryan Nece, B.A., former UCLA and National Football League linebacker and Pac-12 Network analyst

Harvard Law School Sports Law Symposium on Thursday, March 28 2013

This event is open to the public and free.  To register, click here.

The Harvard Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law, in conjunction with Harvard's Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and Harvard's Association for Law and Business, presents:

2013 HLS Sports Law Symposium:

The Evolution of the Fan

Thursday, March 28, 2013 at Harvard Law School, Milstein West in Wasserstein Hall

The 2013 Sports Symposium will focus on evolving consumer experiences in the sports marketplace.  Panels composed of executives from teams, leagues, and sports media outlets as well as law partners with prominent sports practices will address the business and legal challenges faced by the industry in each of three media contexts: the Stadium Experience, the Television Experience, and the Internet Experience. Ken Hershman, President of HBO Sports, will present a keynote address on cutting edge efforts to meet the demands of the modern sports fan.

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Event Schedule

 11:45am - 12:00pm

Opening Remarks

&

Lunch

• CSEL Board
• Professor Peter Carfagna, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School

12:00

The Stadium Experience

• Marc Edelman:  Associate Professor of Law, Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law; Fordham Univeristy (Moderator)
• Len Komoroski: CEO, Cleveland Cavaliers
• Jim Holzman: Founder & CEO, Ace Ticket Worldwide, Inc.*
• Jeff Miller: VP & Chief Security Officer, NFL
• Jon Oram: Partner, Proskauer Rose LLP - Sports Law Group

1:15

The Television Experience

• Michael McCann: Director of Sports and Entertainment Law Institute & Professor of Law, University of New Hampshire School of Law; Legal Analyst & Writer, Sports Illustrated & SI.com (Moderator)
• Ed Durso: EVP of Administration, ESPN
• Brett Goodman: Senior Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs for NBC Sports Group
• Tom Ward: Partner, WilmerHale
• Ed Weiss: GC, Fenway Sports Group; NESN

2:30

Keynote Address: Ken Hershman

Ken Hershman, President of HBO Sports, will present a keynote address on cutting edge efforts to meet the demands of the modern sports fan.

3:30

The Internet Experience

• Patrick Rishe: Director, Sportsimpacts; Associate Professor of Economics, George Herbert Walker School of Business, Webster University; Contributor, Forbes Magazine (Moderator)*
• Mary K. Braza: Partner, Foley & Lardner - Sports Industry Team
• Anthony D'Imperio: EVP, IMG
• Lauren Fisher: GC, Vox Media/SBNation
• Lucia McKelvey: EVP, Top Rank, Inc.
• Scott Doyne: VP, Turner/NBA Digital

5:00

Networking Reception

Drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and dessert will be served

*Awaiting Confirmation

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CSEL would like to thank Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP (www.milbank.com) for providing generous funding for this symposium.
For more information, please email csel@law.harvard.edu

International sanctions: Iran feels the psychological impact

By James M. Dorsey

Struggling to maintain its place in Asia’s top tier, Iranian soccer is a reflection of a country laboring under the burden of a repressive political regime and not only the economic but increasingly also the psychological effect of international isolation and punishing sanctions.

The psychological wear and tear is universally visible. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a soccer fan who has unsuccessfully tried to tie football to his waning political bandwagon in part because of his encouragement of political interference in the game and his failure to invest in grassroots development and modernization, last October chided the national team for lowering its ambitions.

“If you think that you are only good enough for Asia, then that is what you will be and will remain. It is my firm opinion that Iran belongs to the world class elite as we have the talents and skills to be there,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said.

The politics of soccer were further highlighted last month when a court sentenced three businessmen and a banker linked to Mr. Ahmadinejad to death in a $2.8 billion fraud case involving the acquisition of soccer clubs and steel factories as well as the establishment of a private bank. The case was widely viewed as part of a power struggle in advance of presidential elections in June in which Mr. Ahmadinejad constitutionally cannot stand for a third term but is trying to ensure that one of his allies wins the poll.

"My experience as the national team manager of Iran was that football plays a major role in the political, social and even economic direction that the nation takes and the people who decide the direction of the country are constantly using the game for their political agenda. There are pluses and minuses to it all. The government’s financial resources support the game but it becomes politically manipulated. It becomes too dependent on the political system and the money and it starts operating as a political business,” said former Iranian national coach Afshin Ghotbi in a recent interview with Al Jazeera.

A recent visit to Iran at the invitation of an institute affiliated with the foreign ministry illustrated the psychological toll of the country’s isolation and sanctions imposed on it by the international community in a bid to force it to concede to international supervision of its nuclear program. The toll expressed itself in the regime’s pervasiveness, its fear-inspired penchant for control, a preference among officials for monologue rather than dialogue, and a dread of foreigners reminiscent of the former Soviet Union and North Korea.

The impact was on full display at an international conference on geopolitics in the Gulf in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas that abuts the strategic Strait of Hormuz through which much of the world's oil and gas flows. Invited foreign participants encountered a self-righteous bunker mentality and a bazaar merchant's penchant for deception and half-truths. In a break with a culture that prides itself on its diplomatic, artistic and gastronomic sophistication, officials and clerics, embarked on diatribes of at times crude propaganda.

Speakers continuously played up Iran's role as a regional power, the strategic geography of Shiite Muslims in oil and water-rich parts of the Gulf, the discrimination suffered by Shiites in countries like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and the alleged subservience to the United States of wealthy Gulf states who blame Iran for stirrings of unrest within their own borders. 

Foreign ministry officials and think tank figures associated with the ministry used their role as moderators to rudely cut foreign speakers short so that they could embark on a drumbeat of lengthy, highly politicized and ideological speeches. The degree of control became further obvious when several foreign participants who ventured into town on a shopping spree were intercepted by security officials allegedly for their own protection.

Foreigners are not the only ones to run afoul of the regime’s suspicions and bunker mentality. A recent crackdown on journalists is having a chilling effect. Iranian sports journalists refused to meet with a visiting foreign scholar saying they feared being hauled in by the security service.

Ahmad Shaheed, the United Nations’ monitor for human rights in Iran, warned in a report this week that the crackdown was intended to stymie potential protests linked to the upcoming election. Iran brutally suppressed protests in the wake of its 2009 presidential election.

Mr. Shaheed as well as Iranians said 17 journalists had been arrested in January in addition to some 50 who were already behind bars. "They have been charged with communicating with international news organizations or communicating with human rights organizations, both of which should be protected under law rather than being penalized," Mr. Shaheed said.

Mr. Shaheed’s report that was denounced by Iranian officials who have refused to let him visit Iran also highlighted violations of the rights of women and ethnic and religious minorities. The regime nevertheless appears to be trying to soften its crackdown with a more liberal attitude towards women’s’ public appearance. 

In a country known for enforcing strict dress codes, including a head dress that completely covers the hair, women in the streets of Tehran and Bandar Abbas appear fashionably albeit conservatively dressed with scarves that only partially cover their heads and faces to which they had applied make-up. “It’s the regime’s way of giving people some breathing room,” said one Iranian observer.

To be sure, repression as the result of fear appears to be part of the regime’s DNA. Marlene Assmann, a former soccer player and filmmaker, who documented in 2006 the first ever visit to Iran by a foreign women’s football team, recalls the team being effectively banned from interacting with their Iranian counterparts. Iranian players who featured in her film were barred from playing for up to two years. “It was very difficult, we couldn't leave our hotel,” she says.

The regime’s fear of ethnic unrest is not without reason. Stadiums in which Traktor Sazi Tabriz FC or the Red Wolves of Azerbaijan, a team owned by a state-run company, play are regularly the venue for protests demanding greater rights for Iran’s Azeri minority. At a recent clash in Teheran’s Azadi stadium with the capital’s storied Persepolis FC, Traktor Sazi supporters unfurled a banner saying in English: “South Azerbaijan isn’t Iran,” a reference to Iran’s northern province of Azerbaijan that borders to the north on the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.

Says a young Iranian soccer fan: “Its bubbling at the surface. Who knows if or when something will erupt.”

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.

NINE Spring Training Conference

Later this week I'm off to Tempe for the 20th Annual NINE Spring Training Conference on the Historical and Sociological Impact of Baseball, sponsored by NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture. I will be presenting The Economics of the Infield Fly Rule on a panel moderated by our own Ed Edmonds. And are some interesting-sounding papers covering economics, history, sociology, culture, and art as it relates to baseball.

I participated in this conference about eight years ago, when I first was writing about fan expression. It is always fun to engage with some non-legal academics (although this year there are at least a few other law-school types). Better still, there is a reason the conference is in Arizona--two afternoons are dedicated to "field research" at spring training games.

Seton Hall Law Panel: The Fight for Fair Treatment in Mixed Martial Arts

The Fight for Fair Treatment in Mixed Martial Arts

SPEAKERS:

Timothy D. Cedrone, Esq.
Paul Haberman, Esq.
David N. Weinraub, Esq.
Justin E. Klein, Esq.
Andy Main, Professional Fighter and Trainer

LOCATION: Seton Hall University School of Law Newark, NJ

DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 2013, 6:00 PM

MEMBER FEE: $15(Includes CLE Credits and Dinner)

No Fee Includes Dinner, & Program, No Cle Credits

LAW STUDENTS: No Fee Includes Dinner and Program No CLE credits

CLE Credits: NJ G: 1.2;  NY P T&N/T: 1.0; PA S: 1.0 ($4.00 check made payable to NJICLE)

DESCRIPTION: There are currently two areas of heated discussion in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts: the fair treatment of fighters and First Amendment protection for the exhibition of sporting events. The topic of fair treatment focuses on the relationship between labor law and how fighters are treated in their working environment. Another area of concern is First Amendment issues in regards to hosting Mixed Martial Arts contests, particularly in New York.

Sports Law Blogger Mark Conrad Chosen to Direct New Sports Business Program at Fordham

Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business announced the creation of a new undergraduate program focusing on the sports business. Called the Sports Business Specialization, the program will provide students first-hand knowledge of the business of professional and amateur sports. As part of the business program, all students are required to take foundation courses in accounting, finance, marketing, management and communications before they are eligible to take the sports-specific business classes. Students will also be required to complete an independent studies component, which will include an internship.

I was honored to be chosen to direct that program by Donna Rapaccioli, the dean of the Gabelli School of Business. The program will also offer the opportunity for guest speakers to come to campus or to speak to students via Skype. Speakers from the NBA and Major League Baseball have addressed our students. The state-of-the-art facilities at the Gabelli School of Business will also allow out-of-town speakers to address students and faculty via Skype or other online video service. Symposia will also be planned.  If anyone is interested in coming to the Bronx campus to speak about legal issues involving social media in sports, please drop me a message at Conrad@fordham.edu.

For more information on the specialization, please visit:

http://www.gabelliconnect.com/sports-business

Rioting ultras and striking police officers may ease security reform

Ultras set Cairo police club on fire

By James M. Dorsey

The fall-out of last year’s death of 72 soccer fans in a politically-loaded stadium brawl has brought the need

for reform of Egypt’s Mubarak-era law enforcement and judiciary to a head with football supporters in Egyptian cities protesting the verdict in the trial of those accused of responsibility for the incident and security officials striking against being made a scapegoat in the country’s political crisis.

Protests sparked by this weekend’s confirmation of the death sentences of 21 Port Said soccer supporters, conviction of only two out of nine police officers accused of responsibility for the worst incident in Egyptian sport history, and aquittal of 28 of the in total 73 defendants reflect intensified public anger rooted in widespread distrust of the security forces as well as the judiciary’s failure to hold accountable officers and officials responsible for the death of more than 900 protesters since former president Hosni Mubarak was toppled two years ago.

The problems with law enforcement and the judiciary are compounded by the fact that Port Said-related demonstrations that are now in their second months have persuaded security forces to stage their own protests. Rank and file officers are speaking out publicly for the first time with walk-outs across the country and refusals to engage in crowd control.

Egypt’s 1.7 million-strong police and security forces, widely viewed as the repressive arm of Mr. Mubarak’s regime and largely unrepentant and unreformed since his departure, feel caught between the rock of President Mohamed Morsi’s insistence on cracking down on protests and the hard place of the public denouncing their brutality.

Reminiscent of scenes during the uprising two years ago in which the military refrained from cracking down on protesters demanding Mr. Mubarak’s ouster, striking police in Egypt’s second city Alexandria put up banners saying “We don't want politics" and "Police and the people are one hand."

The reminiscence of the military’s role in the 2011 uprising is however a double-edged sword. Protesters in Port Said welcomed the withdrawal of the security forces but criticized the military for not going beyond abstinence to protect them from the police in weeks of clashes that have cost scores of lives.

"Who cares about the police withdrawal? Our demands haven't been met. The army isn't protecting us. Have they done anything to meet our demands?" said Ibrahim El-Masri, a former Al-Masri player and spokesperson for the families of those sentenced to sentences.

The complexity of law enforcement’s dilemma and the difficulty of reforming its institutions is that they have operated for much of the past three decades without oversight employing a rank and file that had little education or training. In addition, there is little love lost between Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and the security forces who often targeted the group in the days that it was clandestine or existed in a legal nether land. Striking policemen say they are also opposed to what they see as attempts by Mr. Morsi to infuse political Islam into their ranks.

The strikes and walk-outs in 10 of Egypt’s 29 provinces, some of which demanded the resignation of the interior minister, nevertheless open the door to security sector reform. They indicate significant support for change in institutions that were widely seen as implacably beholden to the former regime.

Sources close to Mr. Morsi argue that the president is seeking to reform law enforcement gradually but has been hampered by the need to restore law and order and protect government offices amid mounting protests.

Rival militant, highly politicized and street battle hardened soccer fans in Port Said as well as Cairo agree on little but that last year’s brawl was not spontaneous. Supporters of Al Masri as well as crowned Cairo club Al Ahli which counted 70 dead among their ranks in last year’s incident believe it was an effort that got out of hand to teach a less to fans who had played a key role in the toppling of Mr. Mubarak and were in the forefront of opposition to the military that led Egypt to elections last year that brought Mr. Morsi to power as well as the current demonstrations against the Morsi government.

As a result, this weekend’s failure to convict all nine officers coupled with the absence as of this writing of a justification of the court’s verdict has reaffirmed perceptions that law enforcement and the judiciary are political and constitute laws unto themselves.

At the same time, the verdict has sparked separate internal discussions among Al Masri and Al Ahli supporters on how best to respond .

Al Ahli fans feel on the one hand that justice has been served with the confirmation of the death sentences but one significant part of the group wants to maintain their attacks on the interior ministry, which controls the security forces, until officers are held fully accountable. That sentiment is fueled by the supporters’ years of confrontation with security forces in the stadiums and their perception of law enforcement as their arch enemy and the symbol of the former regime’s repression.

Ultras Ahlawy, the Al Ahli support group, denied reports on Saturday that they were responsible for fires in the offices of the Egyptian Footbaal Association (EFA) and Al Watan newspaper after it reported that they had met with the Muslim Brotherhood in advance of this weekend’s verdict. The ultras, who by and large, do not shirk taking responsibility for their actions, have attacked in past months media organisations they view as hostile. The ultras did admit however storming and setting on fire Saturday a police officers club near the Al Ahli grounds.

For their part, some Al Masri fans as well as segments of the 650,000-strong population of Port Said – a

Suez Canal city that feels it has been made a scapegoat in the trial – are placated by Mr. Morsi’s decision this week to pull the police out of the city and replace it with military troops. Soliders sided with demonstrators in Port Said in recent weeks. Some Al Masri supporters agitated however for forcing a closure of the Suez Canal, a key source of the cash-strapped Morsi government’s revenues. The military has warned that attacking the canal would cross a red line.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.