Ian Lynam
@ianlynam
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Sports lawyer. Founding Partner of @NorthridgeLaw . Director of @STATSports and @BASL_Sport_Law . Coach of @Blackheath_1858 U-9s. Limerick man in London.
London, UK
Joined September 2011
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They found him in the gym. Sprinting on a treadmill. On maximum incline. Wearing a weighted vest.
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Sanchez is wired differently. Last season he was "in the red zone" after a run of games, so was told to take the morning off and rest.
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So, with the transfer window shut, I thought I'd engage in a brief review of the good, the bad and the ugly of contract structures I came across this summer in English football clubs.
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De Gea/Navas - international transfers are done via the TMS system and time-stamped. No wiggle room/discretion for regulators.
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A 15 minute version of my talk from Sloan '17 "Pay Smart: using remuneration strategy to gain an edge in the Premier League"
#SSAC18
…
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Full video from "Have the geeks inherited the turf?" discussion with
@blakewooster
,
@mixedknuts
and
@soccerquant
:
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Today is
#WorldEncephalitisDay
, here's my encephalitis story:
In November 2009, I was advising Bradley Wiggins on his proposed move from Garmin to Team Sky. I was due to meet Wiggo at a hotel in Heahtrow to discuss some points. So I jumped on the Heathrow Express...
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One trend from this summer's window - elite young English talent being more willing to look abroad re. best place to develop their career.
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Spare a thought this wet Monday morning for an Irish rugby fan. Arriving into an office full of England fans. And with an afternoon of meetings with
@premrugby
ahead of him...
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Northridge launches today, a law firm built to undertake the most complex and important work in the sports sector
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UEFA’s annual benchmarking report is out. Essential reading for anyone interested in the business side of European football. I’ll set out below 5 points which jumped out at me.
It's here!
Our annual Benchmarking report is THE definitive guide to the European club football landscape. Love football facts, figures and finances? Head this way 👇
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3. Man Utd’s ongoing growth in commercial revenues is incredible. And demonstrates why they can well afford to pay eye-watering transfer fees and salaries without running into issues with Short Term Cost Control or FFP.
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Tier 1 for sports law in
@thelegal500
within our first 12 months. Feeling quite proud this evening of what our team has achieved
#legal500
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I loved Klopp crediting LFC’s (frankly excellent) analysts for the free kick. And I hear their analyst team is about to get even stronger...
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Delighted to get my copy this morning, just the 1,500 pages of negotiating theory. I’m genuinely looking forward to reading a number of the other chapters. Including the chapter on negotiating via text/WhatsApp, very relevant in modern football...
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Nice to be listed as top 10 sports lawyer in Europe. Much, the best bit, however, is being described as "young"!
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Flexibility key to solving football’s wages dilemma | Sean Ingle
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This is cool, LFC looking to recruit a Lead Data Scientist specifically to work with tracking data.
There's a really cool Lead Data Scientist job going at Melwood. PhD required, £80-£100,000 salary.
#lfc
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I'm leaving CRS this evening after 10 years. Feels slightly surreal. Excited about Monday morning!
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The Good: A squad bonus pool which builds with each set-piece goal scored by the team. Only goals with an "element of rehearsal" count. A nice way of incentivising good behaviours.
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The most demanding, complicated, all-consuming 10 weeks of my career.
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It's been a fun 12 months!
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Notes from the transfer window: a new Guardian blog post on "buy-out clauses" and contract structures
http://t.co/1U87Qz6qfR
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Get "deal sheet" into PL by 11pm (with basic terms) and you get until 1am (e.g. Welback) or midnight (if intl deal e.g. Falcao) to document
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2/2 settlment (c.£1m) and Lens dropped charges. Barca case involves 10 players and multiple breaches, won't settle, sure to end up in CAS.
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I was shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Dirk-Reiner Martens. Over a garlanded career, Reiner made an indelible mark on sports law. More than that, he was a thoroughly nice man with a genuine and obvious interest in helping others.
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Chelsea "winning" the appeal vs. their transfer ban in 2010 (re. Kakuta) is not a relevant precedent for Barca. Chelsea and Lens reached 1/2
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Great night at the
@LegalBusinessUK
awards. Delighted to get this recognition so early in our journey.
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It’s worth noting that this comment comes from someone who owns the team that employs Andros Townsend
#SSAC18
76ers owner Josh Harris: "It wasn't that long ago in basketball people were shooting long two-point shots. Then someone figured out — it seems obvious now — 'Hey, wait a second, that doesn't make any sense. Shoot a three-point shot.' Literally that's changed the game."
#SSAC18
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RIP Maurice, a pioneer of UK sports law.
All at Manchester United are deeply saddened by the loss of our former Director, Maurice Watkins, who served the club with such distinction for over a quarter of a century.
We send our heartfelt condolences to his loved ones at this time.
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An important art installation in our office this morning. My father-in-law painted a picture to mark the first anniversary of Northridge. We’ve had it blown up and applied to a wall in our kitchen. It looks pretty great!
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In addition to advising on 20+ transfers, the growth in our work in transfer receivable financing (advising both banks and clubs across Europe) was a notable feature of this summer’s window.
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@honigstein
That's not quite right. The concept of a written transfer request does exist in the PL Rules, and it waives any unpaid signing-on fee.
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In wake of Ander Herrera move to United, here's my Guardian article on buy-out clauses:
http://t.co/iUK91PzZJB
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Hard to believe it's been six months already...
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For anyone interested in learning more about negotiation strategies in sport,decent paper here from Harvard Law Scl:
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CAS has published the decision in the AC Milan FFP appeal. We were delighted to represent Milan, acting alongside
@AntonioRigozzi
and Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli
#FFP
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Well, that's a holiday that needs to be rearranged...
At a Shareholders’ Meeting today,
#PL
clubs voted to adopt a change to the Summer Transfer Window closing date for season 2020/21
The 2020 closing date will therefore be 17:00 BST on 1 September
Full statement:
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My proud father-in-law has done this painting to mark Northridge’s first anniversary. Somewhat punchy slogan (he grew up under a Communist regime...) but it’s really very good!
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Interview in De Paper today - development of sports law, image rights, analytics in negotiations etc.
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My father-in-law paid a visit to the office to see his mural in situ.
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Working on a deal earlier this week, I was told that the big money in China is only available for attacking players. So I looked into it.
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Solid follow up to my slot last year.
.
@BarackObama
, the 44th President of the United States, will speak at
@SloanSportsConf
February 23. We are pleased to welcome President Barack Obama, a well-known sports fan. Visit for more details
#SSAC18
#analyzethis
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It was a privilege for the Northridge team to work with the BHA on this project. It's not often you get the chance to help rewrite the rules of a sport!
Revised and more accessible Rules of Racing to be implemented from 1 September ➡️
📕 Project has been worked on in close consultation with stakeholder bodies & with independent legal expertise
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Happy to pay €5 per month for the only sports podcast that consistently makes me laugh and feel like I've learned something.
We promised you big SC news & we've delivered big SC news. Listen to our latest show NOW for our big news. It's
#big
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I was very lucky. Encephalitis is often fatal, and it leaves a much deeper mark on most survivors. It's important to raise awareness, and to try to help those not as lucky. I'll continue to do that.
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"Let him rot in the reserves". Worth remembering that a player who plays <10% of matches during a season is entitled to terminate contract.
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A lot of confusion over PL "flexibility" over deadline. Actually pretty straightforward.
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Very interesting article from
@Grantland33
on the use of analytics by baseball agents:
http://t.co/cEHx4Cz2eE
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Football, even in China once the market matures, is likely to see the "Omer Asik effect"
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My latest Guardian piece on contract structures and performance based pay in English football
http://t.co/UG3bJfdCwN
#PaySmart
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Amazing game to finish Ireland’s greatest ever season of rugby. Ireland - elite rugby team. Still feels weird.
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US ban on sports betting deemed unconstitutional. Notwithstanding that it was expected, the significance of this decision is hard to overstate.
BREAKING: Supreme Court rules Professional & Amateur Sports Protection Act Of 1992 is unconstitutional. States can now decide to participate in sports gambling at their discretion. New Jersey should be up & running in two weeks. Other states have to enact laws to follow.
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Very excited to launch our offering for high-growth technology companies that serve the sports, entertainment and leisure markets.
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Pizza and beers in the kitchen for the Northridge fantasy football draft.
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I'm very proud to be able say that Ben Rees and
@paul_shapiro
have joined the partnership at Northridge.
Paul sat with me on his first day as a trainee, and has had the misfortune of spending the majority of his working life in the intervening decade within a few feet of me.
Congratulations to Ben Rees and
@paul_shapiro
on their promotions to Partner and to Oliver Harland for his promotion to Managing Associate 👏🎉
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Suarez argument re. L'pool's verbal undertakings is a non-runner. Contract includes an "entire agreement" clause, excludes prior verbal agt.
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There's just over two weeks left to apply for our 2019 summer vacation scheme. Details are here:
Here's an idea of the kind of work you'd be getting involved in...
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We've worked on 3 this summer - Jadon Sancho to
@BVB
, Chris Willock to
@slbenfica_en
and Reece Oxford to
@borussia
.
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Nine companies (including
@statsports
and
@21stClub
) changing football through tech and innovation
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This would equate to $1m revenue per month, of which c.$700k would go to Ninja. That's $160k per week, just from subs & before partnerships, Youtube revenues etc. Applying a discount for some bot inflation, we're still talking about earnings impressive even on a PL or NBA level
So,
@Ninja
just casually hit 160,000 subs on Twitch. 200,000 is not only doable, it seems inevitable at this point. This is a testament to the incredible growth of Fortnite and the insane quality of his stream day in and day out. Huge congrats man.
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The Ugly: That most teams continue to use traditional squad bonus schedules notwithstanding that they cost ££, do not help in attracting or retaining players, do not contribute to players' motivation or happiness and can cause disputes (e.g. NUFC, again: )
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Daily Mail on West Ham's use of analytics
http://t.co/HvZPhSL4tx
Key stat is attacking knockdowns. Wing Commander Reep would have been proud
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Whilst back in Dublin I’m also giving a lecture on the sports law module at
@UCDLawSchool
, should be a lot of fun. The new law school is *slightly* smarter than the crumbling Roebuck Castle we put up with...
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You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Although also 99% of the shots you do take, in Neves’ case. Outliers like this don’t help!
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Excellent article from
@keanelegal
. An in-depth legal analysis of the PRL/Saracens salary cap case, and an explanation of the importance of the decision beyond rugby.
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Very enjoyable morning talking about Salary Caps, FFP and "Pay Smart" with the
@FootballMBA
class at
@livuni
.
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Looking forward to my trip to Dublin next week and speaking at this
@LawInSport
event. From advising
@OTRO
and
@daznglobal
to negotiating streaming deals with
@Twitch
, it’s fair to say we’ve seen the rights/content market evolve.
We're excited for the
#MediaRights
panel: new distribution methods & competition law at the Sports Law Ireland 2019 Conference in 2 weeks. With experts
@louisereillybl
, Alex Slade,
@KeaneLegal
,
@ianlynam
, & Lynsey Mulvihill.
For info:
#SportsLawIRE19
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I am regretting the decision to put my hands in my pockets on stage...
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Anita is being far too generous here, but it was an absolute pleasure to chip in just a little. Anyone with an interest in how football player contracts are structured and negotiated will enjoy this case study!
New case alert! 🚨 An examination of the unparalleled Mohamed Salah, his agent Ramy Abbas, and their contract negotiations with Liverpool FC last summer. 😁 Big thanks to
@MoSalah
and
@RamyCol
for offering a look behind the scenes,
@taherelmoataz
,
@liverpoolfc
, and
@ianlynam
. 🙏
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So we need to fill my *ahem* my son’s Panini album. Anyone got swaps?
#GotGotNeed
#WhoGonSwapMeNow
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This might be the most enjoyable podcast I’ve ever listened to.
Treat your ears to the full rendition - our chat with the great troubadour
@HamiltonRTE
is out now, World Service members 🎹
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Football as an industry has an issue, unlike say thermonuclear engineering, that everyone considers themselves an expert.
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After a historic week for US sport, I’m looking forward to leading a panel at
@LeadersBiz
in NYC tomorrow on “Protecting the integrity of sport when the stakes are highest”
#LeadersWeek
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The Bad: A "Positive Start" bonus. Not the first time I've seen this kind of thing. There seems to be a fairly pervasive view that points earned in August are somehow worth more than those earned at other times of the year...
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Football men take issue with analytics guy "The issues are when he's dabbling in football matters" via
@49erswebzone
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Gerard Houllier - the most considerate, generous, intelligent man. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to work with him and to become his friend. Ni bheidh a leithead aris ann.
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Meet the Harvard professor who is shaping the destiny of football stars | David Hytner
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Delighted that we have been promoted to Band 1 in Chambers; meaning we’re now top ranked for sport in both independent legal directories.
First we were Tier 1 for Sport in Legal 500, now we’re also top ranked for Sport in Chambers! A great effort by the whole Northridge team
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I was scrummaging against McFarland in an AIL match. He doesn't care for my technique, punches me. I punch him back, schmozzle ensues. Both trudge to sin bin (plastic chairs, 5 yards apart). My mother walks around pitch to tell me (within Dan's earshot) that I'm "very naughty".
Scotland confirm that Dan McFarland is leaving in mid-January.
Looks like Ulster have their man. Big loss for Scotland.
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Ateltico have confirmed that Diego Costa has a €38m buy-out clause. Here's why it's unlikely to be triggered:
http://t.co/MO7opISFcH
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