Olisa Agbakoba Legal event attendees told lawyers have a lot to do to commercialise sport
Lawyers need to do more to help commercialise sports, including football, in Nigeria, a recent sports business summit heard.
Speaking at the event, hosted by Nigerian law firm Olisa Agbakoba Legal, the firm’s associate partner Beverley Agbakoba-Onyejianya said that legal counsels acted as the “backbone” of the sports industry.
“They support all the commercial transactions in sports industry right from picking players, immigrations and building of infrastructure,” Nigerian newspaper The Guardian reported Agbakoba-Onyejianya as saying.
Agbakoba-Onyejianya added: “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.
“So, we need lawyers to guide those contractual activities. Without lawyers, there will be no one to resolve disputes that would arise.”