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Brabners Chaffe Street advises on a raft of Premier League transfers
1/09/2010

The Sports law team at leading North West firm Brabners Chaffe Street LLP have again confirmed their position as market leaders in the football industry by advising on a host of transfers, contract re-negotiations, work permits and managerial appointments during the summer transfer window.

The strength of the firm's ever-increasing football client list was illustrated again this summer as it advised on over 30 deals during the transfer window. The team were involved in a number of high profile matters including acting in the transfer of Mario Balotelli from Inter Milan to Manchester City and advising Liverpool on its acquisition of Joe Cole and in what was the biggest managerial move of the summer, the appointment of former Fulham manager, Roy Hodgson, following the departure of Rafael Benitez.

Also of note were a series of deals where the firm acted for Manchester United including the acquisitions of Javier ‘Chicharito' Hernandez, the young Mexican starlet who shone at this year's World Cup in South Africa, Portuguese player Bebé from Guimarães and the highly rated defender Chris Smalling from Fulham. The firm also worked on United's renegotiation of Nemanja Vidic's existing contact and the loan of Mame Diouf to Blackburn Rovers.

Bolton Wanderers instructed the firm on its acquisitions of the Spanish player Marcos Alonso, from Real Madrid, and also on the arrival of experienced Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov, who left Manchester City as a free agent. The firm advised Newcastle United with regard to the loan deal of Hatem Ben Arfa from Marseille and Birmingham City on the loan of Alexander Hleb from Barcelona. Wigan Athletic and Rangers both called upon the firm's expertise in the area of work permit applications to respectively secure the services of Paraguayan World Cup defender Antolin Alcaraz and Croatian international striker Nikica Jelavic from Rapid Vienna.

Matthew Bennett, a Partner in the firm's Sports department, comments: “We have had another busy summer acting for a number of clubs, players and agents across the football transfer market. It has been notable that perhaps due to both the current economic conditions and the new Premier League squad size rules, there has been a prevalence of players moving, both domestically and internationally, out of contract or on a temporary loan basis.”

The Brabners team included Maurice Watkins, Matthew Bennett, Edward Canty, Lydia Edgar, Carol Couse, David Bentham, Stuart Baird, Nicola Soden, Matt Barnes, Chris Anderson, Stuart Ripley and Sarah Davies.


For further information contact Matthew Bennett at Brabners Chaffe Street on 0161 836 8800

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