Thread by @CashNSport

Benni McCarthy: "Tik Tok, Instagram, and Twitter seem to be far more important to these guys. Their image matters more than being the best player you can be.

What are image rights and how do they work in football, #rugby & #cricket?

This is image rights explained

THREAD 🧵

In 1995, Arsenal bought Denis Bergkamp and David Platt

Both players had existing non-UK image rights companies and contracts. Arsenal entered into playing contracts with both players personally, and image-rights contracts with the two players’ image rights companies

📸Getty

UK tax authorities later enquired into the image rights arrangements due to the “tax loss” caused by image rights payments falling outside the charge to income tax.

Ultimately,the courts found in favour of Platt and Bergkamp and that began the boom in sports image rights.

But what are image rights?

Image rights means the ability of a person to exclusively control the commercial use of their name, physical/pictorial image, reputation, identity, voice, personality, signature, initials or nickname in advertisements, marketing and all forms of media

Image rights are also known by different names and subject to different legal treatment in different jurisdictions. In the United Kingdom, they are known as image rights; in continental Europe, as personality rights; and in the United States as publicity rights

Like in most other countries, there is no specific protection of image rights in South Africa. Such rights are generally protected in terms of the common law protection which includes Copyright Act and Trademarks act 194 of 1993.

Sports entities use intellectual property to protect image rights and uses this to further exploit commercial opportunities.

There are generally three main way sports athletes uses to exploit commercial image rights

Sponsorship – corporate brands pay athletes money or products in exchange for them using the athletes image for marketing purposes.

These athletes could be asked to exclusively wear branded clothing and equipment. Or appear in advertising

📸Puma

It's important to note that not all sponsorship comes with a cash payment.

Some sponsorship can be value in kind or merchandise to the value of an agreed upon amount.

Moving on

Merchandising – this is where the athletes’ own image rights and standing is used to create personal range of a products. Merchandising is often given to mega stars because it generally requires resource investment into growing brands and image and trade mark catalogue

📸Getty

Endorsement – is normally where athletes influence or recommend a certain products of a particular brand which sponsors him/her. This is done to increase brand awareness and sales of a product.

Example. @IIKHUNE_32_16 brand behind @danup_sa

Commonly, an athlete would register an image rights company (IRC) which would manage the use of a players image.

These companies can be registered anywhere and its common for players to register IRC's in tax havens

Structure of an IRC from Lexology ⬇️

In most European countries, the player or his/manager negotiate for image rights separately from the standard playing contract.

There are players who's image is far more valuable than their on-pitch performance

📸Getty

Image rights prevent the exploitation of a players image without compensation to a player

Players have to make themselves available for PR, Marketing, Community, Promotional for a certain hour a week or month

In turn players are paid according to an agreed-upon payment schedule

Image rights agreements also protect the club from ambush marketing.

They impose limit on the use of player’s image in with brands that may be in direct competition with those of the club.

This doesn't always work to plan as players move often and clashes occur

Players and clubs can often find themselves in trouble for tax evasion by abusing image rights.

Messi was found guilty of defrauding Spain of €4.1m between 2007 and 2009. He used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights.

📸Getty

An example from rugby, Saracens were relegated due to breaches including paying players through other companies and over inflating image rights.

As related to one player Saracens over-valued their 30% stake in the Image Rights Company of Maro Itoje by over £800,000

📸Getty

So how do image rights work in South African Football, Rugby, Cricket?

Football

At the moment the SAFA and PSL standard contract does not cover player’s image rights. Even the National Soccer League (NSL) and SAFA rules and regulation does not cover player image rights

Therefore, FIFA rules are used as default.

It states:

“The Club and the Player have to agree how then Player’s image rights are exploited, if applicable ---

-- As a recommendation and principle the individual player may exploit his rights by himself (if not conflicting with club’s sponsors/partners) whilst the Club may exploit the Player’s image rights as part of a group and/or the whole squad”

FIFA 2008.

Most players image rights are held and managed by their club. This is because the majority of players just don't have big brands off the pitch and wouldn't warrant the registration of a separate image rights company.

What is paid for image rights on SA football are signing-on fees.

They are paid to a player upon the transfer of that player from one Club registered with the PSL, to another Club either registered with the PSL, or to a professional side recognized by FIFA

Rugby

In S A rugby, the image rights belong to South Africa Rugby Union (SARU). In 2016, SARU, The South African Rugby Employers Organisation (SAREO), Provinces (unions/clubs) and the South African Rugby Player’s Association (SARPA) reached on image rights

📸Gallo

SARU bought the rights for an amount in the region of R65 million for a period of five years. According to SARU annual report (2021), the image rights increased from R55 million in 2020 to R73 million in 2021. The report further reported that SARU spent around 6 % on image rights

There are exceptions. Players such as Siya Kolisi are said to control their rights

In 2020, South Africa rugby magazine reported that Springbok flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit agreed with Western-Province to have full control of image rights

📸Citadel

Cricket

South African cricket uses similar method to that of rugby. A collective agreement was entered into by Cricket South Africa (CSA), the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) and Franchises/Clubs.

That about wraps it up.

Big shout out to @MahlomolaMartin for the research help with this one.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading. If you like this type of work, please follow us and share our work to your network

Cheers and enjoy the weekend

🤙🏾