Image rights protection for athletes and sports clubs

What is usually at stake

For an athlete, the assets are rarely just the name on a shirt. They include the name and likeness, the voice, the nicknames and celebrations supporters recognise, personal social channels and the deals built on them. A club's portfolio sits somewhere different: the crest and wordmark, shirt names and numbers, kit and merchandise ranges, match photography and footage, and the licensing arrangements that let partners use any of it. Both sides often hold rights in the same thing at the same time, which is why the agreements between them matter as much as the registrations.

Where the risk sits

Most problems arrive quietly rather than dramatically, and they tend to come from the same few places:

• Unofficial merchandise, from shirts and scarves to prints and phone cases, sold online, at markets and outside grounds.
• Photographs taken for editorial use appearing in advertising, where no commercial licence was ever granted.
• Fake accounts posing as a player or club, sometimes to sell tickets, signed kit or investment offers.
• AI-generated likenesses and voice clones used in promotions, or in content that implies an endorsement.
• Betting, crypto and supplement advertising that trades on a name without permission.

Players, agents and clubs hold different interests

An athlete wants control over their own name after they stop playing. A club wants protection for the brand it has built, and the ability to license it. An agent wants deals that can be delivered without dispute. Those interests overlap but do not always align, so it helps to be clear from the outset about who owns what, which uses are carved out for the club in employment and playing contracts, and how revenue is split when a likeness is used commercially.

Where the commercial upside is

Protected rights are easier to license, and licensed rights earn. Once the position is clear, the same assets can support sponsorship, appearances, co-branded ranges, content series and technology deployments such as Holobox, with terms that set out who may use a likeness, for what, in which territories and for how long.