COVID-19: Getting sports back on track

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions with sporting events across the world either cancelled or postponed. However, it is important to learn from these challenging times and prepare to minimise risks in such exigencies.

With the objective of getting voices from the sports industry heard, Grant Thornton India partnered with leading law firm Phalpher & Co. to conduct a survey capturing feedback from industry stakeholders on key focus areas post lockdown, as well as how to mitigate risk during such situations in the future.

Here is how the sports industry can PLAN and consider the following actions when sporting events resume

Prioritise health norms and standards

• Administration should develop updated comprehensive event and venue health and safety guidelines for all involved in the sports events by facilitating sanitisation bye-laws, upgrading building guidelines and incorporating social distancing.

Detail force majeure and supporting clauses

• Force majeure and its express and implied ambit should be customised, keeping in mind the essence of each contract

Alternate athlete salary calculation mechanism

• Federations may wish to follow FIFA’s initiative in providing guidelines to address legal consequences by creating SOPs for managing future force majeure situations.

Scheduling contingency

• Create flexible event calendar for rescheduling – helping minimise the impact for stakeholders due to postponement of a sports event

and more….