Sports law
Our company has a department which concentrates on sports law and on all parties which are connected directly or indirectly with the sporting world.
We provide legal assistance inter alia for sports players, sports clubs, sports federations, sports agents, sponsors, organisers and trainers.
Our company assists its clients inter alia in the following areas:
- Drawing up internal sporting rules;
- Assistance in internal disputes and disputes with third parties;
- Assistance and defence in disciplinary proceedings and arbitration for sports organisations;
- Assistance and defence in doping cases (Flemish Doping Tribunal, Disciplinary Commission, Sports Arbitration Tribunal, etc.);
- Assistance with drawing up and inspecting and negotiating contracts (transfers, sponsor agreements, etc.);
- Assistance for sport-related companies and associations (formation and amendment of articles of association of inter alia non-profit agencies, appointment/dismissal of directors, mergers and takeovers of sports clubs, applications (for business permits and other permits, etc.);
- Assistance with regard to the tax and social security status of sports players and sports clubs (income tax);
- Protection of the intellectual property rights of sports players (copyrights, brands and designs, broadcasting rights, portrait rights, etc.);
- Sport-related criminal law (e.g. match fixing, corruption, assault and battery, drugs law, etc.);
- Football law (stadium bans, etc.).
The sports department within our company stands out from other companies which cover sports law because it is integrated into a firm of lawyers which is geared to companies so that we can offer multidisciplinary and inter-departmental services in all possible branches of law.
Ons team
Mathieu Baert
Fien Schreurs
Lore Vanden Berghe
Maarten Princen
Partner
Mathieu Baert
Mathieu Baert graduated with distinction in 2015 with a master’s degree in law at the University of Ghent. Prior to his law degree, he graduated with a master’s degree in criminology in 2012. After that, in 2017, he obtained a master’s degree in business economics with studies at the University of Latvia and the University of Ghent. He started working at Everest in 2015.
Apart from his vast experience in corporate criminal law and corporate law and criminal law more generally within the anti-fraud and corporate criminal law department, Mathieu also takes the lead of the sport law department within Everest.
Mathieu was appointed as academic consultant in crime and sport at the University of Ghent on 1 June 2020. Furthermore, he is also working on various publications in matters of sports law and he is also a disciplinary judge within the Disciplinary Committee of the Judo Federation of Flanders.
Email:mathieu.baert@everest-law.be
Tel:+32 (0)9/334.94.70
Areas of expertise:Fraud prevention and corporate criminal law; Sports law; Liability and medical law
Associate
Fien Schreurs
Fien Schreurs graduated in 2019 with a master’s degree in law at the Roman Catholic University of Leuven. She then completed a general LL.M. at the University of Ottawa in Canada.
Fien has been registered since 2020 as a lawyer at the Ghent bar and joined the Everest office in that same year.
She works in the anti-fraud and corporate criminal law department.
Fien also specialises in sports law.
Email:fien.schreurs@everest-law.be
Tel:+32 (0)9/334.94.70
Areas of expertise:Fraud prevention and corporate criminal law; Sports law; Corporate law and contracts
Junior associate
Lore Vanden Berghe
Lore Vanden Berghe obtained her master’s degree in law cum laude at Ghent University in 2022.
Since then, she has been registered as a lawyer at the bar in Ghent and joined Everest in Ghent.
Lore is active in the department of (anti)fraud and corporate criminal law but mainly focuses on sports law.
Email:Lore.VandenBerghe@everest-law.be
Tel:+32 (0)9 334 94 70
Areas of expertise:Fraud prevention and corporate criminal law; Sports law
Junior Associate
Maarten Princen
Maarten Princen graduated cum laude as Master of Laws at Ghent University in 2022. During this study, he also participated in an Erasmus exchange program at the University of Bologna. He then pursued a master of European law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, which he completed magna cum laude in 2023.
In September 2023, Maarten started his career as a lawyer by joining Everest Law Ghent. He is active in the public law and sports law departments.
Email:maarten.princen@everest-law.be
Tel:+32 (0)9 334 94 70
Expertise:Sports law; Public and administrative law
