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Johannesburg - FIFA regulations are threatening the ability of soccer players to earn money from endorsements, a sport lawyer said on Friday.
Bowman Gilfillan attorney Matthew Murphy said regulations on marketing around the 2010 World Cup were restricting the ability of players to appear in advertisements.
"It's their rights, they can't just be taken away with a stroke of a pen," Murphy told a presentation to journalists, athletes and businesspeople in Johannesburg.
"There are many stakeholders in football and FIFA is just one of them. It's important to understand that. If we do just put up with it it'd be a return to the past."
Murphy said potential sponsors were intimidated by the soccer body's regulations which restricted the manner in which soccer players could be used in advertisements ahead of and during the tournament.
He cited as an example a Vodacom television advertisement which alluded to the 2010 World Cup, but featured only rugby players.
Murphy was speaking at the formation of the Image Rights Society, an association of small businesspeople and soccer players affected by FIFA's regulations.
Protecting players' rights
The society is waiting for a court case to be brought in South Africa against FIFA and these regulations, so that it can file an amicus curiae, friend-of-the-court, brief.
Murphy said "thousands" of FIFA-related cases remained on the rolls of German courts, four years after that country hosted the 2006 World Cup.
These included both civil and criminal cases around the use of exclusionary zones, areas where non-FIFA related marketing was forbidden, and ambush marketing - merchandise that infringed on FIFA trademarks.
Like their German counterparts, South African municipalities would be expected to enforce and prosecute for these regulations.
"Our rules went a lot more further than theirs (Germany's) did," Murphy warned.
"If you don't take the interests of South Africans seriously you end up litigating after the event, you end up litigating against your own ratepayers," he said.
"No one is going to be happy, particularly when the event was supposed to benefit South Africa."
In a statement, Bafana Bafana player Matthew Booth offered his support to the campaign.
"This is a time for footballers to fully understand and protect their rights. I may be heading towards the end of my career and it is plain that in many areas footballers have not benefited fully from the spectacle they create."
"Understanding and protecting image rights is probably the most important part of that."
Bowman Gilfillan attorney Matthew Murphy said regulations on marketing around the 2010 World Cup were restricting the ability of players to appear in advertisements.
"It's their rights, they can't just be taken away with a stroke of a pen," Murphy told a presentation to journalists, athletes and businesspeople in Johannesburg.
"There are many stakeholders in football and FIFA is just one of them. It's important to understand that. If we do just put up with it it'd be a return to the past."
Murphy said potential sponsors were intimidated by the soccer body's regulations which restricted the manner in which soccer players could be used in advertisements ahead of and during the tournament.
He cited as an example a Vodacom television advertisement which alluded to the 2010 World Cup, but featured only rugby players.
Murphy was speaking at the formation of the Image Rights Society, an association of small businesspeople and soccer players affected by FIFA's regulations.
Protecting players' rights
The society is waiting for a court case to be brought in South Africa against FIFA and these regulations, so that it can file an amicus curiae, friend-of-the-court, brief.
Murphy said "thousands" of FIFA-related cases remained on the rolls of German courts, four years after that country hosted the 2006 World Cup.
These included both civil and criminal cases around the use of exclusionary zones, areas where non-FIFA related marketing was forbidden, and ambush marketing - merchandise that infringed on FIFA trademarks.
Like their German counterparts, South African municipalities would be expected to enforce and prosecute for these regulations.
"Our rules went a lot more further than theirs (Germany's) did," Murphy warned.
"If you don't take the interests of South Africans seriously you end up litigating after the event, you end up litigating against your own ratepayers," he said.
"No one is going to be happy, particularly when the event was supposed to benefit South Africa."
In a statement, Bafana Bafana player Matthew Booth offered his support to the campaign.
"This is a time for footballers to fully understand and protect their rights. I may be heading towards the end of my career and it is plain that in many areas footballers have not benefited fully from the spectacle they create."
"Understanding and protecting image rights is probably the most important part of that."
