Sports and Entertainment
Sports and Entertainment
Jake Cohen
September 2025
Player contracts and transfers: a sports lawyer’s perspective
Speaking with The Times, Senior Associate Jake Cohen shares his expert insights on the complex and often surprising clauses negotiated in professional football players’ contracts.
Jake’s interview was published in The Times, 29 August 2025, and can be found here.
Speaking with The Times’ Football Reporter, Gary Jacob, Jake explains the features of a standard player’s contract – including wages, bonuses, contract length and options, wage-reduction clauses for relegation, signing-on fees and loyalty payments, agent payments, release clauses, buy-back options and image rights provisions.
Jake goes on to discuss bonuses offered in contract, with a notable example being goal bonuses multiplied by three if a player scores against the club’s main rivals. He also notes how many players want achievable bonuses rather than big payments linked to winning domestic or international silverware.
Asked about the most bizarre clauses he has seen in contracts, Jake observes that he had recently seen a bonus clause based on a player being awarded a rating of seven or higher in a match on a third-party statistics website – a highly unusual consideration.
Jake also explains the mechanisms involved in release clauses, more favoured by European clubs, and how this can impact transfers.
For Jake, transfer windows – and especially deadline day – can be extremely high-pressured situations. Last summer alone, Jake led work on 12 of 15 deals in a single day, including racing across the country to finalise a contract.
“Every minute is important,” he says – and when millions are on the line, expert advice is everything.
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