Football star has two transfers reportedly fall through due to image rights issue

Paulo Dybala’s image rights, and related IP, are owned by a third party

Move is not the first football transfer scuppered due to IP in recent months

The issue of personal image rights, and related intellectual property, has reportedly become a stumbling block for at least two transfer negotiations involving football star Paulo Dybala. The fallout showcases how intellectual property rights are becoming a more significant issue in the sporting world, and could become an increasingly common roadblock to transfers in the future.

Paulo Dybala currently plays for Italian football club Juventus (at time of writing, at least), but in recent weeks has been involved in negotiations to join English Premier League clubs Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. The former broke down last week, reportedly due to the player’s agent requesting a £13.7 million payment for the purchase of the player’s image rights from a third-party company. According to The Sun, the club’s officials were “disgusted” that the demand came midway through negotiations.

Today is ‘transfer deadline day’ in the UK, with clubs racing to sign players before the season begins tomorrow. It has seen London club Tottenham move to try and sign Dybala before today’s 5pm deadline, with reports claiming a similar failure to agree a deal due to the player’s image rights. According to The Independent, the club agreed personal terms with the player and a transfer fee with Juventus, but “the potential move was called off after a long meeting” over the issue of image rights. According to Independent chief football writer Miguel Delaney, image rights are more complicated than most other transfer-related terms: “[The] issue with image rights isn't just paying them, it's that they don't really legally exist in [the Premier League], so it has to be negotiated how that might affect current/future brand agreements.”

So why are image rights such a huge stumbling block? With Dybala, reports suggest that he sold his personal IP rights to his former agent earlier in his career. Those rights are now held by a company based in Malta, Star Image Limited, which also owns at least 15 trademarks related to Dybala, including international trademarks for PAULO DYBALA and a DYBALA logo. These rights, then, are out of the hands of Paulo Dybala himself. In today’s big money football industry, part of the return on investment in a player is the ability to use their image and sell merchandise. The IP rights, then, are all-important.

This is not the only recent football transfer that has broken down due to image rights issues. According to the Metro, fellow London club Arsenal had a transfer for Brazilian player Everton halted for similar reasons: “Gremio [the player’s current club] value Everton at around €40 million and, given they owned the 23-year-old’s image rights, ultimately he could have ended up costing double that amount.”

IP is clearly an important asset for players, one that can add value to a contract and also enable them to engage in their own monetisation activities, potentially long after their playing career is over. As we report on an annual basis, some of the world’s leading players have many registered trademarks for assets including logos and nicknames. As the table below shows, which is taken from our latest report on football IP, players such as Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr have significant trademark portfolios, reflecting the value they have outside of the football pitch.