Sports lawyer Afif Mshangama’s role in rapidly changing world of sports and the 2022 FIFA World Cup

The world of sports is shifting as athletes, sports federations, event organizers, broadcasters, and sponsors are constantly seeking to balance commercial interests and sports in a complex international legal environment. 

Stadiums are transforming to offer interactive experiences, media rights are shifting, and new markets are opening. But most significantly, players are seeking a more robust form of representation that favors legal qualification and expertise over, exclusively, player management. This form of representation is called a ‘sports lawyer’. 

Today, sports lawyers offer a more versatile type of representation than sports agents. Sports lawyers can tackle issues such as representing professional leagues and/or player unions in collective bargaining agreements, negotiating player contracts with agents, ensuring teams stay within the salary cap, negotiating licensing deals and protecting intellectual property related to sports leagues, teams, companies, and/or sponsors, to name a few.

Though many lawyers are also considered sports agents, a “sports lawyer” and a “sports agent” offer very different roles with different responsibilities. 

In France, a sports lawyer is expressly authorized to be the agent of a player, a coach or a sports club, to represent him and to negotiate on his behalf a contract either relating to the remuneration of a sports or training activity, or which provides for the conclusion of an employment contract for the purpose of the remuneration of a sports or training activity. This specifically means that in France “lawyers are exempt from having a sports agent license.” 

Over the past decades there have been several exceptional sports agents and lawyers that started from humble beginnings and contributed to reforming the industry. Jorge Mendes for example, a titan of football representation founded his agency, Gestifute, in 1996. Today, he represents some of the best players in the sport, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Ederson, Bernardo Silva, and Fabinho. Mendes, although not a lawyer, was very successful in building a powerhouse portfolio of players. 

Others have managed to combine law and sports management to effectively contribute towards the progression of sports law in their country. In 2011, Afif Mshangama founded his sports firm in Paris, France during a period of time where “the industry was rapidly growing but lacked professional legal representation”. 

During this period, a majority of players were represented by agents who were certified but lacked the legal expertise to promote and negotiate for them the best deals. However, sports agents are still in demand today, specifically in circumstances where the player needs an agent to guide them in the sport, for example, in how to play a certain position.

Once a player becomes established in their career, the need for agent representation lessens and hiring a sports lawyer offers many more advantages. Some of these advantages include the ability of the lawyer to promote the player, structure complex deals, and to offer legal advice.

Afif Mshangama was one of the first lawyers in France to understand that representing athletes as a qualified lawyer while partnering with agents to close deals was a winning solution. He was involved in several major deals in football. 

In 2015, Afif Mshangama played a key role in the transfer of Anthony Martial to Manchester United from AS Monaco. Manchester United confirmed the deal on deadline-day and set United back €60 million plus €20 million in bonuses, according to Get French Football. Sky Sports reported the Red Devils initially paid at least €40 million for his services.

Mshangama was also involved in the transfer of midfielder Matteo Guendouzi to Arsenal from French Ligue 2 side Lorient FC. The fee for the then 19-year-old was in the region of €10 million. He was also involved in the transfer of Dante from Vfl Wolfsburg to OCG Nice and has been the lawyer of the agent of player Kevin De Bryune.

Players with well established careers such as Mario Lemina, Yaya Toure and Josuha Guilavogu that no longer required conventional player agent services all came to Mshangama for his legal counsel. However, he also acted as an agent for them.

Many players that participated in the 2022 Qatar World Cup have also been represented by Mshangama including Moroccan International Sofiane Boutal who also plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for Ligue 1 club side Angers FC. 

Sofiane Boufal also made headlines in the tournament when he was seen dancing on the pitch with his mother after his team's famous victory over Portugal. 

Besides Argentina winning the tournament and Lionel Messi fulfilling a storybook legacy, Morocco's journey to the 2022 World Cup semi-finals has been one of the biggest stories of the tournament, making history by defeating Belgium, Spain and Portugal on their way to the semis. They are the first African nation to date to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.

As developments in the the sports industry gave rise to new legal and regulatory challenges, Mshangama provided services and perspectives that kept pace with these changes. He cleverly fused law and sports management, and with this skill set, could represent a player at any stage of their career.

Mshangama has served as outside counsel for both domestic and international sports federations such as UFOLEP including teams and individual athletes across a number of sports such as Football, Handball and Rugby.

His company garnered a reputation of being involved in high profile deals involving the sport's biggest names. It gained the credibility of one of the best sport law teams in France and, fiscally, structured several deals in a way where revenues could be forecasted. 

After many years in the industry, what was next for the sports law mogul? Mshangama, who could easily be labeled as a man who lives ‘A life without borders’, now has a lesser role in sports, to take on new challenges in life. 

In 2020, Mshangama moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to advise institutions, corporations and industry leaders throughout the world. He has formed Nextcap which advises French citizens on tax advisory and incorporating businesses in the UAE. 

For some, Mshangama has contributed to the development of French sports by being a pioneer and utilizing law in sports management. He has successfully built a company representing the biggest names in sports and reformed the methods of how players and unions could be represented, and created the foundations of sports law in France. 

In retrospect, due to the efforts of sports lawyers such as Afif Mshangama, the next generation of players are better equipped to succeed as professionals.