Football and fiduciaries
What if a footballer’s agent, in negotiating for his client, makes a secret deal with the club for himself on the side?
This is how Jacob LJ opened Imageview Management Ltd v Jack [2009] EWCA Civ 63 (18 December 2008). It concerns the bung, which is almost as endemic in football as referees, the offside trap, and angry managers. Bungs are secret payments that are sometimes part of football transfers; taking one is against the rules of football; the question in Imageview Management Ltd v Jack is whether the agent breached his duties to his client as well. The duties in question are fiduciary duties, weighty duties of loyalty owed by trustees, directors, agents, and so on.
In Boston Deep Sea Fishing v Ansell (1888) 39 Ch. D. 339, a company director secretly received commission from shipbuilders with whom an order had been placed on the company’s behalf. The Court of Appeal found him in breach of fiduciary duty. More recently, in Imageview Management Ltd v Jack [2009] EWCA Civ 63, the Court of Appeal reiterated the strictness of the fiduciary duties to which agents are subject in a case concerning a football agent. The agent was liable for a payment he received from a football club.…