February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Back in the summer of 1995, the arrival of a pair of new stars to Highbury prompted the first use of the term “image rights” in English football contracts. This is the phrase with the potential to become the source of more trouble for Croke Park and for county boards than any two-worded combination since Rule 27 prohibited members of the association from watching or playing foreign games.
Although it took nearly 70 years to get it off the books, at least The Ban was eventually sorted out by the use of a modicum of common sense. The image rights farrago is far less simple to resolve. Any legal conundrum that has already embroiled LeBron James, Ian Botham, Eddie Irvine and Keith Wood in disputes is not going to be easily disposed of. Earlier this month, Brian Lara’s participation in a triangular cricket tournament in Australia was under serious doubt for a long time because of Denis O’Brien, the Dublin communications’ mogul.
O’Brien’s company Digicel had paid