About

As head of legal of German Soccer League DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) Jürgen Paepke is rated as ‘certainly one of the key figures in German sports law’, but is also highly regarded internationally. He recently successfully negotiated and sold a package of DFL’s international screening rights for Premier League games to Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox which purchased rights for 80 countries starting with the 2015/16 season. Not only is Paepke a ‘distinguished sports law expert’, including topics such as TV rights, sponsoring, compliance and employment law, but he also has ‘numerous reliable national and international contacts inside and outside the sports domain’ and ‘longstanding experience with the negotiation of high-volume sports contracts’. The market’s view is that he has stamped his mark on the sports law industry by drafting concepts and developing regulations, among others regarding the areas of stadium security and ticketing. Among his particular achievements are the drafting of standard texts which have in large parts served as blue print for countless international football leagues. Paepke has ‘significantly influenced the development of international sports law’, say peers.