Sports Stars Should Plan For The Worst To Deal With Career-Ending Injuries, Says RBC Wealth Management

Robbie Lawther

22 August 2017

Being a professional sports person can be very lucrative but also very unpredictable with a high risk of a career-threatening injury. It is therefore crucial to tackle finances early on.

On average, according to the Daily Mail (15 November, 2014), a Premier League footballer earns £2.3 million ($2.96 million) a year each, excluding sponsorship deals and endorsements. This could mean an eight-year stint, which is the average length of a football career according to the Guardian (20 March, 2010), at the top level could earn him just over £18 million. However a career-ending injury will severely cut this potential income and players have to use their early wealth wisely to not be affected by this situation.

WealthBriefing interviewed Jason Turner, director at , based in London, about settlements for a sports star after a career-threatening injury and who would help, assist and advice the player after such a traumatic event.

“There will be three sources of help after a career-threatening injury,” said Mehrzad. “One is the employer or club; they are under a duty of care to assist a player with policies and processes that are in place, which is established by case law. Secondly there is the player’s union, albeit the PFA or RPA - they are there to support players so if an injury takes place which is sufficiently serious, a policy may apply and the PFA or RPA will assist the player in terms of making a claim of those insurance policies.”

Mehrzad, who is currently director of the British Association of Sport and Law, added: “Lastly, most professional football players and many rugby players have intermediaries or agents who are there to effectively look after their interest. Agents should also provide, in many cases, services of making or pursuing a claim on the client’s behalf of various insurance policies. And it may well be that under the terms of the representation contract, the agent or intermediary may be entitled to their own percentage of any lump sum payment by way of a pay-out for future loss of wages.”

He also explained the types of insurance that are entitled to a sports personality and who would be responsible in setting those up for the player. “There are several insurance types that would affect sports professionals. Sports stars would be entitled to the first, which is employers’ liability insurance. And what that means is if their employees suffer injury during the course of their work, which is what would happen if they were injured on the pitch, that compulsory insurance would pay out. This is in terms of losses sustained by the club potentially also losses sustained by the player. Then in addition to that there are players’ unions. In football, there’s the Professional Footballers’ Association and in Rugby, there is the Rugby Players’ Association. They have their own insurance policies that would pay out an amount depending on the seriousness of an injury. Those injuries would have to be career-threatening injuries," he said.