Daniel Muñoz

MUÑOZ & ARIAS Sports Lawyers

Valencia www.munozariassportslawyers.com

daniel@munozarias.com Tel: +34 963 161 284

Biography

Daniel Muñoz Sirera is a founding partner at Muñoz & Arias Sports Lawyers, a Spanish law firm specialised in sports with particular focus on the football industry. Daniel Muñoz provides legal advice and assistance on a wide variety of matters to professional sports entities, clubs, associations, federations, agents and high-profile football players from Europe, Middle East (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar), South America and China.

What inspired you to pursue a legal career specialising in football industry?

The principal factor that led me to take the decision to pursue a career in the football industry, at an initial stage, is the fact that I was a player since a young age. Considering that I couldn’t follow a career in football as a professional player, the redefinition of my path occurred in line with my interests outside of the field of play, the law. Thereby, I did not consider any other path than the sports law industry, given that my natural interests in football dictated so.

What challenges did you face when setting up your own firm?

As in any business, the establishment of a firm demands a lot of work and sacrifice. It requires constant attention to the details and obviously building trust and confidence with your clients is pivotal. I believe that with hard work and patience one does notice considerable progress.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own firm?

Firstly, the person must carefully analyse the place where the person intends to establish the firm, due to the fact that the idiosyncrasies and circumstances of the football industry are different from country to country. Secondly, it is important to also determine a business plan, wherein it is important a target audience and market is defined. These are the most important factors to take into consideration. Lastly, being a master of this field is essential as well, one must have good experience and the willingness to develop their skills and gain knowledge at every step. By providing a good legal service to a client, your network also grows profoundly. There is a great deal of discussion around salary caps in professional football. Are these possible and desirable to implement? What issues surround implementation?

Salary caps in football are a matter of a long debate in and out of the industry, especially considering the public perception concerning the income received by players. However, the industry itself is capable of generating relevant income streams through the players.

How best can athletes use sporting events and their public profiles to champion their causes as activists without breaching rules? Do these rules need reform in sporting organisations?

Nowadays, with the emergence of social media and in accordance with their right to exercise their freedom of expression, athletes are able to use their platforms to champion causes as they deem appropriate.

How has lecturing in international sports law at different institutions embellished your practice?

It helps me to interact with the upcoming lawyers in this industry. Through these lectures, I met some brilliant lawyers like Alejandro Campos, Siddharth Gosain, and Rodrigo Batista, who are now working with me in the firm’s international sports law department.

Looking back over your career, what has been your proudest achievement?

As of now, I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been able to establish the firm at a national and international level. I am elated by the fact that we have been able to diligently represent clients before various adjudicatory bodies in different jurisdictions. We are now in a position where we render the best legal service to our clients.

WWL says: Daniel Muñoz is an “expert in sports” law who works on transfers and litigation procedures and is “always a pleasure to work with”.