The difficulties of enforcing gagging clauses in player contracts

The storms following the recent autobiographical releases from Roy Keane and Kevin Pietersen¹, which each contain arguably inflammatory comments by the individuals about their ex-employers, were perhaps a little predictable, but nonetheless provide interesting examples on the operation of sports stars’ termination agreements, in particular how confidentiality (gagging) clauses interact with both penalty clauses and competition law in the sphere of employment relationships.