Navigating the use of image rights for Polish National Football Team Players

Image rights of footballers called up to the national team have been the point of many disputes in recent years, with high-profile examples including Mohamed Salah’s conflict with the Egyptian FA^[1], Kylian Mbappé’s strike^[2] or the dispute over Alphonso Davies’ image and name rights in the run-up to the World Cup in Qatar^[3]. The root cause of these disputes is essentially financial, particularly the distribution of income generated by the commercial use of players’ images by the national football associations.

Such disputes have also arisen in Poland, including one that almost caused Robert Lewandowski to quit the national team^[4]. The Polish case is particularly interesting as the root of all these disputes is a provision in the Polish Sports Act^[5] which grants the sports association, including the Polish Football Association (“FA”), a legal monopoly on the exploitation of the image of the players called-up to play for the national. Associations are entitled to set out the scope of image exploitation in their internal regulations and do not have to obtain prior consent or pay the player in return. Such an approach is unique and differs significantly from the way the issue is dealt with in other jurisdictions^[6] and is therefore worth analysing.

This article provides an overview of the approach taking in Poland to the exploitation of national players image rights whilst wearing the national team kit. It serves as an interesting example of the variety of ways this issue is dealt with in national law and through contracts.

The article discusses:

• Consent & overlap in image obligations of footballers
• Image rights & Polish law
• Deviation from legal requirement for consent
• Practical application: The case of Maciej Żurawski
• Image rights landscape in Poland post the Zurawski judgement
• The Polish Football Association’s Internal Regulations
• Key takeaways for building players’ personal brand strategy