Insurance premiums set to rise after club and player admit liability
A decision to award a former trainee footballer, whose career was ended by a negligent tackle, £4.3m will have wide ranging ramifications for all levels of the game, experts say.
Manchester United trainee Ben Collett suffered a double fracture of the lower leg following a tackle by Middlesbrough’s Gary Smith in a reserve match in May 2003. In court both Middlesbrough and Smith admitted that the tackle was “negligent” leaving Mrs Justice Swift to assess the level of compensation that Collett should receive from Middlesbrough’s insurers.
Richard Hartley QC of Cobden House Chambers in Manchester says the ramifications of the judgment will be felt across all levels of football: “Clubs at both amateur and professional standing will need to examine carefully their third party insurance liability cover as cases like this will inevitably become more commonplace.”
Hartley continues: “Individual professionals, even many Premier League stars, have cover which is inadequate, particularly in light of the judgment. In practical terms we deal with an awful lot of these cases where amateur players lose their earnings because of events that happen on a Sunday morning, but why should they put up with it?”
Greg Rollingson, senior partner at Rollingsons Solicitors, says that proving liability is key to any similar claim.
“To succeed in an action for damages, an injured professional footballer would need to show that, on the balance of probabilities, that his opponent would have known that there was a significant risk that if he tackled in the way he did, the other player would be seriously injured,” he says.
Rollingson continues, “Essentially he would have to show that his opponent had been guilty of dangerous and reckless play to establish liability. Football clubs may now find that their insurance premiums increase in light of this judgment”.
