Next month, the law on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace will be changing. With sexual harassment remaining a prevalent issue across all industries, including within sport in general and football in particular, the new Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 (the “Act”), which comes into force on 26 October 2024, introduces a new duty on employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees in the course of their employment – whether perpetrated by colleagues, or by any third party (e.g. suppliers or customers). Although taking reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment is already good practice (and, from a legal perspective, is important for a host of other, existing legal duties for employers), the Act will impose a higher bar for employers to act proactively to reduce the risks of sexual harassment occurring, with the potential for significant compensation if they fail in this duty.

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The summer transfer window of 2024 saw a record breaking level of activity with FIFA reporting that over 12,000 international transfers occurred across the men’s and women’s professional game. The value of these transfers reached over $6.45 billion on transfer fees in men’s football, the second highest figure ever recorded, whilst women’s football’s record outlay of $6.8 million worth of transfer fees worldwide was over double the value of the 2023 summer transfer window.

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