Court orders sports agency to pay footballer Stefan de Vrij €5 million for Inter deal
The Amsterdam Court of Appeals ordered the Sports Entertainment Group (SEG) to pay footballer Stefan de Vrij 5.2 million euros in damages. The agency and talent management firm failed to disclose the commission it would receive when mediating a transfer for De Vrij, and the appeals court considered it proven that the footballer’s income suffered as a result.
In 2018, SEG mediated De Vrij’s transfer from Lazio to Internazionale. The company failed to mention that Internazionale planned to pay the talent agency a hefty 9.55 million euros as a commission. Such a disclosure would have been obligatory considering SEG's position, if the company was indeed representing De Vrij in the deal.
SEG claimed that it was not representing De Vrij, but Internazionale in the transfer. It argued unsuccessfully that it did not have to make the disclosure to the footballer.
The appeals court ruled in De Vrij’s favor, saying that there was indeed a mediation agreement between SEG and De Vrij under Dutch law. SEG was thus obliged to inform De Vrij of its own financial interest in his transfer, and it failed to meet that obligation.
"The court considers it proven that De Vrij received a lower income as a result, and estimates the damage suffered at more than 5.2 million euros," the Court of Appeal ruled. This was nearly a half-million higher than the lower court ruling.
When the case was first tried, the court awarded him 4.75 million euros. The lower court reasoned that there was a 50-50 chance that De Vrij would have been on the receiving end of a better deal, had he been more fairly represented.
On appeal, the court determined that the 9.55 million euros paid to SEG should be viewed as a signing bonus in addition to De Vrij's gross base salary of 37.54 million euros over the five year contract. In that case, a fair 10-percent commission over the entire contract would have netted SEG just under 4.28 million euros, and not the entire amount of what it considered a signing bonus.
The court ordered SEG to pay De Vrij the difference, 5,223,636.36 euros in total, plus statutory interest dating back to April 6, 2022, and roughly 14,000 euros in court costs.
