Ben is Head of Legal – Regulatory at the Premier League, having joined in 2022.
Ben has been immersed in sport from the start of his career. He trained at Charles Russell Speechlys, where he spent time on secondment with The FA and Manchester United Merchandising. In 2017 Ben was part of the team that founded Northridge Law, which has established itself as the UK’s top ranked sports law firm. In 2020 Ben was promoted to partner at Northridge.
During his time in private practice some of Ben’s work highlights included: acting for Chelsea FC in proceedings before UEFA, FIFA and CAS; acting for AC Milan before CAS; representing The FA in the Hillsborough Inquests; successfully defending the WRU in the High Court; and successfully prosecuting PRL’s salary cap charges against Saracens. He also drafted the Rules and Regulations which govern a number of the UK’s major sports, to include the Rules of Racing for the British Horseracing Authority, the RFU’s Disciplinary Regulations, The FA’s Disciplinary Regulations and Player Status Rules, and PRL’s Salary Cap Regulations.
Since joining the Premier League, Ben has been involved in a number of significant and complex disciplinary proceedings (to include recent cases concerning the League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules) and arbitral challenges brought against the League in respect of a wide variety of issues. This is in addition to amending the League’s Rule book, to include extensive developments to the League’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test (which represented the first full-scale review of those Rules since their inception in 2005/06) and work in developing a new financial regulatory model to replace the current Profitability and Sustainability Rules.
Ben is also involved in matters relating to international stakeholders such as FIFA and UEFA; he sits on the World Leagues’ Association legal working group and on the FIFA Agents Working Group as the nominated representative of leagues worldwide.
Having studied Law at the University of Birmingham, Ben returned to London to start his legal career and now lives in South-west London with his wife and two children.
