When Geopolitics Disrupts Sport: The Case for a Dedicated Contractual Clause

Geopolitics has repeatedly reached sport in recent years. Wimbledon barred Russian and Belarusian players in 2022, the Football Union of Russia challenged UEFA’s suspension of Russian teams before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS 2022/A/8709), Vivo stepped away from IPL title sponsorship, and PUBG Mobile was among the apps blocked in India during the India-China standoff. After the terror attack in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025, the Government of India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty and barred Pakistani nationals from travelling under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme. Indian crew working on the Pakistan Super League stopped providing services, FanCode removed PSL content, and questions arose over the Hockey Asia Cup in Bihar and the Women’s Cricket World Cup in India later that year. In this paper, Aahna Mehrotra, founder of AM Sports Law & Management Co., asks whether sports and gaming contracts are equipped for events like these.

What force majeure covers

Force majeure clauses excuse a party that cannot perform because of events beyond its reasonable control, typically war, terrorism, epidemics, natural disasters and government action. In India, Section 32 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 governs contingent contracts, and the Supreme Court held in Energy Watchdog v. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission ((2017) 14 SCC 80) that where a contract provides for discharge in certain circumstances, the matter is dealt with under Section 32. The affected party must establish the event, show that it prevented performance and draw a direct causal link, and the contract will usually set out notice requirements, a period of suspension and a long-stop date for termination.

Frustration

Outside the contract, Section 56 discharges a contract that becomes impossible or unlawful to perform. The bar is high: the event must change circumstances so fundamentally that performance becomes impossible, and the party must not have caused it. The doctrine was argued in the Brexit context in Canary Wharf v. European Medicines Agency, and it may extend to events such as grounded flights, sealed borders or refused visas.

The gap: unwillingness to perform

Neither doctrine protects a party that can perform but is no longer willing to, whether because of a sudden rise in hostility between nations, which leaves little room for negotiated settlement, or a commercial shock such as a change in tariffs. When CAS upheld UEFA’s suspension of Russian teams, it treated the decision as reasonable, proportionate and within UEFA’s discretion to pursue its statutory objectives. Commercial counterparties do not have that institutional discretion, so the power has to come from the contract itself. In an industry that can disqualify an athlete for being 100 grams overweight, a dedicated clause is a reasonable expectation.

A proposed geo-political clause

Drawing on the reputational clauses found in sponsorship and endorsement agreements, the paper proposes a clause in four parts:

1. Definition. A Geo-Political Event covers armed conflict and hostilities; sanctions, embargoes and investment restrictions; deterioration or severance of diplomatic or economic ties between the parties’ countries; regime change or martial law; terrorism, sabotage or cyber warfare with political implications; legislative, judicial or executive action restricting dealings with persons of a particular nationality; and any circumstance where continued performance would be inconsistent with law or governmental guidance, with internal compliance standards, or with the public positions of a party’s government, such that it may be seen as insensitive to national interest or public sentiment.
2. Suspension. A party may suspend performance on written notice where the event hinders performance or creates reputational, regulatory or policy misalignment, for as long as the basis for suspension continues.
3. Termination. Either party may terminate if the event and its impact continue for 30 consecutive days.
4. No liability. Neither suspension nor termination gives rise to liability, other than for obligations already accrued.

Tailoring and urgency

Every transaction will need its own adjustments, such as a fee reduction where a sponsor loses access to a major fan base, as a global PUBG sponsor would have when the game was blocked in India. Clear language matters because these situations move quickly, which is why CAS runs an ad hoc division at the Olympic Games that ordinarily decides within 24 hours. As sport and gaming become more entangled with global politics, contracts that address geopolitical disruption directly will give parties certainty, fairness and speed when they need them most.