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Sport is a consistent backdrop to our lives. The sheer popularity of sport means there’s an awful lot
of potential issues that can arise. Sports law is very wide-ranging and constantly crosses over into
other areas of law generally summarized as follows:

1. Sport Legislation
2. Sports Contracts
3. Corporate Governance in Sport
4. Employment Law Issues in Sport
5. Disciplinary Proceedings
6. Liability for injuries
7. Risk Management in Sport
8. The Impact of the Constitution on Sport
9. Commercial Rights
10. Drugs and Doping in Sport
11. Dispute resolution and the Court for Arbitration for Sport

Governing bodies are keen to ensure and maintain the integrity of their sport and to ensure
compliance, a strong presence of good governance and a forum to uphold the rules of the game Legal Profile
when they come into disrepute, is essential.

As sports law is very wide-ranging and constantly crosses over into other areas of law, a legal
presence is absolutely vital in to assist in refining rules and procedure to alleviate compliance to
rules and regulations in sport. We tend to forget that athletes, managers and backroom staff are
still subject to the same rules and laws as everyone else.

On a very basic level, sports law tends to be divided into two key areas – regulatory issues and
commercial and financial disputes.

Regulatory issues are focused on the rules of the sport and the breaches that can occur. A good
example of this is when an athlete has tested positive for a banned substance or a club appealing a
red card decision.

The other side of sports law is much more to do with the commercial nature of sport. Athlete and
player contracts are a typical example but sports law is heavily involved in stadium development
and management, financial administration issues, sponsorship deals and broadcasting rights.

Aside from the regulatory aspects, contracts make up a considerable portion of sports law,
inclusive of disputes over contracts and, predominantly in the case of football and rugby,
employment issues.

While in some cases it can be player contracts (for the most part these tend to have a pretty
standard set of terms), it mainly revolves around contracts for stadiums, broadcasting rights and
sponsorship deals. For certain sports, broadcasting rights are of huge importance as the vast
amount of income comes from television.

There are elements that don’t fit neatly into either category. Negligence in high contact sports is an
area that has become more prominent in recent times and problems with spectators in regard to
racial chanting has blurred the lines between regulatory issues and criminal law.

The emergence of social media platforms as a tool for athletes to interact in the public sphere
means sports lawyers today need to be aware of the possible consequences of publication on
these platforms.

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