INTRODUCTION Contributed by: Jamie Singer and Flora Peel, Onside Law
Onside Law 642A Kings Road London SW6 2DU UK
Tel: +44 20 7384 6920 Fax: +44 20 3627 4555 Email: Jamie.singer@onsidelaw.co.uk Web: www.onsidelaw.co.uk
The Growth of Sports Law Not so long ago, judges and academics scoffed at the suggestion that there was such a thing as “sports law”. There may have been a burgeoning sports industry, but it did not generate its own substantive body of law. Perhaps the idea that something as frivolous as sport could generate its own jurisprudence did not seem possible or even appropriate to a rather conservative judici - ary. With those commentators now clearly part of ancient history, Chambers publishes its fifth Sports Law Global Practice Guide. Sports law is now not only an internationally recognised legal discipline in its own right, but has also generated a significant body of legal precedent. In particu - lar, it provides a crucial framework for the opera - tion and regulation of an industry that has grown at an astonishing pace. Dispute Resolution As sport as a business has developed, the con - tracts underpinning its commercialisation have become ever more sophisticated and the rules which governing bodies impose to control and regulate their sports have had to continually adapt. With higher value contracts and more detailed regulation, as with any industry, dis -
putes have become both more common and more complex. The first specialist court to hear sports-related disputes was created in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1983. Since then, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has heard nearly 10,700 cases and expanded with further outposts in the USA and Australia. It has also created ad hoc divisions to provide quick resolution to “on-field” disputes at many of the world’s most significant sport - ing events. This demand for specialist dispute resolution for sport has in turn led to the creation of national bodies which exclusively serve the sports community, ranging from Sport Resolu - tion in the UK to the National Sports Tribunal in Australia. With the extraordinary growth in the financial val - ue of football and, in particular, football transfer deals, not only has FIFA ( Fédération Internation- ale de Football Association ) created its own dis - pute resolution chamber, but this has spawned domestic equivalents with many national football dispute resolution chambers. Some standard transfer agreements now even refer to the “laws of FIFA”. All of these tribunals and courts have contrib - uted to a rich source of jurisprudence whose
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