Suchergebnisse

Article 17 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players governs the consequences of a unilateral termination of a professional footballer's employment contract without just cause. The interpretation of this measure by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the manner through which the FIFA Disciplinary Code enforces such awards, raises questions as to the compatibility of the regime with EU competition and free movement laws. To avoid rendering unenforceable awards in the territory of the EU, CAS panels should apply EU law more systematically and consistently.

The editors of this book are based at the German Sport University in Cologne, whilst the contributors are drawn from sports federations, academic institutions and government departments from across Europe. The 'two players' are obviously the EU and sport. The 'one goal', as stated on page 8 is 'to preserve the diversity of sports in Europe'. The insertion of a question mark after the title rightly indicates caution. An obvious irony with the goal of preserving the diversity of European sport is that it appears to require the intervention of sporting federations and the EU both of whom exercise monopolistic and supranational control over their members. Whilst this model may protect the conception of diversity often described as a 'European model of sport', it may well stifle another. What of a model which allows for a diversification of organisation through the emergence of new market entrants, a diversification of talent through the genuine free movement of labour and a diversification of viewing choice for fans through the adoption of less restrictive broadcasting contracts? This is the alternative vision that commercial interests have asked the EU to promote. In this connection, this text makes two assumptions that may well undermine the diversity claim. First, that a 'diversified' European model of sport actually exists and second, that the EU is a monolithic entity committed and able to preserve it. At best, what both parties are actually seeking is a clarification of the legal environment in which sport operates. The level of clarification (sporting autonomy) will always be subject to debate, but the goal allows sport to remodel their constitutions with greater legal certainty and it frees the EU from having to make time consuming and politically contentious judgements about issues of which it knows little.

The commercialisation of sport in Europe raises important questions concerning the most appropriate method of regulating sporting activity. The development of the European Union and the internationalisation of sporting competition has added an international dimension to this debate. Yet sport is not simply a business to be regulated in the same way as any other industry. It is also a social and cultural activity. Can regulation at EU level reconcile this tension? Adopting a distinctive legal and political analysis, this book argues that the EU is receptive to the sports sectors claims for special treatment before the law. The book investigates the birth of EU sports law and policy by examining: the Bosman ruling and other significant European Court of Justice decisions; the relationship between sport and EU competition law; the possibility of sport being exempt from EU law; the relationship between sport and the EU Treaty; the development of a EU sports policy. This book is essential for those interested in the major issues facing sport and its relationship with the EU. It is essential for those interested in sports law, the politics of sport and EU integration. It offers important insights into these debates and raises key questions concerning the appropriate theoretical tools for analysing European integration.

Employing a methodology drawn from policy studies, this article claims that the EU has devised a distinct legal approach to applying the law to sporting situations in order to reconcile differences within the EU sports policy sub- system. Whilst some actors see sport primarily in economic terms, others wish to see the socio-cultural characteristics of sport protected from EU law. In the absence of a legally rooted common sports policy, the EU has used law to construct the separate territories of sporting autonomy and judicial intervention. Whilst the findings of this research are limited to the EU experience, this article nevertheless empirically and theoretically strengthens the emerging sports law thesis within legal studies.