Sports law

The significance of sports is much more than being a pastime and recreational activity. They have been transformed into an organized activity coupled with enormous professionalism and affecting almost every area of public life, may it be social, political or economic. Although the pace of this transformation was slow during the 19th and most part of the 20th century, it has boosted enormously in the past few decades owing to globalization of technology and commerce and due to increased commercialization of sports, currently the economic dimension of sports has assumed utmost significant Statistically, organized sports are a multibillion-dollar industry with a global worth ranging between 350 billion and 450 billi ($480-$620 billion).5 A 2006 report estimated that macroen nomic impact of sports in the European Union (EU) accounted from 3.7 percent of EU GDP, providing employment to 5.4 per cent of the entire labour force. Such all-round significance of sports in public life necessitates law to play a major role in order to regulate it in a better manner.

Another reason why the role of law becomes excessively important is that regulation of sports has largely been internal, that is, done through newly emerging sports governing bodies, at both international and national levels. These bodies, which generally possess institutional and legal structures and interests of private associations, not only enjoy a great level of autonomy with respect to deciding the rules of the particular sports they govern but are also engaged in licensing of playing facilities, employment relationships, commercial transactions, regulation of corruption and cheating, and many more important functions. Several of these functions are those that are generally performed by the State or its agents, and are crucial from the view of the fundamental rights (FRs) of the individuals.

How has it been?

Sport, as per sociologists; was initially an act in leisure, indulged in to relax, and is informal. Play does not entail formal rules or codes of Read More