This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. 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 significant court decisions, the possibility of exempting sport from EU law, sport and the EU treaty, and more.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this practical analysis of sports law in the European Union deals with the regulation of sports activity by both public authorities and private sports organizations. The growing internationalization of sports inevitably increases the weight of global regulation, yet each country maintains its own distinct regime of sports law and its own national and local sports organizations. Sports law at a national or organizational level thus gains a growing relevance in comparative law. The book describes and discusses both state-created rules and autonomous self-regulation regarding the variety of economic, social, commercial, cultural, and political aspects of sports activities. Self- regulation manifests itself in the form of by-laws, and encompasses organizational provisions, disciplinary rules, and rules of play. However, the trend towards more professionalism in sports and the growing economic, social and cultural relevance of sports have prompted an increasing reliance on legal rules adopted by public authorities. This form of regulation appears in a variety of legal areas, including criminal law, labour law, commercial law, tax law, competition law, and tort law, and may vary following a particular type or sector of sport. It is in this dual and overlapping context that such much-publicized aspects as doping, sponsoring and media, and responsibility for injuries are legally measured. This monograph fills a gap in the legal literature by giving academics, practitioners, sports organizations, and policy makers access to sports law at this specific level. Lawyers representing parties with interests in the European Union will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative sports law.

Katarina Pijetlovic is the first author to address the issue of breakaway leagues in football and their treatment under EU law. In this book she guides the reader through EU sports law, the specificities of the sporting industry and the problems and power struggles in European football governance in the context of the breakaway threats by elite clubs. In order to analyse the legality of UEFA clauses that restrict the formation of such breakaway structures, the author first provides a progressive interpretation of the applicable EU sports law and an in-depth analytical review of EU sports cases decided under internal market and competition provisions, including a novel perspective on the UEFA home-grown rule and the Bosman case. Thereafter, she sets out an original theory of convergence between TFEU provisions on competition and the internal market in the light of sporting exceptions. Finally, in applying the legal principles thus outlined Katarina Pijetlovic explores the legality of the restrictive UEFA clauses and the case for the formation of alternative leagues in European football under EU sports law. A number of surprising outcomes emerge from this analytical process. Conversely, she also tests the largely neglected issue of the legality of forming a breakaway league by the European elite football clubs. The systematic way in which the reader is guided through EU sports law and the legal issues under consideration makes the book accessible for EU lawyers as well as non-EU sports lawyers, on both an academic and a practitioner’s level. Katarina Pijetlovic holds licentiate and doctoral degrees in EU sports law from the University of Helsinki. The book appears in the ASSER International Sports Law Series, under the editorship of Dr. David McArdle, Prof. Ben Van Rompuy and Marco van der Harst LL.M.

The Sporting Exception in European Union Law is the definitive account of EU sports law. It provides a modern legal framework based on an analysis of major European Court of Justice judgments including Walrave (1974), Don... (1976), Bosman (1995), Deliège (2000), Lehtonen (2000), Kolpak (2003), Piau (2005) and Meca-Medina (2006). It also provides advanced commentary on the major sports-related competition decisions of the European Commission. Broadcasting issues, rules affecting player mobility and issues of sports governance are analysed, as are current issues in EU sports law including the Oulmers case, home-grown players, players' agents, the Services Directive, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the 2006 Independent European Sports Review, the 2007 Commission White Paper on Sport, the Reform Treaty and prospects for social dialogue. The work is a resource for academics, lawyers and sports administrators and students of sports law and EU law programmes.

This new collection of essays presents nine well-informed and insightful analyses of the 'specificity' debate from several distinct points of view. The book reprints the papers presented by outstanding academics as well as representatives of the sport world at a conference on the 'Future of Sport in the European Union' held at the Catholic University of Brussels in December 2007.

This book demonstrates that the European Union (EU) can curtail the autonomy of FIFA and UEFA by building upon insights from the principal-agent model. The author argues that EU institutional features complicate control, but do not render the EU powerless, and that FIFA and UEFA can deploy a variety of strategies to mitigate control.

Principles and Practice in EU Sports Law provides an overview of EU sports law. In particular it assesses sporting bodies' claims for legal autonomy from the 'ordinary law' of states and international organizations. Sporting bodies insist on using their expertise to create a set of globally applicable rules which should not be deviated from irrespective of the territory on which they are applied. The application of the lex sportiva, which refers to the conventions that define a sport's operation, is analysed, as well as how this is used in claims for sporting autonomy. The lex sportiva may generate conflicts with a state or international institution such as the European Union, and the motives behind sporting bodies' claims in favour of the lex sportiva's autonomy may be motivated by concern to uphold its integrity or to preserve commercial gain. Stephen Weatherill's text underlines the tense relationship between lex sportiva and national and regional jurisdictions which is exemplified with specific focus on the EU. The development of EU sports law and its controversies are detailed, reinforced by the example of relevant legal principles in the context of the practice of sports law. The intellectual heart of the text endeavours to make a normative assessment of the strength of claims in favour of sporting autonomy, and the variation between different jurisdictions and sports is evident. Furthermore the enduring dilemma facing sports lawyers running throughout the text is whether sport should be regarded as special, and in turn how (far) its special character should be granted legal recognition.