Sports law and policy in the European Union (European Policy Research Unit Series MUP)

Investigates the birth of EU sports law and policy by examining the impact of the Bosman ruling and other European Court of Justice decisions, the relationship between sport and EU competition law, the organization of sport, and the relationship between sport and the EU Treaty. Sports Law and Policy in the European Union is a deliberately provocative title. It is not widely accepted that a discrete body of sports law has emerged or is emerging within the European Union (EU) or within national jurisdictions. Furthermore, given that the EU has no legal competence to develop a sports policy, one might ask (as I was by an eminent ‘sport and the law’ lawyer), ‘what the bloody hell has the Common Market got to do with sport?’ Browsing through the list of EU activities contained in Article 3 of the EU’s Treaty, it is clear that sport has no place in the Treaty. Nevertheless, Article 3 does state that the EU is to establish an area where goods, persons, services and capital can freely circulate and where competition is not distorted. As an activity of undoubted commercial significance, sports bodies must therefore ensure that their activities do not contradict these Treaty provisions. As the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ’s) ruling in Bosman demonstrated, EU law can have a profound impact on sport. Although this brief explanation does not justify the label ‘EU sports law’, it does explain why there is a relationship between sport and EU law.