On 18 February, the English Football League (“EFL”) handed Leeds United a sizeable fine of £200,000 as well as issuing a formal reprimand and warning for sending staff to ‘spy’ on opposition training before matches. This was an initiative instigated by the Head Coach, Marcelo Bielsa. The decision followed Bielsa’s comprehensive PowerPoint presentation in January … Continue Reading
Given its escalation all the way to the Bristol Crown Court, even the casual sports fan will have noted the media furore regarding Ben Stokes and the street brawl he engaged in last September. Although Stokes was found not guilty for the offence of affray, he has not escaped all liability for his actions just … Continue Reading
Eleven Sports, the global sports provider, has contravened UEFA rules, which prohibit live coverage of football in the UK between 14:45 and 17:15 on Saturdays by broadcasting Barcelona’s La Liga fixture against Athletic Bilbao. This period on a Saturday afternoon is commonly referred to as the football “blackout” as the UK does not broadcast any matches during … Continue Reading
With most footballing eyes firmly on the World Cup, and England’s crunch match with Belgium, the Football Association’s League Committee (FALC) has announced a change in the way the National League System (NLS) is going to be structured going forward in order to create a more consistent system across the country that standardises the movement … Continue Reading
Most professional sports have players’ unions that are charged with representing the interests of the people who play the sport at the highest level. Until recently this was not the case for individuals who play that ever-popular Olympic sport, beach volleyball, but now almost 100 professional beach volleyball players have united to form the International … Continue Reading
The Court of Justice for the European Union ruled at the end of October that the trick card playing game duplicate bridge should not be considered a sport for VAT purposes. The English Bridge Union (EBU) charges participants of its competitions entrance fees, paying VAT on these fees. The body sought to challenge this VAT … Continue Reading
In February 2017, Sports Shorts looked at the EU angle on sports governance, particularly the European Parliament’s Resolution on an “integrated approach to Sport Policy: good governance, accessibility and integrity”. That resolution included a call upon EU member stated to introduce governance conditions on funding, similar to those contained in UK Sport and Sport England’s … Continue Reading
In June and July, Sports Shorts considered whether the law has any business punishing athletes for violent offences committed in the course of sport. This article asks the inverse: should sports teams and governing bodies wield any power to penalise athletes for their actions outside of sport – can this ever be justified and are … Continue Reading
In August, Sports Shorts wrote about the updated 2017 CrossFit Games drugs policy (the “Policy”). In the final paragraph, we noted that it was hoped that the low level of breaches would continue and that the Policy would only truly be tested in the event a ‘big name’ athlete was found to have breached it. … Continue Reading
Table Tennis England has become the first sport to lose access to public funding due to failure to comply with UK Sport and Sport England’s Code for Sports Governance (released in October last year and covered by Sports Shorts here). The sport was due to receive a total of around £9 million from Sport England … Continue Reading
Having surveyed in Part One some examples of violence in sport that led, or might have led, to the intervention of the law, attention turns in this second installment to why the law is perhaps not always an appropriate way of dealing with such situations. The case against prosecuting Aside from the presence of implied … Continue Reading
Following the unlikely victory of little-known Sport Pacifico over relative giants Estudiantes in an Argentinian cup match this month, came the still more unlikely admission by Sport Pacifico defender Federico Allende that during the game he used a needle to pierce opponents, a tactic he openly bragged about in a radio interview. The jury is … Continue Reading
On Thursday 8 June 2017 the British people will go to the polls to determine who will lead their country for the next four years and who will (almost definitely) oversee the nation’s exit from the European Union. It’s been almost a year since Britain voted for Brexit (to be precise, on Thursday, it will … Continue Reading
Last week Conor McGregor, the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion, and former UFC Featherweight Champion, claimed that he has agreed a deal to fight retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr – a ‘super fight’ that has been in the making for over a year now. Many are divided as to the implications of the fight for … Continue Reading
Stand-up paddleboarding (“SUP”), once categorised by the popular media as a celebrity fad, has emerged as an unlikely battleground between the sports of canoeing and surfing, with the international federations for both of these well-established watersports seeking to lay claim to discipline at Olympic level, each asserting that SUP is an offshoot from their sport. … Continue Reading
On Monday 3 April, the FA council unanimously approved a “strong package of reforms” put forward by Chairman Greg Clarke, unanimously accepted by the FA board, last month. The announcement comes after pressure on the FA to reform, most recently in light of Sport England and UK Sport’s new Code for Sports Governance and its … Continue Reading
Recently, rugby legend Dan Carter made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. After being pulled over by the police on Avenue des Champs-Élysées for speeding, police discovered that he was over the alcohol limit. He was subsequently dropped by his sponsor Land Rover for what seems to be a breach of a morality clause, … Continue Reading
Governance in sport has been a hot topic in the UK in recent months, with the release of Sport England and UK Sport’s “Code for Sports Governance” on 31 October 2016, followed by the inevitable media scrutiny on some of UK’s sports governance juggernauts, including (in particular) the FA and, most recently, the revelations and … Continue Reading
8th March, is International Women’s Day (“IWD”). Observed in one form or another since the early 1900s, IWD is a “a collective day of global celebration and a call for gender parity”. IWD can be traced back to 1908, when a group of women marched in New York, demanding better pay and voting rights. Today, … Continue Reading
In September 2015, the Department of Culture Media and Sport Committee’s (“Committee”) launched an inquiry into Combatting Doping in Sport Inquiry (“Inquiry”). This post looks at the origins of the Inquiry, its scope and finishes by looking at its powers and asking whether they are sufficient. Origin Not even the most loyal fan could deny … Continue Reading
In October, Sports Shorts covered the release of UK Sport and Sport England’s Governance Code for Sport, which seeks to set the gold standard for sport governance. Subsequently, In the weeks following the Code’s release, we noted that much of the media focus fell on the Code’s gender diversity targets. This focus has continued and, … Continue Reading
Since we launched in August this year Sports Shorts has posted 86 blogs covering a multitude of topics including: a look at new rules concerning Premier League shirt sponsorship; a review of UK Sport and Sport England’s ‘Code for Sports Governance’ consideration of England Rugby’s training camps; an analysis of the FIFA Poppy Dispute (twice); … Continue Reading
On the evening of 29 November 2016 at least one national newspaper was reporting that UK Sport, the body responsible for funding elite sport in the UK, had made a ‘last-ditch funding plea to Government’ against ‘severe cuts’. Against a background of unprecedented sporting success in Rio this summer which led to an outburst of … Continue Reading
On 22 November 2016, research by Leaderboard in conjunction with Sporting Equals (organisations that together seek to actively promote greater involvement in sport, physical activity and in sport leadership positions amongst persons from the black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) community) revealed that 90% of sport governing bodies in the UK have no individuals from … Continue Reading
