Settling sports disputes by ADR is a winning formula, observes Ian Blackshaw
Sport is big business and an industry in its own right. Globally, it is worth more than 3% of world trade and, in the EU, it accounts for 3.7% of the combined gross national product of the 27 member states (European Commission, White Paper on Sport, 11 July 2007). So, there is much to play for both on and off the field of play—in both a sporting and a commercial sense.
Not only is this of interest to companies which wish to associate their products and services with major sports events, but also to countries wishing to host such events. Indeed, there is much competition between them to do so, as evidenced when the UK bid for the London 2012 Olympics.
The business of sport not only generates mega sums for sport bodies, persons, and host cities and countries but has also, inevitably, given rise to many disputes. Rather than settling them in the courts, generally speaking, they are better settled “within the family of sport” by various forms
