Professional Sport in the Internal Market

Sport is unlike any other business. At one level it performs educational, public health, social, cultural and recreational functions. At another level, sport is big business capable of generating considerable revenues. Sport also operates under different market conditions to other industries with competitors (clubs) having a vested interest in the strength and survival of their rivals. This uniqueness has contributed to the construction of an organisational model described as the ‘European model of sport’ endowed with a rule book designed to protect the ‘specificity’ of sport. Many of these rules would not be considered appropriate in ‘normal’ industries and would be subject to legal challenge because they inhibit the development of a level playing field either through restricting the free movement of workers or by placing undue market restrictions on the commercial freedom of undertakings. These concerns have now emerged in sport, particularly as players, clubs and governing bodies increasingly carry out significant economic activities. This has contributed to a growing number of sporting complaints being brought before the EU.