2 8 August 2004

News:

Forget googlies and the gentle sound of leather on willow. There’s a new concept for English cricket fans to master: ambush marketing.

The arrest of six times champion jockey, Kieren Fallon, along with fifteen others in dawn raids across the country this week underlines the drive to clean up British racing. Twelve of the sixteen arrested, including Fallon and the two other jockeys, were later released on bail. Fallon and the others have denied the charges.

The tally of 24 doping violations, and the removal of three Olympic Gold medals along with a number of lesser medals was welcomed by the International Olympic Association President, Jacques Rogge, as a demonstration that doping would not be tolerated among Olympic athletes.

Features:

Athens 2004 portrayed over a two week period the highs and lows that great endeavour brings with it. With its own regulations, community, and arbitrators, the Olympic Movement is a world in itself. A study of the Olympic Movement as a society in its own right would surely make fascinating reading.

With the Olympics attracting record television viewing figures attention will soon turn to one of the next major global television events, the 2006 World Cup in Germany. This article considers the issues that the broadcasting of the Event creates, particularly for those who wish to view it and those who want to ensure that they do.

With Wayne Rooney, the England international soccer player, leading the way as the shutters come down on the transfer window, soccer continues to be under the spotlight. With the revised rules governing the transfer system on an international basis now a few seasons old, their interpretation has raised some interesting points.

Elsewhere in WSLR we have considered two of the key areas that dominate professional soccer - broadcasting and the transfer system. To balance the views of those involved within the sport from a legal perspective, we invited Graham Mackrell, previously Club Secretary at West Ham United and now an adviser at the League Managers Association, the body representing managers within the professional game, to offer his views on how football goes about its business.

The growing commercialisation of professional football over the past 15 years has increased risk in the football industry. This has underlined the need for improvements in corporate governance and regulation.

In King v Lewis and others [2004] EWHC 168 (QB) the Court has held that the boxing promoter Don King is entitled to bring a libel claim in England against the boxer Lennox Lewis and others in respect of two articles posted on US websites, even though both Don King and Lennox Lewis are mainly resident in the US.

The acquisition of personal data is a crucial challenge for all businesses, including in sport. The ability to market, cross sell and promote a company’s products and services requires a powerful database. Yet without the consumer’s consent to use such data for such purposes, the personal data is worthless. This article looks at some of the different ways in which the issue of data subjects’ consent arises in a commercial context and how such consent may be gained sufficiently to comply with UK law.