The legal complexities of contemporary professional sports have prompted Charles Sturt University (CSU) to develop new courses in response to the needs of the sports industry.Mr Ben Barrington-Higgs, lecturer at the CSU School of Human Movement Studies at Bathurst, says that the Graduate Certificate and the Graduate Diploma of Sports Management (Sports Law) were developed because the sporting environment has changed irrevocably in recent years as sport has become professionalised and the sports industry has emerged.
“Sport is now a business and law is integral to it,” Mr Barrington-Higgs said.
“This means that legal issues are at the forefront of many of the challenges and controversies that confront the sports industry today, placing more demands upon administrators, agents, coaches, players and other participants.
“Whether it’s player conduct on-field or off-field, contracts, salary caps, sponsorship, the decision-making capacities of tribunals, or complying with relevant legislation, legal knowledge is central to the successful resolution of most sport-related issues.
“At the School of Human Movement Studies we noted that there was a need to assist the range of personnel engaged in the industry to develop sound legal knowledge through quality courses that provide this knowledge in accessible language for the non-legal practitioner.
“We believe that it is vital that professionals in the sports industry obtain and maintain the legal skills and understandings needed to successfully work in this area, and Charles Sturt University’s new Sports Management (Sports Law) courses will do that,” he said.
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