Athletes Pressing Charges explores the athlete-led protest movement in the Olympic sport of modern pentathlon. The athlete activists protest against the removal of the horse-riding discipline from the sport and blame the sport's governing body, the International Modern Pentathlon Union, for violating good governance principles and mismanagement. By taking the existing power imbalance between sport organizations and athletes as a starting point, this book argues that providing a voice to independent athletes affected by policy changes, is crucial to understand the ongoing issues in the sport. The protest movement is contextualized against the backdrop of increasingly stronger attempts by athletes from semi-professional Olympic sports to make their voices heard in decision-making processes. Therefore, this study has broader significance for the ongoing challenges by athletes and athletes-led organizations on powerful sport organizations
Out of Bounds: Inside the NBA's Culture of Rape, Violence, and Crime is a searing indictment of professional basketball players who live in a world where criminal laws and social norms don't exist, a world where they are given license to act above the law. On the court, they dazzle us with their spectacular physical feats. They generate millions of dollars of revenue for the NBA and their teams. They inspire adulation. But underneath all the glitz, the money, and alley-oops is a seamy underbelly, a rash of lawlessness that is gripping the NBA. Based on a first-of-its-kind investigation into the criminal histories of 177 NBA players from the 2001–2002 season, Out of Bounds shows that an alarming four out of every ten NBA players have a police record involving a serious crime. They are All-Stars and they are journeymen, involved in crimes ranging from armed robbery to domestic violence to gun possession to rape. Out of Bounds takes a hard look at shocking cases, with graphic accounts of physical and sexual violence and other outrageous conduct by players. In all, more than 250 people are named, including many prominent NBA players. It exposes the environment and culture that encourages such criminal behavior. It also explains the unique challenges these cases pose for law-enforcement agencies and prosecutors. And Out of Bounds takes readers inside the hidden yet critically vital role that lawyers, agents, and fame play in insulating criminally accused players from accountability. Author Jeff Benedict, an expert on athletes and crime, draws his conclusions from exhaustive research. In addition to his criminal-background checks, the author retrieved documents from law-enforcement agencies, courts, and private attorneys. He conducted more than 400 interviews with police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, players, agents, victims, witnesses, and coaches. What emerges is a disturbing and appalling picture of men who live above the law. A seminal and important work, Out of Bounds will forever change how we look at the NBA and its stars' lives of excess and privilege.
At one time, sports coverage was scores, standings, and star performances. However, sports has evolved into a profitable, complicated, and multi-dimensional business, as broad and complex as any. This book explores the business aspect of sports with an orientation to those topics that are most relevant to journalists, providing the foundation for understanding the various parts of the sports business. Moving beyond sports writing, this text offers a distinct perspective on professional, college, and international sports organizations--structure, governance, labor issues, and other business factors within the sports community. Written clearly and compellingly, The Business of Sports includes cases (historical, current, and hypothetical) to illustrate how business concerns play a role in the reporting of sports. Offering critical insights on the business of sports, this text is a required resource for sports journalists and students in journalism.
Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this practical analysis of sports law in the Philippines deals with the regulation of sports activity by both public authorities and private sports organizations. The growing internationalization of sports inevitably increases the weight of global regulation, yet each country maintains its own distinct regime of sports law and its own national and local sports organizations. Sports law at a national or organizational level thus gains a growing relevance in comparative law. The book describes and discusses both state-created rules and autonomous self-regulation regarding the variety of economic, social, commercial, cultural, and political aspects of sports activities. Self-regulation manifests itself in the form of by-laws, and encompasses organizational provisions, disciplinary rules, and rules of play. However, the trend towards more professionalism in sports and the growing economic, social and cultural relevance of sports have prompted an increasing reliance on legal rules adopted by public authorities. This form of regulation appears in a variety of legal areas, including criminal law, labour law, commercial law, tax law, competition law, and tort law, and may vary following a particular type or sector of sport. It is in this dual and overlapping context that such much-publicized aspects as doping, sponsoring and media, and responsibility for injuries are legally measured. This monograph fills a gap in the legal literature by giving academics, practitioners, sports organizations, and policy makers access to sports law at this specific level. Lawyers representing parties with interests in the Philippines will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative sports law.
