As a topic, sports law, at least in the European sense, has traditionally and rather narrowly been seen as an application of contract and commercial law principles within the environment of professional sport—and namely the application of such branches of law to disputes relating to the following “three pillars” of contemporary sport, i.e., disputes relating to the payment, sponsorship or endorsement of those who play sport for a living; disputes arising from decisions made by sports governing bodies or leagues or other administrative authorities in sport; and disputes arising from the application of law to the holding of sports events be it the broadcasting or sponsorship of that event or the ticketing or safety arrangements for those who attend or even the building of the stadium that is to hold such events.

The above examples remain at the heart of sports law-related disputes but the descriptive term “sports law” or “sport and the law” or even lex sportiva now encapsulates much more than commercial and contractual matters of concern. Indeed, the contributions to this edition of the International Sports Law Journal reflect the broader scope of modern sports law. More importantly still, the present contributions illustrate that the level of analysis of sports law matters (practical and theoretical) continues to advance in erudition and sophistication.

The contributions speak for themselves in terms of the current state of sports law but there is one point of reflection about a current topic of interest to sports lawyers and one featured in this edition dated April 2014. April 2014 is the 50th anniversary of the most infamous match fixing scandal in British football history. On 12 April 1964 the Sunday People newspaper published allegations of match-fixing and match rigging that led to over 30 arrests and 10 successful convictions. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?

To change direction a little, although the quality of a journal stands or falls ultimately by the consistent quality of its submissions, the International Sports Law Journal is also hugely indebted to our peer reviewers and I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank them. In 2013, these 30 referees reviewed more than 60 articles, comments and/or book reviews, taking on average less than 10 days to complete the reviews, and completing most of the reviews on time. Our referees always provide detailed and constructive feedback to authors, which I believe has greatly assisted individual authors and this publication more generally.

The Managing Editor, Karen Jones, and I greatly appreciate all of the work and dedication of our referees, our Advisory Board and our Editorial Board members.

In a small gesture of appreciation, we at the International Sports Law Journal would like to acknowledge our referees openly, as below, and extend an invite to you all to act as an occasional referee for us. We would be greatly obliged for your assistance.

ISLJ Referees 2013

Paul Anderson

Roger Blanpain

Rian Cloete

Steve Cornelius

Simon Gardiner

Andy Gibson

James T. Gray

Hazel Hartley

Boris Kolev

Amaresh Kumar

Frank Latty

Jean-Michel Marmayou

Jose Manuel Meirim

Alexandre Mestre

Andras Nemes

Catherine Ordway

Hinca Pandjaitan

Richard Parrish

Mikhail Prokopets

Martin Schimke

Huang Shix

Guo Shuli

Gerald Simon

Paul Singh

Ben Van Rompuy

Christopher Vedder

Klaus Vieweg

Daniel Visoiu

Alexandru Virgil Voicu

Wang Xiaoping

Finally, and as ever, I look forward to any thoughts you might have on the future direction of the International Sports Law Journal. The editorial team at ISLJ is particularly interested in ideas for special editions of the ISLJ on current topics of interest and, for instance, the legal issues surrounding concussion in sport; the legal response to match-fixing; potential legal challenges to UEFA’s Financial Fair Play policy; a comparative approach between the European and American sports models; or any other coherent area of interest.

On an individual basis we also especially welcome contributions from outside the EU/US sphere of influence. Sport’s reach is now global and the ISLJ seeks to reflect that. In all of the above, please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss further.

For now, I hope that you enjoy the current issue.

Jack Anderson

Editor-in-Chief

International Sports Law Journal