Key sports law cases and developments of 2020 – UK & Ireland

As we come to the end of a turbulent and challenging year, we wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on what we think have been some of the key sports law issues of 2020.

We therefore invited each member of our Editorial Board to write a short summary of their highlights.  Below are the responses from our UK & Ireland members.  We hope this proves useful not only in identifying specific cases and issues, but also in detecting broader global  themes when read in conjunction with the contributions from other jurisdictions.

We would like to thank each member of our Editorial Board for taking the time out of their busy schedules to share their views with us, and also more broadly for their significant input into LawInSport over the course of the year.  Thank you.

Contributors:

●      Louis Weston - Corruption and match fixing.
●      Mark Hovell - Financial impact of COVID-19 and Project Restart.
●      Mark James - Application of vicarious liability to cases of historic sexual abuse .
●      Leigh Thompson - Government rescue package and review of the Gambling Act 2005.
●      Alistair McHenry - Wigan Athletic entering administration and COVID-19 safeguarding regulations.
●      Andrew Nixon - Sportradar v Football DataCo, Betgenius and Genius Sports Group.
●      Daniel Geey - New regimes for UK work permits and regulating intermediaries.
●      Debbie Nicholson -British Cycling and Dr Richard Freeman case.
●      Gareth Farrelly - Financial scandal involving the FAI.
●      Nina Goolamali QC - Risks in sport: head injuries and social politics.
●      Jon Walters - The growth of new investment into sport.
●      Andrew Smith - Employment rights of athletes (post-Varnish).
●      Alex Haffner - European Court of Justice’s decision in ISU case.
●      Robert McTernaghan - Reform of the Gambling Act 2005.
●      Tim O’Connor - New concussion litigation in sport.
●      Alex Kelham – Athlete activism and project “Red Card”.