Since 1998, the National Collegiate Athletics Association has used the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) System to decide which ten teams will compete in a playoff system to determine the college football champion in the US. The BCS uses polls and computer selection methods to determine team rankings and to determine which 10 teams from each of the six BCS conferences and five other college football conferences will compete to become champion.

College football is very popular in the US – in 2008, the average attendance for NCAA Division I FBS football was 46,971, and ABC’s coverage of the Alabama’s 37-21 defeat of Texas in the BCS Championship Game attracted a TV rating of 17.2, or 19.7 million households. This illustrates that college football is very lucrative in the US and is vital to the funding of education.

However, the BCS system is not without its critics. In this article, Sports Management Degrees points out ten flaws with the BCS system as opposed to a regular playoff system.

Andy Brown

Four golfers have filed a lawsuit with the Singapore Supreme Court against the Asian Tour's ban on players taking part in other tournaments.

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Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will pursue its challenge to Football Association Premier League's rules requiring clubs to pay football creditors in full in the event of administration, despite losing a High Court case ([2010] EWHC 2013 (Ch)) against Portsmouth's Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA). The case is due to be heard in November.

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A number of expert speakers will address delegates attending Sport, Gambling & Sponsorship 2010, a World Sports Law Report event that will be hosted at the London offices of Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP on 14 September.

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On 6 July, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) signed a Joint Declaration of Cooperation in the Fight against Doping in Sport. This agreement aims to facilitate voluntary cooperation between WADA and IFPMA member companies, to identify medicinal compounds with doping potential, minimise misuse of medicines still in development, improve the flow of relevant information and facilitate development of detection methods in the context of the fight against doping in sport.

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The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be remembered in the Netherlands not only for the country's excellent performance, but also for FIFA's attempted prosecution of women wearing orange miniskirts bearing Bavaria Beer's logo. Kris Lines and Jon Heshka, sports law Professors, examine the effectiveness of FIFA's methods of protecting itself from ambush marketing, how FIFA's rights protection is written into legislation and how this applied in South Africa.

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Sport is increasingly coming into conflict with legislation, but argues that it has the autonomy to set its own rules outside of national and international law. Simon Thorp and Adam Leadercramer, of Onside Law, examine the effectiveness of self-regulation and the increasing distillation of the concept that sport can self-regulate, as well as reviews that have taken place into the effectiveness of this self-regulation and the changes in sports governance that this has effected.

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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ruled that although Stephen Appiah breached his contract with Turkish football club Fenerbahçe without just cause, he is not liable to pay the club compensation. Peter Limbert, an Associate with Hammonds, explains the background to the case and its significance.

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International sport is increasingly realising that the UK's tax regime makes it a very unattractive place, as recent comments by Usain Bolt and the International Cricket Council illustrate. Richard Baldwin, a tax consultant who advised London's bid for the 2012 Olympics, explains why this is the case and explains how the government could make a few changes to sort out the situation.

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Unfortunately, there have recently been a number of instances where sporting event organisers have had to eject spectators due to their behaviour. Kelly Hudson and Rod Findlay, of McDaniel & Co. Solicitors, explain the circumstances behind these recent incidents and the support offered by UK legislation to those seeking to eject spectators.

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Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Nike France have been found guilty of falsifying and hiding payments to players within image rights contracts by the 11ème Chambre du Tribunal Correctionnel de Paris on 30 June, but not guilty of falsifying contracts. Nike and PSG will decide whether to appeal the ruling by mid-July, as they insist that the payments examined were penalty clauses for breach of contract by PSG players.

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FIFA will work with other team sports federations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in order to find a solution to what it views as a common problem - that the international transfer market is damaging national teams. FIFA denied media reports that it has abandoned its proposal to require the starting 11 of any football club to contain six players eligible for the national team in which that club is based ('6+5'), claiming that other international federations are looking for a similar solution.

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is establishing a working group to formulate a 'unified strategy' to tackle corruption caused by sports betting. "The IOC considers betting as one of the biggest threats to the integrity of sport after doping", said an IOC spokesperson. "Some federations have already put together structures to address the problem. It will now be up to the working group to propose a unified strategy."

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The federation of European professional player associations has entered into a ground breaking campaign with the betting industry to educate professional sportsmen and women about the issues surrounding sporting integrity and betting.

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In a unanimous opinion, the US Supreme Court decided that the National Football League should not be considered immune from antitrust scrutiny when licensing team logos, names and other trademarks. Ryan Rodenberg, an Assistant Professor at Florida State University and Pamela Lester, President of Lester Sports and Entertainment and former President of the Sports Lawyers Association, examine the case and its implications for merchandising conducted by single entity leagues in the US. Rodenberg and Lester both previously worked in the legal department of sports marketing company Octagon, at its Washington DC headquarters.

The City of Vancouver made a number of regulatory changes in order to ease its hosting of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the first instalment of this two-part article, published in the June edition of World Sports Law Report, Paul Henderson, City of Vancouver Director of Olympic and Paralympic Operations, outlined the main regulatory provisions made. In this second instalment, he explains how the regulatory provisions were enforced. This article accompanied a presentation at Ithaca College's 'Conference on Law, Policy and the Olympic Movement' on 13-14 May.

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The recent damaging stories about John Terry, John Higgins and Lord Triesman have brought into the spotlight potential issues with press standards, in particular relating to privacy, methods used by the press to obtain stories and the effectiveness of the press self-regulatory system. These stories highlight that it is difficult to prevent a damaging story breaking and once the story is out, damage control is a difficult exercise. Matt Totman and Cecile Thote, of Baker & McKenzie LLP, examine these issues and the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee report on Press standards, privacy and libel, published in February 2010.

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A group of female ski jumpers took legal action against the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, alleging that its failure to include a women's ski jumping event amounted to a breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Seema Patel, a Lecturer in Sports Law and Management with Nottingham Trent University, examines the International Olympic Committee's criteria for inclusion in the Olympics, the exceptions that exist for traditional Olympic events and the current status of the appeal.

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A sub-commission of the Commission for Education in the Spanish Congress has recently approved a report urging the Government to enact a new Spanish Sports Act, which will allow stricter financial regulation of sport. Ricardo Gentzsch, an Abogado with Schiller Abogados, examines the reasons why a new Act is needed and the provisions it intends to introduce.

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Luca Ferrari, a member of World Sports Law Report’s editorial board, has been appointed Chairman of Italy’s Serie B football competition, following its split from Serie A. “I am the legal advisor to the Serie B and my role as President is a temporary one to allow proper selection of candidates that will serve the league”, said Ferrari, has headed of CBA Studio Legale e Tributario’s sports and media practice since 1997.

Following the split, Italy’s Serie A and Serie B will have new internet sites (see previous links) to replace the Lega Calcio internet site. Serie A will be branded Serie A TIM following sponsorship by Telecom Italia Mobile and Serie B will be branded Serie Bwin, following sponsorship by betting company Bwin until 30 June 2012.

Andy Brown