Professor Stefan Szymanski
University of Michigan
3:00PM, 9 September 2016
Large Auditorium, Champions Center
Sports Governance Center
Department of Athletics
University of Colorado, Boulder
Most governing bodies in international sport are based in Europe. The sports that they oversee make most of the money from commercial activities in Europe. This also means that they are subject to the antitrust laws of the European Union (EU). In the past legal issues in relation to sports in the EU have generally been on similar lines to those in the US. For example, restraints on the freedom of movement of players between teams can be justified by league policies intended to maintain competitive balance among teams within a league. The European authorities have tended to give governing bodies a good deal of leeway to run their sport. The recent scandals surrounding FIFA have provoked a debate within the European Commission surrounding the appropriate antitrust policy towards governing bodies, as autonomy and special treatment have been called into question. This presentation explains the issues and suggests a way forward.
Stefan is a Co-Director in the Michigan Centre for Sport Management, University of Michigan. He is recognized as one the world’s leading and most influential sports economists. He has published widely in the academic press on issues relating to the incentives in contests, competitive balance in sports leagues, the business strategy of football and other sports, the sale of broadcast rights, the role of competition law, public subsidies major sporting events, well-being and sports policy, and the economic history of sport. He has advised governments, sport governing bodies and clubs on various economic issues. He has written in the media on business issues relating to football, cricket and the Olympics among others. In addition to Why England Lose & Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained (with Simon Kuper), he has recently co-authored Fans of the World Unite! A (Capitalist) Manifesto for Sports Consumers (with Steve Ross, Stanford University Press), and authored Playbooks and Checkbooks: An Introduction to the Economics of Modern Sports.
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