To what extent can Law be used to challenge the decisions of the governing bodies in sport.

Sport constitutes a major part of life in Britain, however, traditionally, legal intervention in this area has been regarded as unnecessary. Where judges regard sport as ‘better served if there was not running litigation at repeated intervals by people seeking to challenge the decisions of the regulating bodies’. Sport being regarded as essentially a private activity, with its own internal legal and administrative structure, resulting in a non-interventionist approach by the courts. Judicial interference has occurred though, where procedural justice is breached by the governing bodies, especially where commercial interests are concerned, and the monopoly power, that many of the bodies hold, is exploited. Hence the challenges to the decisions of governing bodies is generally through issues of public law, with varying degrees of success though….(short extract)