I am honoured to have been invited to write the foreword to this book.
Since the publi- tion of Professional Sport in the EU: Regulation and
Re-regulation (edited by Andrew Caiger and Simon Gardiner, T.M.C. Asser
Press 2000), there have been a number of dev- opments in the European
Union in sports law, both in the European Commission and the European
Court of Justice. The most significant of these was probably the
adoption by the Commission of the White Paper on Sport on 11 July 2007.
The White Paper takes stock of the acquis communautaire - the rather
prodigious body of European Law including judgements and preliminary
rulings of the ECJ - in the sports field and sets out the position of
the Commission on three significant aspects of European sport: its
societal role, its economic dimension, and its governance. The White
Paper also contains concrete proposals for further EU action as part of
an Action Plan named after Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the
modern Olympic Games.