News and Media

The COVID-19 pandemic is touching every facet of the world as we know it and sport is no different. At the elite level, we have seen the Olympic Games being postponed and interrupted seasons for the AFL and NRL to name just a few. However, the effects are also being felt at a state and local level, with widespread cancellations of sporting competition seasons and events resulting in a downturn or complete stoppage of revenue for sports clubs and organisations.

Paul Horvath - Principal of SportsLawyer joins Steve Pallas of Sports Community on a PodCast about sporting clubs and the importance of having a legal understanding of your position.

The Black Dog Institute reports that one in five Australians experiences a mental illness in any given year. With performance pressure becoming more and more prominent in sport at levels below the professional level, it is important for your sports club to support the positive mental health of athletes and to set out the club’s expectations with respect to certain conduct. While taking a proactive role in the promotion of good mental health may assist clubs from a performance perspective, it ca...

CLUBS & THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES: PREVENTING UNRULY BEHAVIOUR FROM PARENTS

This week Paul Horvath, Principal of SportsLawyer is looking forward to hearing from the Speakers at the ANZSLA2019 conference around "Breaking Boundaries" - this year's conference theme.

With the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games around the corner, it is inevitable that we will see selection disputes as athletes miss out on being selected to represent Australia at the event. By following a few key steps, National Sporting Organisations can minimise both the impact (cost, time, distraction etc) of selection disputes and the risk of litigation against the National Sporting Body by an aggrieved athlete or athletes.

Sports Governance – Good risk management for sporting organisations

Sporting organisations enforce their own rules through tribunals, or judiciaries. A judiciary or tribunal is designed to resolve disputes and rule violations within a sporting code and while sporting rules are not laws, and equally a sporting tribunal is not a court; the appeals process in a sporting context should afford participants similar rights to those rights assumed at law. Organisations and tribunals should tread carefully in ensuring hearings are conducted in a just and un-biased manner...

Good governance practices includes ensuring that your organisations constitution is clearly set ou, and compliant with requirements under the relevant state legislation. SportsLawyer has broad experience drafting constitutions for local, state and national associations.

One aspect of ensuring a child-safe organisation is making sure that staff who need a valid Working with Children Check do so. Following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Victoria made changes to the Working with Children Act 2005 (Vic) with a view to strengthening the Working with Children Check regime.