This book comes at a critical time for the future development of sports law. It examines key issues of both contemporary and future importance to the administration of sporting activity in the European Union. The book is par­ ticularly pertinent coming at a time when European Community law is playing a key role in the restructuring of football's transfer system. This forms only one small, though highly significant, part of the fundamental shift that has taken place in European professional sport; away from the self-regulatory autonomy of sporting bodies towards a system more rigidly codified and governed by main­ stream legal norms and rules. The law, in particular the economic freedoms provided for under the Treaty of Rome, has become a key weapon in the armoury of those who wish to exploit sport to its full commercial potential, free of self-regulatory constraints. It is not only those desirous of exploiting the economic potential of sport, who have made use of European Community law. As sport has become increasingly com­ mercialised and commodified, it has also attracted the attention of the institutions of the Community, which have been keen to ensure that sports regulations adhere to Community law.