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This study explores the application of machine learning, specifically Support Vector Machine (SVM) models, in resolving sports contract disputes. Text mining techniques, including TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency), were employed to process and extract significant features from unstructured contract dispute judgment documents collected from the China Judgments Online. The dataset encompassed various dispute categories such as athlete and club contract disputes, advertising endorsement disputes, transfer contract disputes, event organization and venue disputes, and copyright disputes. The SVM model, utilizing the nu-SVC variant with an RBF kernel, demonstrated high precision across most categories, effectively handling the high-dimensional and complex nature of legal texts. Key metrics such as precision, recall, and F-measure were used to evaluate model performance. The results highlight the robustness and accuracy of machine learning in classifying and analyzing sports contract disputes, providing a valuable tool for legal professionals to enhance dispute resolution processes. This study underscores the potential of integrating advanced computational techniques with legal analysis to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of resolving contractual conflicts in the sports industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overdue athletes' salaries, i.e. late, partial or nonpayment of athletes' salaries in professional sports, increases the risk for match-fixing as athletes are rendered more vulnerable to match-fixing approaches and for giving in to such proposals. Even though research and stakeholders recognize the aforementioned risk, the body of literature addressing the issue from a preventative legal perspective is slim to nonexistent. While the Council of Europe's Macolin Convention has stimulated various measures to tackle match-fixing in both ratifying and signatory States, this paper focuses on the Convention's prevention objective by examining how international, European and Belgian football organizations enforce compliance by their affiliated members with their contractual and other obligations. The paper argues that while football federations do take initiative in the matter, they may not yet have found a way to effectively protect the integrity of their competitions when it comes to their approach towards the issue at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Major League Baseball data to examine the relationship between years remaining on player contracts and player performance. There is a potential for moral hazard to arise in this principal–agent relationship as the player may choose a less than optimal level of effort from the perspective of team management when the player has many guaranteed years remaining. A player fixed-effects estimation strategy, which finds a significant negative relationship between years remaining and performance, is employed. The primary contribution of this work is to show that this relationship is due to shirking. Alternative explanations for this relationship, such as teams signing improving players to multiyear contracts or players facing an adjustment process when joining a new team, are addressed. Additional evidence which is consistent with shirking behavior shows that shirking occurs on offense, not defense, and for position players, not pitchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I develop a model of majority-rule collective bargaining between a sports league and its players when delay costs incurred by players are wealth-dependent. I propose a refinement of subgame perfect equilibrium that requires equilibrium strategies to be immune to deviations by any majority subgroup. I show this is equivalent to giving the player with median bargaining power the unilateral ability to negotiate with the league. Using this model, I demonstrate that policies reallocating surplus from high-talent to moderate-talent players, such as maximum contracts in professional sports, can improve the welfare of all players. Redistribution of surplus harmonizes players' interests, giving a majority of them a greater stake in the bargaining outcome. The model highlights the gains to be had if a heterogeneous group agrees to concessions that increase the alignment of their individual interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Attorney Steven Howard Roth is presented. He explains how he integrate the intellectual property (IP) rights of his clients in sports leagues like the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) in negotiating for their marketing contracts. He cites how athletes can sell their name, image, or likeness for advertising purposes. He discusses other topics like right of first negotiation.

Purpose. The relative age effect (RAE) is a widely reported phenomenon in elite sports context. However, little is known about its occurrence in other levels of practice, such as school sports. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the presence of RAE on Mato Grosso state (Brazil) student-athletes participating in National School Games depending on sex, age category, and sport type. Methods. Data from 440 student-athletes of Mato Grosso state (Brazil) who participated in 2 National School Games: 2019 Youth School Games (n = 250) and 2021 Brazilian School Games (n = 190) were organized depending on their quarters of birth. Chi-square tests were performed to compare their birthdates distribution in accordance with sex (male and female), age category (12-14 years old and 15-17 years old), and sport type (team and individual sports). Results. Athletes born in the first months of the year were more frequent than athletes born in the last months of the year in the overall sample, in males, in the younger age category, and in team sports (p < 0.008). On the other hand, no differences were found for females, athletes from the older age category, or athletes practising individual sports (p > 0.05). Conclusions. RAE is pervasive in the student-athletes of Mato Grosso state (Brazil), specifically for male athletes in early categories of team sports. Educating coaches regarding this effect and implementing specific counter-RAE interventions are warranted to minimize selection bias in this sports context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine bargaining for long-term contracts in baseball, which usually involves agents negotiating on behalf of players. We show that when an agent represents a large portfolio of clients, the agent's interests may diverge from those of the client. Such agents face less risk than their clients and therefore may calculate a minimum-acceptable contract offer that exceeds that of their clients. Using a sample of nearly 500 eligible players, we test for the presence of this principal--agent problem and find evidence that the size of an agent's client portfolio negatively affects the probability of successfully negotiating a long-term contract. The results have important implications for both players and team management as they shed light on the circumstances under which incentive compatibility may be compromised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the junior to senior transition from professional contract to an established first-team player in an English men's professional football team. Six players were purposively sampled across four suggested phases of transition: preparation; orientation; adaptation; and stabilization. A series of three interviews explored their past and current experiences, as well as their future ambitions. Eight higher-order themes were developed using thematic analysis: performance culture; opportunity; organizational strategy; contracts; relationships; motivation; power dynamics; and dual career. Several general adaptation factors found in previous research were present, along with four unique findings. The current study sets the opportunity to play within the first team as the primary factor in career progression. Without the opportunity, a "gray period" develops when a player is in an undefined phase without specific goals. This complex transition is further complicated by the short-term nature of contracts, which influences motivation and the ability to see the big picture. Throughout the transition, receiving support from key stakeholders was challenged by their role as gatekeepers of playing time and future contracts. Organizations should seek to manage transitions through a hands-on approach, providing the necessary support throughout the gray period, while being aware of the limitations of support from those with power over opportunity. Future research should look to explore the suggested gray period and the challenges that develop without continual opportunity. Lay summary: Professional football players at different stages in their career discussed the challenges experienced in their journey to becoming a regular first-team player. Those players that were not getting the opportunity to play felt isolated and unable to discuss their concerns. Implications for football clubs managing this transition are discussed. Providing opportunity in the senior team while managing players with no opportunity Availability and awareness of support systems outside of decision-makers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the court case Flood v. Kuhn, 1972, a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that preserved the reserve clause in Major League Baseball (MLB) players' contracts. Topics discussed include the reserve clause instituted in 1879 by the National League to keep players under control, the clause was not addressed in Federal Baseball and that the Supreme Court ruled that baseball did not qualify as interstate commerce for the purposes of the Sherman Act.

The right to sport can be considered as one of the most important rights for the human beings, regarding the fact that sport is one of the most effective ways for the free exercise of all affirmative activities for his individuality and personality. Many states, law enforcement agencies and various organizations are committed to addressing and unifying all aspects of sport around the world to protect, secure capacity and coordinate certain managerial policies for the development of an international sporting law. Nowadays, the international law of sports through the drafting and adoption of legal acts with binding value, has made it possible to sanction the entire legal basis in the framework of the development of sports and the agreements that derive from it. To avoid abuse, protection of young talents, protection of parties participating in sports contracts, law and practice refer to a comprehensive legal framework, which takes value in drafting models and defining principles from which legal acts come to life. national in the framework of managerial policy making. Based on this prediction, we can say that the right to sport is based on the principles of international sports law and is then developed by the state, which through its mechanisms plays an essential role in determining long-term policies aimed at promoting and protecting effective for all sports activities in each place. One of the main mechanisms that the state uses in the promotion of sport is through the drafting and improvement of a regulatory legal framework, which aims to cover and regulate in a wide area all aspects that address sport according to the principles of international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]