Professor Stephen F. Ross delivers address to FIFA legal team

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—On February 12, Professor Stephen F. Ross visited Miami to present to the legal team at FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, which is gearing up for June’s FIFA World Cup taking place in North America. His address, “What FIFA Lawyers Should Know About the U.S. Sports Model,” covered six key differences between U.S. and global sports for the attorneys, most of whom are not American-trained.

The key points he laid out were: 1: U.S. sports are dis-integrated (i.e., Major League Baseball and the National Football League have no responsibility for grassroots sports); 2. The best comparison for FIFA is not U.S. professional sports but U.S. collegiate football and basketball; 3. The commissioners hold unique power in major U.S. sports leagues; 4. The application of American private law to sports differs significantly from European/Latin American private law; 5. There are competitive balance, outcome uncertainty, and competition design differences, primarily because of promotion and relegation in global soccer; and 6. FIFA promotes greater opportunity for girls and women as a specific end—U.S. Title IX only mandates that girls and women get whatever boys and men get.

After the lunch, Ross discussed his current work on breaches of football contracts with FIFA regulators. The event was hosted by Emilio Garcia Silvero, FIFA’s chief legal officer, a friend of Ross’s whom he met years ago through a visiting scholar at Penn State, Professor Maria Josefa Garcia Cirac of the University of Salamanca.

Stephen F. Ross is Lewis H. Vovakis Distinguished Faculty Scholar; Professor of Law; and Executive Director, Penn State Center for the Study of Sports in Society. Professor Ross teaches and writes in the disparate areas of sports law, comparative Constitutional law, and statutory interpretation.