This thesis deals with EC competition law and sports with emphasis on athletes’ rights and the unanswered question about salary caps in professional football. The thesis is designed with the general rules of the EC competition law in the first part, including the purpose of competition law a definition of competition in the EU.
This is followed by a chapter concerning how professional sports and competition in the EU is linked with a review of the Meca-Medina case, there is the leading case concerning competition law in the EU. With the Meca-Medina case a great part of the people concerned with sports were chocked, because it took the question about anti-doping into account and placed it under the EC competition law.
The thesis also reviews the White paper on Sports and the issues addressed herein in relation to professional sports and EC competition law. The documents linked to the White paper on Sports are also reviewed in the task of finding out when a sporting rule is subject to the EC competition law, and when it is not. There is given a guideline for testing if a specific sporting rule is subject to the EC competition law.
At last examines whether or not the purposed rules concerning salary caps in professional football are subject to the EC competition law, and if so if the rules will be in breach of the EC competition law.