The Incompatibility of Banning Political Speech in Sports with the Right to Freedom of Expression Under the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

AbstractThe SGBs and the CAS have created principles specific to the realm of sports based on the assumption that sports has a specific legal order and dispute resolution mechanisms independent from the state, namely, lex sportiva. In fact, sports law has specific principles, rules, and applications that diverge from International Human Rights Law.But the aforementioned lex sportiva assumption cannot be extended to totally exclude human rights concerns in the field of sports, especially after the recent ECtHR rulings, starting with Mutu & Pechstein Case. Through those rulings, human rights standards infiltrate into sports law.This article particularly focusses on one of the most contested sports law rules, namely prohibition on political statements of sportspersons, adopted by all SBGs, in the light of recent judgments of ECtHR against Turkey concerning freedom of expression under Article 10 of the ECHR, and asserts that categorical universal ban on political speech in sports is not in conformity with the right to freedom of expression. However, after analysing relevant ECtHR judgments in detail, the article argues that by confining its review strictly to procedural grounds, the ECtHR missed the opportunity to rule the incompatibility of a blanket ban on political speech in sports with freedom of expression at an abstract level.The article concludes that the ECtHR’s acceptance that sportspersons have the freedom of speech in political matters and that such a right cannot be suspended categorically due to the sole fact that they belong to sports community, nevertheless, indicates that blanket ban on political speech cannot be sustainable any more.