ABSTRACT
The league is the main organizing body of professional sport. A league has at its apex a govern-ing body that manages and regulates (a) a competition comprising multiple clubs where the winner will be a club team, or (b) a competition comprising athletes where the winner will be an individual athlete. Classic examples of sports with team-based leagues include soccer, football, basketball, baseball, softball, rugby, and cricket. For individual athlete-focused leagues, typical examples are tennis, golf, motor racing, boxing, skiing, and surfing.1 Often there are global and continental bodies or federations that coordinate and manage country-based competitions and other aspects of these sports that “sit above” the country-based leagues. Examples include FIFA (soccer), FIBA (basketball), ICC (cricket), and World Rugby (rugby). Global bodies and federations will be discussed in detail in Chapter 7. Several of the high-profile individual athlete-based leagues operate with tournaments that are held in many parts of the globe. Examples include the ATP and WTA in tennis and the ASP World Tour for surfing professionals.
