ABSTRACT
This chapter considers important jurisprudential developments on the liability of players, coaches, match officials, professional bodies and clubs, and explores the application of various defences in the sporting context. It also considers in some detail the question of damages as an appropriate remedy in the vast majority of sporting cases where liability has been found to exist. Courts, over the last 30 years, have repeatedly indicated that it would take more than mere errors of judgment, oversights or lapses of skill for there to be liability in negligence on the part of a defendant whose conduct causes harm to another player. Professional bodies, such as national governing bodies, have been held to owe a duty of care to those people who are immediately connected to a sporting event, namely players, match officials and even spectators.
