December 16, 2024: Eminent sports lawyer Nandan Kamath recently appeared on the ‘House of Glory’ podcast launched by Indian Shooting legend Gagan Narang. In a freewheeling conversation, he spoke about the recent Draft National Sports Policy, 2024 and the Draft National Sports Governance Bill, 2024 and their potential impact on the sporting landscape of the country.
Indicating how it is important for different stakeholders to come together in order to ensure development in the sporting sector, Nandan discussed how the Draft Sports Policy considers sports as an integral part of national development and why the Draft Sports Bill is an important step in taking that mission forward.
“The draft policy talks about sport as part of a nation-building exercise, the role of sport in economic development ; it could be manufacturing, it could be tourism, and it could be skilling and jobs that come from sport. Actually, in more mature economies you have a large percent, up to 2% of the economy, of people working in jobs related to sports. We do have a huge gap in the number of people actually professionally engaged in sports and sports allied sectors but it also talks about the social development aspects and the role that all of us can play in sporting progress,” Kamath stated.
Nandan, when discussing the Draft Sports Bill, also gave insights into what sports law is and the role it plays in the sports ecosystem.
“One aspect is dispute resolution, when the matter comes up, you are on one side representing a client in a court or tribunal. Another role for sports lawyers is supporting the governance of sports bodies. We have to essentially make rules, apply them and make sure that sport is actually organised in the way that it is meant to be organised,” the Managing Trustee of GoSports Foundation said.
“The third context in which sports lawyers operate is the commercial side of sport. So, the transactional aspect of sports, making sure that the commerce of sport happens. It could be broadcasting, it could be sponsorships, it could be endorsements,” he added.
He also addressed the gaps in the sporting industry and how a holistic approach towards governing sports is essential for the industry to grow and develop rapidly, while also bringing a change in people’s perspective of sports.
Kamath said, “I think there is a long way to go in the way that we structure and govern sports. There are ecosystem needs that sports law and also sports governance and sports policy need to serve.”
“To me, these three things need to merge – the legal structure, the governance structure and the policy structure, driven by an understanding of where we want to go.”
“Over time, we have seen a gradual growth in the understanding of what sports can be for us and it’s not just about how many medals we can win at the Olympics but the role that sport plays across a wide range of things. It could be the economy of sports and what it does for jobs and skilling and essentially economic growth. It could be the social impact of sport and how sport can actually change the way we live,” Kamath, who is also co-founder of Sports and Society Accelerator, concluded.
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