The history of sports extends way back to the existence of individuals. Chess, wrestling, polo, archery and hockey are a number of the games believed to have originated in India.

Today, very little importance is left for sports in India, with each school concentrating solely on academics. Although there are numerous federations that offer sports facilities however except for cricket, India is essentially failing in each major event for sports like Olympics. One of the main reasons for it is the dearth of uniform regulation for sports. There’s a requirement for legislation that governs sports and brings the varied authorities into one roof.

The area of sports law is comparatively new in our country. Sports law relies on how the law normally interacts with sports activity. It is not solely an applied law within the field of sports but also a mix of laws in an exceedingly range of jurisdictions.

It is a legal framework that governs amateur and professional sports. Sports lawyers should have a powerful understanding of all areas of law since the business of sports touches on a spread of legal problems.

In India, national as well as provincial sports bodies, clubs, associations or societies are usually set up beneath the law of societies. These national sports bodies field the national team on behalf of the country of participation in international competitions. These bodies also grant TV and broadcasting rights.

The Sports Law in India is governed and controlled by:

1. National Sports Policy 1984/2001:

It was brought into force in the year 1984 however it was realized only later that the bill wasn’t complete. Thus in 2001, the bill was reformulated with guidelines as follows:

• Procedures to be ordered down for autonomous bodies and federations for creating government aid and help obtainable.
• Define the responsibilities of various agencies for the endeavour and promoting sports.
• Identify the sports federations with coverage eligibility under the set guidelines

This policy led the lawmakers to offer importance to sports thus creating means for inclusion of sports within the constitution at the seventh schedule within the state list.

2. Sports Law and Welfare Association of India:

The Sports Law and Welfare Association of India is a national non-profit organization that works with the common goal of understanding, advancement and moral follow of Sports Law in India for the promotion of Sports, by bringing Legal Practitioners and Sportspersons along. It provides practice on numerous matters like, regulation of sports governing bodies, general sport and law problems, intellectual property problems in sport, on-line advocating in legal disputes of sports in court on behalf of sports persons and sports bodies and so on.

3. Sports Authority of India:

The Sports Authority of India aims to fulfil the requirement of an apex body to coordinate numerous sports activities in India, motivating the government of India to target sports development to encourage good condition among youth and to direct their energy towards excellence. 

4. The Sports Broadcasting Law in India:

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act was passed in 2007 with an objective to produce access to the largest range of listeners and viewers, on a liberated to air basis, of sporting events of national importance through obligatory sharing of sports broadcasting signals with Prasar Bharati. The Act provides that any content right owner or holder TV or radio broadcasting service supplier shall not carry a live TV broadcast on any cable or Direct-to-Home network or radio comment broadcast in India of sporting events of national importance, unless it at the same time shares the live broadcasting signal, without its advertisements, with the Prasar Bharati to alter them to re-transmit identical on its terrestrial networks and Direct-to-Home networks.

Recently there has been a great deal of discussion and buzz about the National Sports Development Bill 2011 (2011 Bill). The preamble of the 2011 Bill states, the bill has been developed to celebrate the spirit of sport and truthful play.

Owing to the very fact that there are many sports federations, authorities and associations in India, just like the All India soccer Federation, Indian Hockey Federation, All India Tennis Association etc. the government introduced the 2011 Bill to control such federation and associations. The 2011 Bill was introduced not with the intent to imbibe the follow of excellent governance accepted around the world within the Indian situation. The 2011 Bill seeks to push sports and infrastructure associated with sports in India. It also seeks to deal with the problems of molestation, age fraud, impediments to right to information, speedy resolution of sports disputes, anti-doping, transparency and good governance. However, the 2011 Bill was recently rejected by the cabinet of ministers and has since undergone many revisions.Sports law is growing to be a vital facet of sports trade. Sports law contains all provisions, introduced by the State or by athletic authorities that concern sport and athletic activities in general and regulates the relations that are developed within the frame of athletic activity. Contractual and legal disputes in the area of sports are guaranteed to increase in the coming years, and given the distinctive nature of sports as a profession and also the lifetime of sportsmen, the disputes are possible to offer rise to novel things. Hence, effective direction and management by the government is far required, so as for the field of sports to grow consistently and in an exceedingly healthy manner.