A critical study of the recurring problem of repudiation in the context of professional rugby in South Africa with particular emphasis on transformative constitutionalism

Abstract

Since rugby became a professional sport in the aftermath of the Rugby World Cup of 1995, the repudiation of sports contracts has become a general and recurring problem in the South African legal context. The legal problem of repudiation of sports contracts today is more prevalent than ever before, regardless of certain decisions wherein courts were willing to order coaches and players to specific performance of their contracts. This article attempts to find reasons for the courts’ seeming unwillingness to grant orders of specific performance of sports (especially rugby) contracts, and suggests certain possible solutions to the recurring problem of repudiation in this context.