“May I suggest that the only place in which sport should contemplate, or might tolerate, conflict is on the “field of play”? Most sports struggle with solvency and can ill-afford to haemorrhage funds in fighting (legal) disputes with uncertain outcomes.

The obvious financial cost is compounded by the management time which is usually unaccounted for, and lost, in conducting litigation such as dealing with disclosure, preparing statements, meetings with lawyers and then attendances before Tribunals or in court. Even greater, adverse and sometimes disastrous, consequences flow from the immense media attention which sports disputes and travails attract; it directly affects the attitudes and, inevitably, the spending decisions of supporters, sponsors and broadcasters.

Mediation offers a swift, economic and often expedient resolution to such wrangles and I can speak from experience. I have mediated disputes concerning governing bodies, clubs, organisations, athletes/players, management/administration, rules/regulations, transfers, employment, defamation, international tours, image rights, staging, assaults....almost all settled on the day.

Mediations can take place at the advent of the dispute or on the eve of a trial or anywhere in between. They are simple to organise and inexpensive.

It involves the agreement of the principals involved, and their key (legal) advisors, to all meet with the involvement of an independent mediator, in the same place and at the same time. There should be a genuine desire, and perhaps a determination, to divine a path through the issues and seek a resolution with which everyone can be content.

Think of something that’s burdening you today and imagine liberation from it, through settlement, tomorrow. It can happen!”

Quentin Smith is a Solicitor, a CEDR Accredited and Registered Mediator and a member of the Sport Resolutions Panel of Mediators. He has mediated in excess of 400 disputes across a range of sectors, including sport, and has achieved a very high settlement rate over 90%. Quentin is listed in the top 14 Mediators in the 2010 edition of 'Chambers UK-A Client’s Guide to the UK Legal Profession' and as a leading Mediator in the latest 2009 edition of the 'Legal 500' guide.