Sustainability and law have long been treated as separate topics. Sustainability was considered a voluntary commitment, while the law was allegedly limited to binding regulatory requirements for other areas. Today, this distinction is justifiably considered outdated. On the one hand, there are still numerous voluntary commitments regarding sustainability (so-called "soft law") without "hard sanctions"; on the other hand, both the German and the European legislator have enacted numerous regulatory requirements with "hard sanctions" in the area of sustainability ("hard law").

Within this scale of "soft" to "hard" law, sport occupies a special role. Due to their constitutionally guaranteed autonomy, sports federations can develop their own rules that oblige e.g. clubs or member associations to comply with sustainability requirements. An example of this is the sustainability guideline of the German Football League (DFL), which contains various obligations for the clubs of the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga and provides for sanctions in case of non-compliance.