The work is devoted to the analysis of models of sports management and legal regulation of the sports sphere in foreign countries. The article examines both the interventionist approach to regulating the sports sphere, which involves a significant role for the state, as well as mixed and liberal approaches, which function with broader powers for non-state regulation of sports. Examples of systematization of sports legislation in different sports management models are provided, including examples of regulatory legal acts and the relations they govern. A conclusion is made about the consistent tendency of the interventionist model towards codification of norms regulating sports relations and, conversely, the absence of codification under a liberal approach. Nevertheless, each of the systems provides for the implementation of the principle of autonomy of sports to one degree or another.