<i>Two Players One Goal? Sport in the European Union</i> edited by Walter Tokarski, Dirk Steinbach, Karen Petry & Barbara Jesse

Abstract

The editors of this book are based at the German Sport University in Cologne, whilst the contributors are drawn from sports federations, academic institutions and government departments from across Europe. The ‘two players’ are obviously the EU and sport. The ‘one goal’, as stated on page 8 is ‘to preserve the diversity of sports in Europe’. The insertion of a question mark after the title rightly indicates caution. An obvious irony with the goal of preserving the diversity of European sport is that it appears to require the intervention of sporting federations and the EU both of whom exercise monopolistic and supranational control over their members. Whilst this model may protect the conception of diversity often described as a ‘European model of sport’, it may well stifle another. What of a model which allows for a diversification of organisation through the emergence of new market entrants, a diversification of talent through the genuine free movement of labour and a diversification of viewing choice for fans through the adoption of less restrictive broadcasting contracts? This is the alternative vision that commercial interests have asked the EU to promote. In this connection, this text makes two assumptions that may well undermine the diversity claim. First, that a ‘diversified’ European model of sport actually exists and second, that the EU is a monolithic entity committed and able to preserve it. At best, what both parties are actually seeking is a clarification of the legal environment in which sport operates. The level of clarification (sporting autonomy) will always be subject to debate, but the goal allows sport to remodel their constitutions with greater legal certainty and it frees the EU from having to make time consuming and politically contentious judgements about issues of which it knows little.