Social dialogue in professional sports in Europe: towards democratic governance between the European Sport Model and national industrial relations?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Integrated into a comparative approach across twenty European countries, this article conceptualises, maps, and analyses social dialogue outcomes in the governance of professional sports in Europe. Results derived from an online data collection among key stakeholders and subsequent document analysis show that social dialogue is increasingly practiced, yet still a rare phenomenon in this emerging economic sector. While public authorities are largely excluded, actor constellations underpinning the adoption of SD outcomes and the employment and social issues addressed by them are diverse. In the absence of transnational harmonisation, large differences across countries, types of sports, and gender prevail. Linear and logistical regression models suggest that key characteristics of national industrial relations systems such as collective bargaining coverage rates (using data from the OECD and Eurofound) rather than the specific configuration of national sport policy systems are associated with the (non-)existence of social dialogue outcomes in professional sports. This study advances the international labour rights-based discourse on innovative forms of social dialogue in sport policy making and discusses the implications of the diffusion of industrial democracy for the concept of a European Sport Model and the European integration process.