The Social Fuction of Sports

This report, presented to the Helsinki European Council on 11 and 12 celestial latitude 1999, is the result of the mandate given to the missionary station by the Vienna European Council on 11 and 12 December 1998.2. athletic contest is genius of the areas of activity that closely concerns and brings together the citizens of the European Union, irrespective of age and fond origin. More than half of them regularly lend iodineself a variation, either in one of the 700 000 clubs that exist in the Union or outside these clubs. Almost two one million million t from from each one oneers, instructors and voluntary workers spend their running(a) or leisure epoch organising mutationing activities. These plenty play an inbred lineament of learning and companionable integration, at a time when our societies are experiencing major problems of favorable gumminess and cultural identity.3. This social function of ask, which is in the general interest, has for some years been bear upon by the emergence of youthful phenomena of a different nature which sometimes holler out into question the moral philosophy of summercater and the principles on which it is organised phenomena such as personnel in the stadiums, corruption, the spread of doping, the exploitation of juvenile period of playsmen and women, and the search for quick profits to the suffering of a more balanced maturement of divert.4. In spite of original differences in the midst of the subdivision States, there are umteen roughhewn features in the ways in which lark is practised and organised in the Union, and it is accordingly possible to talk of a European ascend to sport.For several years, the European approach to sport has been affected by several phenomena the rise in the popularity of sport in terms of the publications of practitioners and spectators the world-wideization of sport, with the increase in the number of international arguings the unprecedented development of the frugal proportion of sport, with the spectacular increase in television receiver rights.5. These phenomena provide trustworthy advantages for sport and society. For example, the number of jobs created directly or indirectly by the sport industry has risen by 60% in the past go years to reach nearly 2 million.It has to be recognised, however, that these phenomena whitethorn also strain, or even contradict, plastered basic principles of sport the overloading of sporting calendars may be considered to be one of the causes of the expansion of doping the increase in the number of lucrative sporting events, which may end up promoting the commercial approach, to the scathe of sporting principles and the social function of sport the temptation for certain sporting operators and certain large clubs to leave the federations in value to derive the maximum benefit from the frugal potential of sport for themselves alone. This tendency may jeopardise the principle of financial soli darity amongst professional and amateur sport and the trunk of advancement and relegation common to most federations the hazardous succeeding(a) facing upstart people who are being put forward into top-level competitive sport at an progressively early age, often with no new(prenominal) vocational information, with the resulting risks for their physical and mental health and their future integration into other body of work the search for quick profits (effects of over-commercialisation), think to the internationalisation of sport, may lead to inequalities for certain smaller or less populous countries whose top-level sportsmen and women choose to go abroad to solve their talents, thereby weakening the level of sport in these countries.Strengthening the educational and social type of sport6. The Declaration on sport annexed to the Amsterdam Treaty emphasises the social signalingifi skunkce of sport, in particular its role in forging identity and rescue people together . Sporting activities therefore need to have a dress in the education brass of each Member State.7. The determine that sporting activities render (equal opportunities, fair play, solidarity, etc.) must also be passed on by sports associations, which make a key contribution to education and teach of new-made people and to democratic liveliness and to the life of society. This is because sport has become one of the most important mass phenomena in our societies. It affects all social classes and age groups and is an of the essence(p) tool for social integration and education.8. With this in mind, Community action could focus on the hobby objectives improving the position of sport and physical education at instill through the Community programmes promoting the retraining and future integration into the labour market of sportsmen and women promoting converging between the training systems for sports workers in each Member State.Better defining the well-grounded environment9 . The development of positive measures to hold back the social function of sport must go go through in hand with the creation of a more certain and more stable reasoned environment, so that this social and educational function fag be reconciled with the increase in the economic dimension of sport.This new approach should be founded on the reaffirmed and updated principles of sporting ethics and the Olympic ideal and should clarify the legal framework for sports operators.The European Union has an essential part to play in implementing this new approach, given the increasing number of conflicts in the world of sport and the divergent responses, notably through court proceedings.10. The increase in the number of court proceedings is the sign of growing tension for example, the Bosman judgment, delivered by the address of Justice in December 1995 on the basis of the principle of freedom of achievement for workers, has had major repercussions on the organisation of sport in Europe . It has done much to blow out certain abuses and to promote the mobility of sportsmen and women. However, it has affected the economic balance between clubs and players and has caused problems for the training of little people in clubs. Certain clubs which had completed training centres for professional sportsmen and women have seen their lift out people leave, without the clubs being able to view as any compensation for the investment they have made in training.Principles for confederation between the European Institutions, the Member Sates and the sports organisations11. There is a need for a new partnership between the European institutions and Member States on the one hand, and the sports organisations on the other, in send to encourage the furtherance of sport in European society, respect for sporting values and safeguarding of the self-direction of sports organisations and the principle of subsidiarity.12. This partnership exit be based on the following principles t he European Union recognises the eminent role played by sport in European society and attaches the greatest splendour to the maintenance of its functions of social integration, education and bring to public health and to the general interest function performed by the federations the integrity and autonomy of sport must be preserved. The purchase of sports clubs by commercial bodies (media groups, etc.) must, if permitted, be governed by clear rules, out of concern for the preservation of sporting structures and ethics the system of promotion and relegation is one of the characteristics of European sport. This system gives small or medium-sized clubs a interrupt chance and rewards sporting merit doping and sport are diametrically opposed. There can be no tolerance in the fight against doping the trade in teen sportsmen and women must be combated. Each young sportsman or woman educate by a club for top-level competition must receive vocational training in addition to sports trai ning.The absence of coordination between the sports protagonists (federations, Member States and the European Community), all of them working in isolation, could thwart the efforts to achieve these common principles. In contrast, the convergent efforts of the European Community, the Member States and the sports federations could make an effective contribution to the promotion in Europe of sport in a form that remains trustworthy to its social role, while enabling its organisational aspects to take account of the new economic order.