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PROJECT ON EQUAL TREATMENT IN SPORT FUNDED BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Monday 24 May 2010

Dr Gregory Ioannidis has just completed a project funded by the European Commission and the Asser Institute in The Hague entitled: "Study on the equal treatment of non-national athletes in individual sports competitions". The study looks at how far the EU principle of equal treatment for all member nationalities is upheld in the world of sport, and how far governing bodies in sport accept the need to comply with EU law. Here is Dr Ioannidis' description of the project:

The Directorate for Youth, Sport and Citizenship of the European Commission instructed the Asser Institute to conduct a study on the equal treatment of non-national athletes by sporting governing bodies in the individual member states of the European Union. This study finds its roots in the "Pierre de Coubertin" Action Plan (action no.40) annexed to the European Commission's White Paper on Sport, adopted on 11 July 2007.

The aim of the study is to assist the European Commission to identify ways in which the autonomy of sport and its "specific nature" could be reconciled with the observance of fundamental EU principles such as the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality, enshrined in Article 18 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

This is in conjunction with the numerous decisions entered by the European Court of Justice in relation to the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality. In about half a dozen cases (in particular in the cases of Dona and Bosman), the ECJ clearly stated that such discrimination is incompatible with EU law.

With these elements in mind, the study had also to consider the "special nature" of sport, along with the desire that sporting governing bodies possess for complete and utter autonomy. In addition, the study had to consider, objectively, the terms of locality that characterise the application of national legislation, customs and/or practices. Such customs and practices usually serve to confirm the local attitudes of those who have been selected and/or chosen to govern sports in a particular area. Although submission to the international legal order and respect towards the regulatory framework of individual international governing bodies are usually observed, there are, nevertheless, instances where the mentality and attitudes of local officials give rise to what we now call discrimination on the grounds of nationality.

The author of this study has been, and continues to be, privy to such attitudes, as in no less than three sporting cases (before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, disciplinary panels, national courts and one application to the ECJ), he has identified different elements of discrimination against individual sporting personalities. What becomes more serious, however, is the finding that individual sporting governing bodies, through financial assistance and ill-conceived perception of 'public' support, continue to ignore the application of certain EU legal principles and feed their ignorance with the misconception that they could gain immunity from judicial intervention.

Such attitudes have been incorporated into this study, but there is also a positive element that needs to be addressed. This is the situation where people begin to realise the importance of the application of legality to sporting situations, if only when a decision from the ECJ becomes binding upon the relationships between athletes and sporting governing bodies. The importance of the EU as an institution which would protect and safeguard sport is evident in this study, as an increasing number of sporting governing bodies begin to recognise the need for adherence to these legal principles.

Report by Dr Gregory Ioannidis and the Web Team