Account of the meeting at the Council of Europe

Strasbourg, 14th September 2007

I have been invited to partcipate this meeting as President of an >Inetrnational Federation. The Portuguese deputy, Mr. Arnaud, recalled the broad lines of his consolidated report on the European sports model and the Chairman, French deputy Mr Schneider, explained for his part that the Council was anxious to hear the directors of international federations – in their capacity as experts – in order to take their concerns into account. Mr Schneider stated that the Council of Europe had no legislative powers but rather a role to play in consultations and proposals, in harmony with the European Assembly. After Mr Weingartner, director of Youth and Sport, had recalled the part played by the Council of Europe in setting up the WADA, and that no treaty had been signed for the time being, it was the turn of the various people in attendance to speak.

Mr Mario Pescante (Italy), IOC board member, pointed out that he was concerned about seeing the Council of Europe restricting the principle of autonomy of Sporting Federations. He detailed the unease currently affecting the sport and its relative degeneration. He ended by objecting to the report made by the Portuguese deputy, stating that, principally, it had only considered aspects of professional football.

The football representatives, FIFA and UEFA, stated for their part that the European sports model was in fact a global model, but that the model was now at risk from globalisation and individualism: "People want to use Sport rather than serve it". Mentioning internal deregulation within European sport, and citing the case of a fourth division Spanish football club that bought its place in the second division last July, the football representatives stated that urgent intervention was required on a European level, as Europe was responsible for the deregulation seen in Africa and South America (where the football championships have no players left in them). They wanted Europe to lean towards harmonisation and the regulation of the status of "players’ agents", who are rampant everywhere without having to respect principles as important as ethics, the moral side of sports.

A discussion on the independence of sports federations was begun by Mrs Brasseur (the deputy from Luxembourg) who, in her capacity as deputy Mayor of the Grand Duchy, was of the view that the demands of sports authorities in terms of equipment (stadiums, athletics tracks, etc.) were exorbitant. She wanted independence but with specific limits. Mr H.Verbruggen (Netherlands), the current President of the General Association of International Sports Federations, was the first to support the view that our discussions ought not to be limited to evoking the concerns of professional football. Making mention of the hundreds of amateur federations, he stressed current preoccupations, as private events enjoying too much media coverage were increasingly escaping the control of the federations (e.g. the America’s Cup, not managed by sailing federations).

For my part, I spoke to thank the Council for having organised the meeting and thus giving us the opportunity to meet and, as one, express our respective problems. While I indicated that I had appreciated the report written by the Portuguese deputy, Mr Arnaud, I did not disguise my sadness in noting that nowhere in the report had I seen the word "volunteer", a cornerstone of the associative system of most sports federations, national or international. I expressed my fears of seeing the Council of Europe beginning a discussion on a European sports model that focused solely on professional football, and I explained hat for the case of billiard sports, we were not concerned at all by the problems of violence, xenophobia or racism; quite the contrary: our various championships brought together competitors in a true spirit of sportsmanship without having to condemn any such behaviour.

It does not seem conceivable to think of a sports model and neglect its foundations. Stressing the voluntary aspect of the officers, I asked the Council of Europe to discuss the possible harmonisation of legislations and a tax system intended to alleviate the burden on volunteer officers and encourage them to get involved in the framework of a sports association rather than discourage them from that. Furthermore, I drew the attention of Mr Arnaud to the limitations of his analysis of the European sports model, particularly in terms of financial solidarity (point 6 of the report). I briefly talked about the case of snooker, which is a perfect example of the separate management of amateurs and professionals without losing financial solidarity.

Finally, I asked that greater dialogue and co-operation between the National Olympic Committees and the national federations be examined. Even in Europe, and especially since the arrival of Eastern European countries, there were serious anomalies in terms of the respect for the independence of national federations, which sometimes had changes in their management imposed with utter disregard for democratic rules. I mentioned the case of Iran and FIFA, explaining that a number of federations did not have the same weight and that the intervention and vigilance of the Olympic Committees appeared to be indispensable.

Chairman Schneider thanked all participants for the richness of their comments, inviting them to submit the views they had expressed in writing. On general request, there was mention of a possible second working meeting, and Chairman Schneider stated that he was very much in favour of that.

Don’t hesitate to contact me to get the full report of Mr Arnaud.