EUROPEAN COMMISSION STUDY ON THE EUROPEAN SPORTS MODEL NOW OUT

The Study on the European Sport Model, already commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) back in August 2021, and conducted by ECORYS, is now out. 

The European Sport Model study arrives at a crucial moment when taking into account recent economic and societal trends and possible threats to have confronted organised and competitive sports in Europe. This increased importance or indeed concern, surrounding the European Sport Model has been backed up at the European institutional level by the European Parliament’s 2021 Resolution of EU Sport Policy that called for the protecting and strengthening the European Sport Model, particularly in the face of threats of closed and breakaway competitions. 

In order to discover some of the main traits of the European Sport Model along with the specific sport related trends informing on the model, the study creates 15 dedicated sports fiches. Each sport fiche elaborates on the main traits of the sport model relating to the specific sport, to go along with the main trends affecting the evolution of the particular sport. These ‘fiches’ are made up of both team and individual sports including:

• Archery 
• Athletics 
• Basketball 
• Cycling 
• Football 
• Handball 
• Ice Hockey 
• Ice Skating 
• Judo  
• Rowing 
• Rugby 
• Swimming 
• Tennis 
• Triathlon 
• Volleyball 

The study revolves around information and evidence gathering on the impacts of closed sport competitions to the system of organised sport in Europe. These key findings are aimed at providing transparency for all stakeholders of the sport movement with the view of supporting future political and policy discussions designed to strengthen and protect the European Sport Model and which this study can feed into. 
 
The EOC EU Office has followed closely the drafting of this study and will keep you updated of any further developments that emanate from this topical issue but in the meantime, the study can be accessed via this link