The European Model of Sport: Values, Rules and Interests

Recent transformations in the ways that modern sport is managed have fundamentally changed its role in society: previously a simple form of leisure activity and health promotion, sport has become a complex phenomenon and a multibillion dollar business. The combination of sociocultural and economic dimensions makes sport an important tool for the promotion of interests. A leading role in the development of sport throughout history gives the European Union (EU) an advantage in setting the rules for its management, while the size of the sports market in Europe further facilitates the EU’s leading role in developing the regulatory basis in this field. The sports model developed by EU institutions plays an important role in the deepening of regional integration processes, promoting the European model outside the region and also the EU’s transformation into one of the drivers of the development of the global sports management system.The goal of this article is to identify the specificities of the European model of sport, the instruments and resources used by the EU to promote European values in this field and the universal features of the European approach that make it applicable in other regions. The analysis shows that the EU actively promotes its values, norms and interests by entrenching them into the European sport model and then promoting this model to other countries and regions. Practices and norms developed in the European context are being actively transferred to the international level. Sport, and especially football which is the most popular and among the most profitable sports, has become another area in which European management practices demonstrate their consistency and are being actively applied at the global level.The spread of the European sports model is facilitated by the “spillover” of EU law to the organizations and institutions in which it participates. The EU model is promoted through soft power supported by the authority of the European sports federations and the leading position of the European sports market. By elaborating its own sports policy and encouraging its spread to other regions, the European Union is driving the development of sports management practices at the global level.