The European Union (EU) intends to use sport to implement a range of social, cultural and educational policy objectives. However, the rapid commercialization of European sport threatens to obstruct this goal. Traditionally, the sports sector has developed rules which have attempted to maintain a competitive balance between participants. Given the extent of commercialization in European sport, the maintenance of these rules is considered by many as essential. Increasingly, however, these alleged pro-competitive rules have been regarded as anti-competitive by the EU. Commercialization therefore not only threatens the competitive balance within sport, it also obstructs the EU's desire to use sport to implement other policy objectives. As such, a body of opinion has emerged seeking greater protection for these rules. Key actors have strategically exploited institutional venues in the EU in order to achieve this. By doing so they have contributed to the establishment of a 'new approach' for dealing with sporting issues in the EU.
Claudio Radaelli at the University of Bradford. Of course, the views expressed in this text (and any errors) are my own. In addition, I owe special thanks to past and present sports law researchers at the Anglia Polytechnic University. In particular Simon Gardiner and John O'Leary have frequently provided me with an invaluable platform with which to share my ideas. I am also grateful to those members of the EU who shared their thoughts on this matter with me and allowed for the reproduction of key documentation. The final word is of course reserved for my family. Without the support of Berenice this book would never have been completed. Without the interventions of my adorable son Lowell, it would have been completed much sooner! I don't regret a minute. Happy first birthday son. Notes
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