The debate on the report on sport policy in the European Union took place last night in the plenary session of the European Parliament and today the report will be voted on, which will surely be approved with a strong message against of the European Super League.
The European Parliament’s report calls for “a European model of sport that recognizes the need for a strong commitment to the integration of the principles of solidarity, sustainability, inclusion, open competition, sporting merit and equity” and, consequently, strongly opposes “split competitions that undermine these principles and jeopardize the stability of the sports ecosystem in general”, while stressing that “all stakeholders in sport and national authorities have to promote these principles ”
In this way, the Plenary Session of the European Parliament supports what has already been approved by the Committee on Culture and Sport. And the European Commission itself, which took part in the debate yesterday, sent a very strong message against the Super League.
The debate was attended by Tomasz Frankowski, Polish MEP and vice-president of the Sports Group; the European Commissioner, Margaritis Schinas; and several MEPs who have worked on the report.
Both MEP Frankowski and Austrian MEP Heide and Germany’s Kammerevert, along with Commissioner Schinas, emphasized the importance of the European model of sport and opposed the European Super League. They called on the European institutions and national governments to continue to oppose such initiatives.
Frankowski also stressed the importance of the health of the players when setting the schedule, particularly with regard to international tournaments that must also be respected by national leagues. Commissioner Schinas closed the speech by highlighting the asymmetry between the limits of the European Commission’s competence in the field of sport and the expectations of citizens. He recalled that until recently there was a similar situation in terms of health policy and the European Union has corrected it to have more powers.
The intention of the Commissioner would be to propose something similar in the future in the field of sport policy, that is, for the Commission to have more powers in this area. At present, its competences are limited to the coordination of initiatives between Member States except when there is an element of the internal market.
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