Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-07-Speech-4-023"
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"en.20000907.1.4-023"2
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"Mr President, on the eve of the Sydney Games, what remains of the Olympic ideal and the exalted principles of Pierre de Coubertin? Not much, apparently, since some athletes – a minority, I am glad to say – are refusing to stay in the Olympic village, considering it to be below their station. Others, especially the sprinters, are proclaiming loud and long that they are only running to promote their particular brand of footwear. While it is worrying that top athletes are more motivated by the lure of financial gain than by the sporting ethic, mass sport, by contrast, is a guarantor of good physical and mental health and constitutes a veritable school of life, developing team spirit, tolerance and solidarity and presenting young people with exemplary role models.
An instrument of education and of social integration and cohesion, sport helps to combat racism, exclusion and violence, but sport, sadly, is being increasingly contaminated by doping, all in the name of business. Professional sport has undoubtedly become a business in its own right, subject to the dictates of profitability. Some football clubs are already listed on the stock market. But as more and more money is invested in sport, the financial rewards gradually come to take precedence over the game itself. This creates pressure to win by fair means or foul and particularly by means of doping, which is becoming ever harder to detect.
How can the sporting ethic be restored? First of all, the fight against doping must be globalised. Doping seriously damages athletes' health as well as the essential virtues of sport, namely honesty, fair play, respect for one's opponent, friendship, etc. In that respect, the creation of a World Anti-Doping Agency by the International Olympic Committee in 1999 has to be welcomed. Let us hope that it remains independent and that it will become operational very soon. It is our job to give it the tools it needs to accomplish its mission. Doping is not only a European problem; it is indubitably a problem of global dimensions.
As far as regulation is concerned, it is not up to Europe to make the rules. Europe must show its trust in the voluntary bodies by accepting the proposals from the federations and from other Olympic committees. The Bosman decision, for example, which was taken in the name of high principles, has destabilised professional clubs and has exacerbated the impact of money on European football. The latest transfer record, set when Figo moved to Real Madrid, is a case in point. Clubs in certain countries now build their teams almost exclusively with foreign players. This is particularly true of Barcelona, where they are able to field a team without a single Spanish player, which effectively makes it impossible for young nationals to play at the highest level in their country. The plundering of young players from the clubs that have developed their skills is another consequence. Transfer targets are becoming younger and younger: a player becomes transferable at the age of 15.
Europe is now trying to legislate on the rules governing transfers, as you, Commissioner, have told us. If the scheme under consideration is implemented, which I hope it will not be, the result will be total deregulation of the system, which will benefit the richest clubs still further and despoil the clubs that develop young talent, condemning them to eventual closure. The cure is worse than the disease. It is therefore essential that we do our utmost to develop mass sport, village clubs, so that everyone can take part in sport and so that every sportsperson who enjoys competing can progress and strive for a place among the elite in healthy and fair competition."@en1
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