Mark and Niels’ victory over ISU at the European Commission

Mark and Niels’ victory over ISU at the European Commission

Dec 11, 2017

EU Athletes welcomes the decision of the European Commission that International Skating Union (ISU) rules imposing severe penalties on athletes participating in unauthorized speed skating competitions are in breach of EU antitrust law. As a consequence, the ISU must now change these rules.

This landmark ruling is a result of a courageous decision of two Dutch speed skaters, Mark Tuitert and Niels Kerstholt to challenge their federation’s (ISU) eligibility rules. The decision, announced on Friday the 8th of December, confirms that the ISU abused its dominant market position by imposing unfair and disproportionately punitive rules in order to enable the ISU to pursue its own commercial interests to the detriment of athletes and organizers of competing events.

EU Athletes has been supporting Mark and Niels through the #chancetocompete campaign and by representing the interest of all the European athletes that are or might be affected by similar rules imposed by their sport governing bodies.

We would like to congratulate and thank Mark and Niels for taking this difficult journey which now can significantly improve the situation of athletes around the World. Congratulations also to Ben Van Rompuy and his team for their impressive and successful legal work and representation.

We would also like to express our gratitude to the European Commission and Commissioner Margrethe Vestager for taking on this important case and rendering a wise decision, showing the sport governing bodies that they are not above the law.

For Jean-François Reymond, the General Secretary of EU Athletes: “We are extremely happy with this decision. The Olympic movement’s attempts to put political pressure on the Commission have not unduly affected the outcome of the hearing. This landmark ruling shows that the specificity of sport cannot be used as an excuse to gain commercial benefit at the expense of athletes”.

Brendon Batson OBE, the President of EU Athletes, added: “Sport governing must operate within the European legal framework and we are pleased that the European Commission has taken this important step. We hope that the sport organizations will now recognize that they cannot unilaterally decide on athletes’ situation and that there is an urgent need for them to engage in a partnership with independent athlete organizations.”

EU Athletes at Play the Game 2017: Riding waves of change

EU Athletes at Play the Game 2017: Riding waves of change

Dec 1, 2017

Play the Game is a biannual conference addressing a number of challenges to modern sport, such as corruption in sports organizations, match-fixing, doping, unsustainable mega-events and the need for more active sports participation policies. Play the Game 2017 “Riding the waves of change” gathers almost 450 journalists, scientists and sport officials on the 26-30th of November in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

EU Athletes Policy Officer Paulina Tomczyk has taken part in the panel “Reform in sport: An inside job or an outside intervention?”, highlighting in the speech the fundamental role of good governance in sport for athletes and the need for their equal participation in the reform process as well as the risks of uncontrolled and unconditional “autonomy” of sport organizations brings.

In the session “Athletes and Anti-Doping: Privacy and Participation” Paulina has also presented “Study of Monitoring Practices of European National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs)”. This research project, completed by Paulina together with Walter Palmer and Jeff Reymond, highlights poor reporting practices (low availability of the annual reports and fragmented data included) of European anti-doping organizations.

More information on the Play the Game 2017, including photos and videos from the sessions, is available on the website.

Photos: Thomas Søndergaard/Play the Game

PROtect Integrity Wrap-up Meeting

PROtect Integrity Wrap-up Meeting

Nov 20, 2017

The staff of our Erasmus+ “2016 PROtect Integrity” project met last week in Amsterdam for the final project meeting. The main goal of the meeting was to review and evaluate the project so far and discuss the remaining actions, including the ongoing research, led by prof. David Forrest and based on responses collected from players’ questionnaires, aiming to evaluate the integrity education delivered by player association during team visits. The paper and other outputs of the project will be published before the end of the year.

Besides project’s main focus on delivering face-to-face integrity education to 15 000 players in Europe, the project has included many other activities and positive developments, such as successful #PROtectIntegrity social media campaign, meetings covering specific issues as well as dialogue and cooperation with essential stakeholders.

“Tackling Corruption in the European Sport”

“Tackling Corruption in the European Sport”

Nov 9, 2017

The event organized by the Greek MEP Stelios Kouloglou has taken place in the European Parliament in Brussels on the 7th of November. The conference has gathered many interesting speakers including representatives from the European institutions, as well as the research and sport, in order to discuss the problem of corruption, match-fixing and doping. Our Policy Officer Paulina Tomczyk has taken part in the panel and had an opportunity to highligh the importance of good governance in sport, the role of athletes in reaching this goal and the issues related to the specificity and autonomy of sport in this context.

New President of EU Athletes elected !

New President of EU Athletes elected !

Oct 31, 2017

During the last Board meeting of EU Athletes, which has taken place at the Gaelic Players Association’s office in Dublin, Brendon Batson has been elected the President of EU Athletes. Natalia Orive has been elected as Vice President. They both have received a strong support from the Board, as their candidatures have been approved unanimously for 2-years terms.

For Brendon Batson, who is also the Chairman of Professional Players Federation (PPF): “It is a great honor to have been elected as the President of EU Athletes and taking over this position from Yves Kummer, who has done an impressive job over the last 10 years. Working with PPF for several years, I have seen that player unions can really make a difference and improve the players’ situation. I believe that EU Athletes has a great potential to bring further positive changes for the professional athletes around Europe, which has already been proven by various successful projects and initiatives”.

Natalia Orive, from the Spanish Female Futsal Player Association (AJFSF), who was the first woman to join the EU Athletes Board when she was elected in 2016, said: “I’m looking forward to continuing the work for EU Athletes’ members and cooperating with Brendon, the Board and the staff. Our experience shows that being a part of the European organization has been beneficial for the national unions and I’m happy to be further involved within EU Athletes leadership”.

Next EU Athletes Board meeting will take place in November in Amsterdam and will focus on the appointment of the new General Secretary and other elements related to the transition period within the organization.