Sports ministers' Athens resolutions

A series of resolutions have been issued from the Council of Europe's Conference of Ministers Responsible for Sport in Athens last month – certain of which provide recognition of the work being undertaken by UEFA in areas such as betting, financial fair play, club licensing and good governance, training of young footballers and the specific nature of sport.

Ethics, autonomy and co-operation
The resolutions concern ethics, autonomy and co-operation, and have been approved by sports ministers from the European Union as well as by their counterparts from other non-EU countries – 49 in total. In a keynote speech at the conference in the Greek capital, UEFA President Michel Platini called for co-operation from European authorities and governments in tackling a variety of issues affecting football and sport in Europe. Mr Platini raised matters such as the integrity and orderly running of competitions; the fight against doping and corruption, in particular illegal betting; combating violence and racism and discrimination; and protecting young players and their training. (Click here.)

Tackling ethical challenges
With regard to sports ethics, the specific resolution invites European authorities and governments, as well as other concerned bodies, to promote best practices and co-operate to tackle challenges posed notably by match-fixing, corruption and illegal betting. The ultimate objective would be to achieve increased integrity controls and a 'fair return' to sport for grassroots funding as regards betting.

Competition fair play
The ministers also expressed the view that the issue of fair play between teams competing in the same competitions requires sports bodies to address good governance principles. They welcomed effective monitoring systems and sanctions that have been implemented by sports bodies such as UEFA, who introduced a club licensing system in the 2004/05 season to improve good governance and transparency in European football.

Stable training and education
Turning to young footballers and clubs training young players, the ministers agreed that the development of young sportsmen and women, and the health of sport as a whole, is enhanced by a stable training and education period in which young sportsmen and women are not incited to move abroad too early – with possible negative consequences both for their careers and for the European sports training system as a whole.

Promoting diversity – preventing racism
The ministers called for the exchange of best practices in helping to promote diversity through sport and combating discrimination, with the prevention of racism, xenophobia and racial intolerance in sport forming a key objective

Sport's specific nature
Finally, the ministers repeated their view that as part of the autonomy of sport, the specific features of sports should be properly taken into account when international, European or domestic law is applied on sporting issues.