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Szyszczak, Erika --- "Is Sport Special?" [2007] ELECD 254; in Bogusz, Barbara; Cygan, Adam; Szyszcak, Erika (eds), "The Regulation of Sport in the European Union" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: The Regulation of Sport in the European Union

Editor(s): Bogusz, Barbara; Cygan, Adam; Szyszcak, Erika

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203632

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Is Sport Special?

Author(s): Szyszczak, Erika

Number of pages: 30

Extract:

1. Is sport special?
Erika Szyszczak

INTRODUCTION
This chapter has three broad themes. The first theme analyses how sport is
being portrayed as special in the European Union's (EU) emerging regulatory
processes, analysing the political, economic and sociological arguments that
are being used to inform the regulatory discourse. The second theme analyses
how a European model of sport is being created through political and institu-
tional processes in the EU. The third theme examines the case law of the
European Courts to show how, and why, claims are made that sport should be
accorded special treatment in the application of the Internal Market and the
competition law rules. The chapter organizes the question, `Is sport special?',
around two broad ideas. The first idea is the belief that sport is special and that
it has a role to play in creating a European polity. The second idea analyses
how the idea that there is a `European model of sport' has been created and
how this is used to justify and underpin arguments for giving sport special
treatment in regulatory processes.


WHY IS SPORT SPECIAL?
Increasingly, sport-related issues are emerging in litigation before the
European Courts. Claims are made that sport is special in that it poses differ-
ent questions for the EU regulatory processes and, it is argued, requires differ-
ent solutions. The EU is struggling to find a role for sport to play in the
emerging European polity as arguments are put forward that sport is not the
...