Sport’s different dimensions
Sport, for its own structure, has got many different dimensions. Indeed, sport goes much beyond the “simple” (although very important) promotion of physical activity: promoting sport policies means promoting social inclusion and integration, economic aspects, education, etc.. And the cooperation between the European Union and the Sport Organisations is crucial to find the right balance among the different dimensions of sport, in particular those who are referred to different actors.
In recent years 15 top multisport clubs1 who represent, all together, a major segment of the European Sport system (more than 250 Olympic gold medals, 750 European titles and 3,700 national titles) and mobilize on a weekly basis hundreds of thousands of athletes and, very often, millions of supporters created the European Multisport Club Association (www.multisportclubs.eu).
The European Sport Model can be seen as a pyramid, where the basis is represented by the amateur and grass-roots athletes and teams, while the top by professional athletes and teams. In the European movement, there are only few actors that can represent both these two levels, with their own interests, balances and needs. And these are the Multisport Clubs, sports clubs that have different sports sections – both professional and amateur – under the same colours, symbols and organisation.
