Identifying Best Practice in Women's Football - FIFA/CIES ...

world since FIFA’s recognition of the CAS in 2002. If this is used as a reflection ofcommercialization and professionalism, then women’s football comes in well behind, interms of there being only one notable case to come before CAS (Olympique Lyonnaise vsUEFA and Fortuna Hjornning, 2010), while men’s football is taking over a third of all CAS’s200 cases per year. 702.3.4 European UnionSince the sample for this research project is made up of European clubs, a brief review ofrelevant EU policies and laws was thought necessary. The development of a Europeanapproach to sport, as exemplified by the European Commissions 1999 Helsinki Report andthe following Nice declaration, showed that the nature of sport existed beyond nationalboundaries and regulations. Together with the European Commission White Paper on Sport, 71it was shown how sport permeated multiple aspects of life; from health and education tocompetition law and criminal liability; from social inclusion and integration to freedom ofmovement and the protection of minors.The European approach is contrasted to the American model where the four mainsports operate closed leagues in which professional athletes ply their trade. Hence, if anathlete falls out of the closed league structure in these four sports, the athlete is essentially atmost a semi-professional athlete, but most likely an amateur. This makes the definition ofprofessional rather simple in the US model. In contrast, the Independent European SportReview 2006 shows that European sport is based on a pyramidal structure that involvespromotion and relegation, and that both amateur and professional sport is managed by sportassociations. 72 This makes the strict definition from amateur to professional somewhat lessclear and even more complicated in an emerging sport such as women’s football.In some cases, it would make sense to refer to EU labour law, which helps to definean employment relationship and hence a definition of a professional athlete as one who""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""70 Louise Reilly, Counsel to the CAS. 19 May 2010.71 European Commission Sport (2009) White Paper on Sport. [WWW]. Available fromhttp://ec.europa.eu/sport/white-paper/whitepaper108_en.htm [Accessed 10/06/2010].72 Arnaut, Jose Luis, Independent European Sport Review, European Commission White Paper, 2006.##""