Sporting Exception in The European Union's Sports Policy

Yıl 2011, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 2, 65 - 80, 01.06.2011

Behiç Fidanoğlu

Öz

Sports have certain specialities that allow the sports industry to be differentiated from other kinds of economic sectors. The functional role of sports in the fields of social and educational development and the distinctive framework of the sports regulation causes national and international sports governing bodies to have autonomy while determining the sport’s governing rules[1]. Previously, the sport’s governing bodies had full autonomy while regulating the sports; however, due to economic and politic reasons the European Union (EU) is involved in the regulation process of sports, even though the EU respected the characteristics of sports and promoted a regulatory space for the sports governing bodies. In this instance, the sporting exception appeared and was developed through the decisions of the Court of Justice or European Commission[2]. In this essay, I will try to explain the development and application of the sporting autonomy inside the EU’s organisational policy