The Hague – the Dutch capital best known as the international city of peace and justice – became a city of sport for a few days this month when hundreds of industry delegates across the continent descended on the city’s Kurhaus Grand Hotel for the EU Sport Forum 2016.
Located on the seafront, just metres from where the city held the Beach Volleyball World Championships in 2015, and close to where the 2014 Hockey World Cup took place, the location of the forum had all the sporting credentials to host such a conference, and there was much to discuss.
At the heart of the debate was the refugee and migrant crisis that is currently engulfing Europe, as boat after boat of displaced humans search for sanctuary against terrorism and oppressive regimes elsewhere. More than 1m migrants travelled to the continent in 2015 alone, with a further 130,000 making the journey in the first few months of 2016 (see page 38).
Also on the agenda was sport and its relation to health and the prevention of disease. Sir Graham Watson, president of EuropeActive, told delegates the “one in every five European children were overweight or obese”, while the over-65 population is expected to double in the next 50 years, putting “huge pressure on healthcare and social security systems” across the Union.
“Inactivity costs more than €80m (£62bn, US$88.8bn) per year, 6 per cent of the total budget of European health expenditure,” said Watson. “Facing this challenge, grassroots sport can contribute significantly to get more people more active more often.”
Indeed, grassroots sport was put forward as a solution for both growing levels of inactivity and the mass-integration job required in Europe following the influx of refugees and migrants.
As a result, Tibor Navracsics, European Commission commissioner for education, culture, youth and sport, is putting grassroots sport at the heart of his agenda to create a better Europe, and the Hungarian and his colleagues used the forum to make it known that physical activity is no longer being banished to the margins by the EU.
“Sport is an underdeveloped strand we think should become more important to the EU. Sport as a tool for development has been largely unexplored, but sport is a common language that transcends borders,” said European Commission deputy director general for education and culture, Jens Nymand Christensen.
To begin, Navracsics has commissioned a ‘high level group’ to devise innovative schemes in which sport and physical activity can be used as forces for good in health, the economy and social inclusion during a challenging period for Europe. Such initiatives will be well-funded and put forward as legitimate means improve people’s quality of life.
Watson co-chairs the high level group with Niels Nygaard, president of Denmark’s National Olympic Committee, which has to present findings to Navracsics by the mid-2016.
Wolfgang Baumann, secretary general of The Association For International Sport for All (TAFISA) and another member of the 15-strong group, gave the forum a snapshot of what was on the table.
“I recently came across an interview in an Australian newspaper with a renowned professor who was asked what he thought were the major future challenges the world had to face, and he gave a threefold answer,” said Baumann. “One – the increase of terrorism, two – the increase of global warming, three – the increase of physical inactivity.
“You might call us dreamers, but we certainly believe grassroots sports can play an extremely important role in coping with all these challenges, not just the challenge of physical activity, but the other two to a certain degree.”
Topics being discussed by the high level group include grassroots sport’s effect on social inclusion, as well as skills development, which not only speaks to the integration of migrants from other cultures, but to the millions of disaffected young Europeans who are unemployed and losing their way.
Using grassroots sport to boost the economy, and health, and to inspire urban planning and infrastructure will also form part of the recommendations.
“How do we measure success? Of course this has to do with the quality of our final recommendations,” explained Baumann. “They should be new, beyond traditional target groups, cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary, efficient, and of course, according to the competences of the European Commission. These are not just buzzwords but a serious framework for our work.”
While Europe feels at its most fragile than at any period since the end of the Second World War, it would be a feather in the cap of the industry if grassroots sport can genuinely be used as a beacon of hope by the continent’s decision-makers.
