European societies’ access to sport – the European Union actions

Abstract

Sport is gaining importance both as a social and economic phenomenon, contributing greatly to the strategic goals of the European Union. Sport and physical activity stimulate important values such as team spirit, solidarity, tolerance and the fair play principle. Not only is sport important for improving European citizens’ health, but it also has an educational dimension and plays a social and cultural role. The European Union is keen to follow the various challenges facing sport in Europe and deals with these issues on a regular basis by launching a number of initiatives (e.g. by promoting a slogan “Sport for all”) and encouraging member states to take various actions. However, sport is facing new threats and challenges that have emerged and intensified especially recently, such as doping, racism, violence, corruption, but also giving up systematic sports activity in many communities. The purpose of the article is an attempt to analyse the issues in question and to show them with reference to Poland.

Keywords

• football
• sport
• European Union