This new multi national editorial team will continue the excellent work of Simona Kustec-Lipicer, who was first editor of the Sport&EU Newsletter and has developed the Review into the emerging academic journal that it is now. Dr Kustec-Lipicer is one of the longest serving (and most active) members of Sport&EU. Her active engagement in the association has helped Sport&EU to reach is current position as one of the leading academic communities in our field of study. We would like to thank her for all the effort she has put in both the Newsletter and the Review. Simona will see off the publication of the upcoming issue and she will also be on hand to assist the new editors for a seamless transition.

The new editorial team is lead by Arne Niemann and Alexander Brand (both at the University of Mainz, Germany) who are also among the most committed members of Sport&EU. They attended the first ever annual conference of the association in 2006, where they presented a paper on the Europeanisation of German football, that has later developed into one of the recent success stories of Sport&EU’s contribution to the academic study of sport in Europe. Simon Licen, himself, has also been an active member of our association, as an assistant editor of the Sport&EU Review. We are really happy to have the three of them on board, and we are sure they will bring the Sport&EU Review to new levels.

Stanislas Frossard is the Executive Secretary of the « Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport », which is the intergovernmental platform of co-operation of the Council of Europe on Sports policies. Mr Frossard started in the Council of Europe as an Administrator, in charge of the Sports Conventions Unit (Anti-doping and Spectator Violence Conventions).

For more information on the conference programme and registration, please visit our website, where you can also read a full profile of our keynote speaker, Stanislas Frossard.

A pre-conference event will be organised on 20th June and the conference will start in the morning of 21st June.

Click here to access the full programme.

 This year, the conference is organised by the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, IDHEAP. The theme of the conference, ‘Towards a networked governance of sport’ promises to deliver high quality academic debates on the reality of sport just a few days before the inaugural ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Sport&EU travels for the second time to continental Europe and Lausanne, the olympic city, promises to be the perfect host for our annual showcase event. The proximity of many international sport governing bodies ensures an enriching debate between academic and practitioners in issues pertaining to EU sports policy and law.

 The local organisers have managed to keep conference fees at a very reasonable level in comparison with similar events hosted in Switzerland. So please, recognise their effort and join us in Lausanne. Moreover, following Sport&EU’s traditional policy, we have secured preferential registration and accommodation rates for PhD student. We encourage PG students to join our debates in Lausanne this summer.

For full information on the conference programme, registration fees, travelling and accommodation, please visit our website.

 More information regarding the programme and guest speakers will be uploaded to the website, so we invite you to check it regularly. 

We would like to thank our local organisers, Jean-Patrick Villeneuve, Madalina Diaconou and Jean-Loup Chappelet for their hospitality and their hard work in organising our 2012 Conference.

Please, come and join us in Lausanne. We look forward to seeing you in the Olympic capital.

Download the application form.

At the end of this year we are saying goodbye to Samuli Miettinen who stepped down as co-editor of the Review due to increasing burdens in his personal and professional life. Samuli is one of the founding fathers of the Sport&EU Review and was co-editor from its establishment. His contribution to the Review has been invaluable and we would like to thank him deeply for all his kick-ups and efforts devoted to it.

We invite authors to consider contributing full papers, forum contributions, book reviews, or members’ announcements for publication in future issues of the Sport&EU Review; a full call for papers can be found here). Further, please consider applying to be a co-editor of the Review. Members’ contribution is vital to keep the Sport&EU Review running!

As always, contributions, comments and feedback is welcome at review@sportandeu.com.

Download Sport&EU Review Volume 3, Issue 2

The Sport&EU Review is entering its fourth year of publication. It is an electronic publication distributed in pdf format that is registered with its own ISSN and is currently indexed in EBSCOhost and International Platform of Sports Law Journals.

The team of three editors is responsible for the timely delivery of the Review three issues per year and, together with the Sport&EU committee, they will be looking at ways of developing the contents and the formats of the Review.

The tasks of the editors comprise:

•  Timely publication and distribution of the journal three times per year
•  Commissioning articles for the journal and managing the peer-review process
•  Editing the journal’s contents
•  Sending out of calls for contributions to the journal, as well as receiving articles and contributions
•  Liaising with the Sport&EU committee to plan the contents and possible development of the journal
•  Proposing medium-term development for the journal

Candidates should send a short CV and a cover letter with a vision statement (goals and plans for the content of the Review as well as an assessment of the current strengths and weaknesses) to review@sportandeu.com by Monday, 19 March 2012 (The deadline has been extended).

Applicants will be reviewed by the Search Committee immediately after the deadline submission date. The new co-editor will be involved in the preparation of Issue 1 of 2012 and is expected to be engaged at-par with the other co-editors by Issue 2 of the same year.

The new co-editor needs to be fluent in English. It might be an advantage if she or he has a knowledge of the sport and EU academic disciplines. It may also be an advantage if she or he has contacts beyond Sport&EU that can promote the association and the Review.

The new co-editor will be expected to manage her or his time as to allow for a timely filling of the issues.

Informal queries can be directed to Borja Garcia (b.garcia-garcia@lboro.ac.uk) or the editorial team of the Review (review@sportandeu.com).

We look forward to receiving your proposals. Please remember your involvement in Sport&EU is important to continue our growth.

The book is available to purchase through outlets such as Amazon UK, Amazon (US), MUP/Blackwells or Abebooks (UK). 

The book opens with three chapters that set the context for the country analysis. In this first part the editors review the theoretical framework, Richard Parrish evaluates decisions of the EU, Council of Europe and CAS with an impact on football and, finally, Jonathan Hill presents a view on the europeanisation of UEFA itself. The second part of the book undertakes detailed analysis of the new reality of football in ten different countries: England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland. Case study selection has tried to include a variety of factors, from the size of the national leagues, to geographical balance, regulatory tradition or length of EU membership. For the sake of analysis, there is also a non-EU Member State. The book has been well receive within the EU studies academic community. Christoper Hill, Professor of International Relations at Cambridge University commented on the publication: ‘Football is both a major business and an emotional spectacle which holds millions enthralled. As such it deserves serious analysis from people who are both experts and love the game. This book meets that need, and should  be required reading for all those concerned with the phenomenon which is modern professional football’.

This project on the Europeanisation of football has its origins in 2007, when academics gathered in Montreal for the EUSA conference, which included a panel on the new reality of football. To some extent, this project was also conceived as a way to confirm or refute the very tipical claim that accuses the EU to have transformed football in the continent upside down. As it happens, the academics have found many forces of transformation which have contributed to the new face of football. Among the findings of the book, perhaps one of the most interesting is the clear identification of a sense of decline amongst many countries, including some of the largest footballing nations in the continent such as France or Italy. In the cases explored, many of the stakeholders consider that only rich football markets such as England or Spain have the possibility to succeed in moder European football.

The book contributes to the research of football, but it makes also an important contribution to the literature on Europeanisation. David Allen, Professor of International and European Politics at Loughborough University, affirmed on the academic qualities of the book: ‘The contributors to this excellent volume are united by their considerable  knowledge of, and affection  for, the game of football and by their proven abilities as  political scientists. The result is an outstanding and coherent  analysis of the multi-level governance  of European football and a major contribution to the growing  body of substantive research on the phenomenon of Europeanization’.

This collective volume has stressed the need not to restrict Europeanisation to EU-isation, as for example UEFA has also been a potent motor of transformation. The book suggests also the need to study Europeanisation away from traditional political arenas, introducing the so-called transnational-societal realm. The authors have also identified the importance of transnational bechmarking, also known as crossloading. Thus, Europeanisation is presented as a complex process and the book suggests systematising factors to help with analysis.

Over the years of planing, research and production, this project has benefitted from the support of the Centre for the Study of International Governance at Loughborough University, the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, the Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy at Loughborough University, and the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES).

Peer review articles should be up to 7,000 words in length including references.  They might focus on methodology or other chapters from graduate research projects, reviews of particular open questions in a field of study, or draft papers regarding work at early stages of development.  Contributions by both established academics and graduate students are welcome.

In addition to original articles, the Review welcomes forum contributions including summaries of Sport & EU activity, abstracts of recently published or soon to be published papers, book reviews or details of forthcoming books, executive summaries of recently completed research projects, and especially reflections on recent and forthcoming developments in the field of interest of the Association for the Study of Sport and the European Union members.

A new Book Reviews section will be launched in the 2/2011 issue, as well.  The editors thus welcome both submissions of books for review, as well as invites scholars that would be interested in serving as book reviewers.

Additional information can be found on http://www.sportandeu.com/sporteu-review/ or can be obtained by emailing the editors at review[a]sportandeu.com.  Sport&EU Review is indexed in EBSCOhost and International Platform of Sports Law Journals.

In line with Sport&EU’s traditional policy of promoting gender equality, female academics and/or practitioners are specially encouraged to send their proposals, and papers with a focus on gender equity in sport will be also welcome.

For single paper  proposals, send a 250 word abstract, together with a short biography and your contact details.

For panel proposals (maximum of 3 papers per panel) send (in a single document) a 250 word panel abstract, together with a 250 word abstract for each paper. Please also include a chair for the panel (if you cannot find a suitable chairperson we will allocate one) and a biographic note for each presenter.

All paper and panel proposals should be sent to Jean-Patrick Villeneuve at conference2012@sportandeu.com.  The deadline for submissions is 25^th January.

All papers submitted by this deadline will be peer reviewed with confirmation of successful applications provided by 27^th February.