Brussels, 16/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - Football shares with Europe, the values of integration, solidarity and social integration. It can play an important role for helping the EU promote these values, particularly at a local level where clubs are an integral part of the social fabric. This was the message from Michel Platini, the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), to the Committee of the Regions (CoR) during the plenary session on Wednesday 14 April in Brussels.
A CoR press release explained that as part of the European Year against Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010, the president of UEFA had underlined the contribution of football in the fight against these phenomena. Platini said that “football integrates, includes, mixes and welcomes” and provided an example of immigrant children who often found things in common with their host countries on the football pitches rather than in the classrooms. He said that “in many cases, football integrates well before school and the social services. Football gives youngsters their basic identity”. Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso (EPP, Spain), the acting president of the CoR, shares this vision of sport as a force for change. Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos (EPP, Greece), Mayor of Egaleo, underlined the link between health and economic dynamism. Jeannette Arnold (PES, United Kingdom), a member of the Greater London authority, also affirmed that sport was a powerful tool for integration.
Are football clubs cash machines? Platini noted that this perception was even stronger in periods of crisis when many supporters had to make sacrifices to pay for a season ticket. He added: “The weaknesses in the football economic model are revealed in serious crises. In many cases, professional clubs have hade to beg aid from the councils or regions to escape bankruptcy. Is this the best use we can make of tax payers' money?” (G.B./transl.fl)