Michael van Praag: 'Building bridges' (English version)

Speech Michael van Praag, Tuesday 31st of May in Brussels, Belgium:

Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed excellencies,

Ministers,

Commissioner,

Member of the European Parliament,

Representatives from the EU Member States,

Representatives from the Olympic and Sport Movement,

Dear Friends,

I am honored to be here at the heart of European democracy. Being Dutch, it is a special moment to be present here: the Dutch presidency. Thank you very much for inviting me to speak at your assembly.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have one question for you. Please go back to the ninth year of your life. Maybe you were playing with your friends on the playground, maybe you were in school learning how to spell and add and subtract.

Now what did you want to become when you grew up? What was your dream profession when you were aged 8? Please think of it right now.

And now I ask all of you. Hands high: who wanted to become a professional athlete when they were young? Maybe even a football player?

Well I wanted to become a professional football player myself when I was 8 years old. Playing my games in my beloved red and white of Ajax, in a stadium where the crowd, delirious of joy, was cheering and chanting my name. Yes, that was my dream.

Of course I didn’t have enough talent or ball control to even be selected to the first team of my club. So I became a referee for 16 years. And after, I became active in the governance of sports. As we all sit here in this room, I at least suspect a few of you to have followed the same path. Because if you can’t become a professional athlete yourself, the second best thing is to be in the proximity of sports and being able to help all those millions of girls and boys who have the same dream to enjoy sports together and have the ambition to be number one on the field.

Not a lot of 8 year-olds want to become a Minister or a president of a sport association. But that doesn’t mean that your role isn’t exceptionally important. You have the ability to enable sport. One by one you are the facilitator of a million of matches and games in your countries.

Sometimes it is debated, but sport and politics actually do go hand in hand. Sport delivers a value for a country that is not expressible in money. It’s more than a game. The social power and engagement of sport is tremendous. For Football, we even researched it. Football contributes to the education and formation of our youth, their health and well-being, and their mutual connectedness. Football forms the largest social network in the world. Sport brings people together around the world. No matter if you are Jewish, Catholic or Muslim; no matter if you are black or white, no matter your sexual orientation.

But politics also mean a lot for the world of sport. Governments enable sport financially. And government provides a legal framework where rules of the game end. That is a severe weight on your shoulders, ladies and gentlemen. Because sport, and more specifically Football, signifies for many, as we say it in Dutch, ‘the most important side-issue’ of their lives.

I think it is of utmost importance that we keep employing and stimulating the social power of sport. Notwithstanding the important autonomy of sport: we have our own rules and organize ourselves in our own way. It’s a thin line, but we should work on improving sport together: sport governing bodies together with the governments. We have a joint responsibility in this.

One of the largest problems in the international Football world now is a lack of trust. Trust in the integrity of the sport. Trust, that the game you see isn’t the real game that is being played. Trust that there is no shadowy business, criminal activity around matches or around decisions. Trust, that our sport governors can make the right choices in service of football. And not in the service of any other interest.

I believe that we are now at a turning point for the Football world. That good initiatives have been raised to make a real change. But that now it is of great importance HOW we are going to make it happen in the world of Football.  Together, we should fight for the trust of the game, fans and the players.

The call for a regular dialogue between governments and sports to me is a cry from the heart. That is why I am incredibly proud of the ‘arrangement for cooperation’ we established between UEFA and European Commission in October 2014 to combat corruption, financial instability, human trafficking, doping, violence, racism. And to defend the ethics of sport, the public security, promote good governance and ensure a positive future for sport. We need this cooperation, for the long-term development of sport in general, and football in particular.

The world of sport needs politics. To keep us sharp. To inspire us. To hold up a mirror and to keep repeating inconvenient truths. But also for laying down rules and enforcing them. To help us to convict those who abuse sports to enrich themselves at the expense of the game and the fans. To protect the sport.

Governments not always succeed in providing this protection. For example, the cooperation in the fight against supporter violence at international matches really lacks behind. I want to call out for a extensive and improved cooperation between police and justice departments throughout Europe. To share information and together come to practices to ban all violence. I am asking you, when you are back home, please discuss this with your fellow ministers.

As a candidate for the presidency of UEFA I am building bridges. Bridges between the east and west. Between north and south. Bridges between professional and grassroots football. Between the small and large football countries. Between old and new governance of the football world. There is a great danger for European football that the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. If this development is not stopped, in the future it will be very difficult for the small football countries to keep educating youth football players. In this respect, I really believe that a ‘European Super League’ of the best clubs is not good for our sporting model, for our world of Football.

I would like to also build a more solid bridge between politics and sport. That we will work more frequently and more closely together on the field of integrity, acceptation of diversity in football, the fight against racism, human rights and safety and security.

This will sometimes mean that the world of football will have to open up for external experts. Like has happened in the field of human rights. At UEFA I have played a very active role to guarantee respect for human rights in bid requirements. But it also means that international politics should take a clear step in better cooperating and to really protect the integrity of sport.

Because the world of sport needs protection. However professional our organizations might appear in organizing events and broadcasting our matches; we are not detectives. We can not roll up international crime networks. We cannot punish hooligans outside of our stadiums; let alone outside of our national borders. This is the mission of the governments.

So where sport –rightly- is being called for good governance, I also want to lay this task in your hands. Govern good, for our beloved sport. Be aware of the great importance of sport in the well-being of your fellow countrymen. Be aware of the social ‘gold’ you have in hands in governing your country.

But most of all, every once a while think back of the little child of 8 years old. The child that is still somewhere inside yourself. Remember what sport meant to you. Remember your dreams when you were on the pitch or playing on the street. The enormous pleasure you might had while playing sport; the monumental idolatress you had for professional athletes.

You might not have become the professional athlete, but you are making policy for all these 8-year olds in your countries right now, for their brothers and sisters, for their neighbours and teachers. So I plead you, in the months and years to come, protect the world of sports. Help the football world to recover the trust in our game, just so that all 8 year olds can again believe and unconditionally love our beautiful sport. I hope to come back here soon to be able to work together with you on this most important goal.

Thank you.