Ms Deliège, a Belgian judoka, has practised judo at a very high level since 1983.
Judo, a martial art, is organised at world level by the International Judo Federation. At European level, the membership of the European Judo Union comprises the various national federations. The Belgian federations are responsible for the selection of athletes with a view to participation in international tournaments.
Before the Tribunal de Première Instance de Namur, Ms Deliège maintained that the Belgian federations had improperly frustrated her career development by not allowing her to take part in important competitions. She considered that she engaged in an economic activity, a matter involving a freedom guaranteed by Community law.
The Belgian court sought a ruling form the Court of Justice of the European Communities as to the compatibility of the rules laid down by the sports authorities with the freedom to provide services, as regards in particular the requirement that professional sportsmen (or semi-professionals or persons aspiring to achieve that status) be authorised or selected by their national federation in order to be able to take part in an international competition.
The Court pointed out first of all that, by virtue of its judgment in Bosman, rules for the organisation of sports must comply with Community law in so far as sport constitutes an economic activity within the meaning of the Treaty.
That case-law is consonant with the Amsterdam Treaty, which takes account of the particular characteristics of amateur sport, namely situations in which sport does not constitute an economic activity.
The mere circumstance that the placings achieved by athletes in those competitions were taken into account in determining which countries may enter representatives in the Olympic Games cannot justify treating those competitions as events between national teams which, under the case-law of the Court, might fall outside the scope of Community law.
Moreover, the fact that a sports association or federation classifies its members as "amateur" athletes does not in itself mean that those members do not engage in economic activities.
The Court therefore ruled that sports activities, and in particular a high-ranking athlete's participation in an international competition, are capable of involving the provision of a number of separate, but closely related, services. Thus, athletes taking part in a sports event which the public may attend, which television broadcasters may retransmit and which may be of interest to advertisers and sponsors, provide the basis for services of an economic nature.
Accordingly, it is for the national Court to determine, on the basis of those criteria of interpretation, whether Ms Deliège's sporting activities constitute an economic activity and the provision of services.
The Court then considered whether the selection rules at issue might constitute a restriction on the freedom to provide services. It observed that, in contrast to the rules applicable to the Bosman case, the selection rules at issue in the main proceedings do not determine the conditions governing access to the labour market by professional sportsmen and do not contain nationality clauses limiting the number of nationals of other Member States who may participate in a competition.
Although selection rules inevitably have the effect of limiting the number of participants in a tournament, such a limitation is inherent in the conduct of an international high-level sports event, which necessarily involves certain selection rules or criteria being adopted. Such rules may not therefore in themselves be regarded as constituting a restriction on the freedom to provide services. Moreover, those selection rules apply both to competitions organised within the Community and to those taking place outside it and involve both nationals of Member States and those of non-member countries.
The national federations, which reflect the arrangements adopted in most sporting disciplines, are therefore entitled to lay down appropriate rules and to make selections.
Note: On 13 April 2000 the Court of Justice will deliver a judgment concerning the sports rules for the transfer of players from other Member States (Case C-176/96 Lehtonen).
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For the full text of the judgment, please consult our home page www.curia.eu.int at approximately 3 p.m. today.
For additional information please contact Fionnuala Connolly, phone: (00352) 4303 3355; fax: (00352) 4303 2731