On 18 March 2025, ENGSO Secretary General Sara Massini presented the grassroots sport perspective during the European Parliament’s stakeholder dialogue on the CULT Report, focusing on the role of EU policies in shaping the European Sport Model.

Sara Massini highlighted two key recommendations for strengthening the European Sport Model:

– Keeping grassroots sport at the heart of the European Sport Model – ensuring sustained support and solidarity for sports clubs by implementing fair, concrete, and credible funding redistribution schemes. These schemes would help grassroots clubs attract and retain participants, staff, and, most importantly, volunteers, who are essential to the organised sport movement.

 – Enhancing and strengthening dialogue between sport and decision-makers – establishing a stable EU sport dialogue that facilitates continuous discussions from the EU level through national structures to the grassroots level and back.

ENGSO’s recommendations aim to reinforce the European Sport Model by prioritising grassroots sport, supporting local sports clubs, and fostering stronger dialogue between the sports sector and policymakers.

ENGSO reminds that European Sport Model is essential for sports in Europe, since it affects the financial solidarity between elite and grassroots, sporting merit and other principles rooted in European sports. The political recognition of the European Sport at the EU level will assist discussions at the national level.