Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-07-23-Speech-5-024"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"1999-07-23"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:French Football Federation fine2
dcterms:Language	"nl"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.19990723.3.5-024"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:1999-07-23-Speech-5-0252
lpv:speaker	lp:Luckas Vander Taelen2
lpv:spokenAs	unknown; Anders gaan arbeiden, leven en vrijen (1999-07-20--2002-08-31)3 member; G/EFA (1999-07-20--2002-08-31)3 substitute; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-22--2001-01-11)3 member; Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3
lpv:translated text	"(NL) Madam President, first and foremost, I should like to quote a great Dutch philosopher, Michels, a famous football coach who once said that football is war. I would prefer to suggest that if football is an alternative to war then I am in complete agreement with that. I do not intend to talk about the World Cup in France here, but there are a few general points I wish to make. I believe that football, and international fixtures in particular, are indeed a valuable alternative to war, however silly that may sound. Football should be a celebration, and international fixtures such as World Cups or European Championships really ought to belong to the people again. What we are seeing now, and what happened last year in France, is a perfect illustration of this. What ought to be a celebration for the people has, to some extent, become a completely commercialised celebration. We can see that the same thing is tending to happen with national football competitions throughout Europe. These show that football is becoming less and less accessible to ordinary people and has to some extent become a celebration of business, with people tucked away behind plate glass windows and in comfortable business lounges. That is why I want to call on the Commissioner to take positive action for a sport that must remain accessible to ordinary people and that must be protected from commercial interests. Of course, the same applies to competitive cycling, where cyclists sometimes inject themselves with the same hormones that cattle are injected with. On the same note, I would ask the Commissioner to actually produce a policy that is no longer concerned with imposing fines on organisations that have infringed some competition regulation or other, but is, in every sense, a policy aimed at controlling those big organisations and ensuring that European Championships and World Cups that are held in Europe really do continue to be celebrations for the people and not celebrations of business."@en1
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Vander Taelen (Greens/ALE)"1

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