The EU and Gender Discrimination in Sports: the Italian case Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG)

Abstract

In this paper it is described how the European Union embodies the principle of nondiscrimination on the grounds of gender in the sport field. It will be described the principle of nondiscrimination accordingly to the European Union law primary and secondary legislation, mentioning the Equality Directive (2006/54) in particular, which clarifies the definitions of direct and indirect discrimination. It will be analyzed the nondiscrimination principle applied to the sport field, from a regulation perspective (the nondiscrimination on the base of gender thought the Olympia Project and the motion of the European Parliament resolution on women and sport in particular) and from the point of view of the ECJ jurisprudence. Furthermore it will be exposed, under the light of a feminist theoretical approach, the "Italian case", which is peculiar because – accordingly to the Italian "composition of norms" –women cannot become professional athletes, unlike their male colleagues. The analysis of "The EU and Gender Discrimination in Sports: the Italian case" is mainly based on secondary data: few quantitative data and -mostly- qualitative data that are collected from literature review of the main Scholars interested in the subject of nondiscrimination principle in EU, International Sport Law and Feminist Theory.