Some sports scholars and sociologists claim that while there are some similarities among sports development systems in the world, there are also some significant differences that are the main focus of this book and inspiration for potential changes. According to Fort (2000), the main differences between the European and American sports development systems are in three areas: the fans, the sports organizations themselves, and the team objectives. European fans are primarily concerned with winning international competitions, while American fans are more concerned with what are essentially regional or national titles, or, in the case of interscholastic sports, city, county, or state championships. Organizationally, the differences in European and American sports governance are dictated essentially by what the fans of the sports want to see “their teams” accomplish. Since European sports are primarily both national and international in scope, different organizations oversee them. This is similar to how American sports governance is structured with regard to different governing organizations for national and international competitions. The teams themselves obviously want to win, but in Europe the major focus is preparing for national and international competitions, whereas in America the main focus is on educationally based sports as a pathway to competing in the professional ranks. Another glaring difference on the team side is that the United States does not have a system of relegation and promotion of teams, in either professional or education-based sports, like the one under which most European club teams play, both in first-level leagues and lower divisions.1 In addition, Fort notes that there is not the same level of funding for teams via sponsorships and television in Europe, albeit with some notable exceptions such as Bundesliga soccer and the English Premier League.
HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EUROPEAN SPORTS CLUB
The local sports club is at the core of European sports development. Sports clubs and sports development in Europe are an exercise in social development, longevity, importance, and persistence. Previous research into the historical beginnings of sports clubs in Europe has described them primarily as social clubs organized for “casual exertion and sociability,” along with the development of social networks (Holt and Mason 2000). In many communities in Europe, the local sports club provides a venue for community activities, politics, and events, in addition to being the hub of most local sports activity. Regarding this social context, MacLean (2013) notes that, as with today’s local sports clubs, there were, historically, many clubs that were similarly central to organizing everyday life in villages. This included sponsoring sports like football (soccer), but also offering programs in gardening, sheepdog training, or sewing, or serving as the location of the annual village carnival. These clubs and their development highlighted the social aspect of sports and the blending of various other activities, similar to what you may see in many American recreational and community centers today, although arguably not structured and task organized as their European counterparts. Sports clubs in Europe are essential to sociability, providing an important addition to the bonds based in friendship, family, and common background and language.
Originally, the concept of sports in Europe was focused around discipline and the will to strengthen young people whose fitness would be beneficial in the case of war. While formal games and sports were played, the sports themselves were organized by students and workers, often morphing into what some educators called “mob games,” which were for a long while deemed not to have a place within an educational environment (Miracle and Rees 1994). This, of course, was different than American sports being primarily developed along an education-based path, as American educators felt the need to gain control of rapidly developing student-organized sports. Still, during the Industrial Revolution, primarily private and boarding schools in England took the same approach toward emerging sports development initially, as they wanted to control their students and ensure that the games had rules and that those rules were written down and enforced. In the nineteenth century, this institutionalization of sports was brought about under the banner of Muscular Christianity.2 Later in the twentieth century, in England as in other European countries, other sport development options and elite development fell primarily outside the educational system.
Many in Europe, especially faculty, did not want direct control of sports by the school, and adamantly wanted sports kept separate from academics. Since European students were often assigned to particular schools based on their individual academic achievement, it was not unusual for neighbors to be attending different schools.3 Consequently, many students and workers wanted to play and interact with friends from the same neighborhood, because they might be separated during the day by occupation or placement in different schools. Since the schools did not provide this organized outlet, the sports club solidified itself as the primary way to conduct local competitive sports activity and allow for such interaction within the community.
THE START OF AN EXTERNAL CLUB SYSTEM THROUGHOUT EUROPE
In the nineteenth century, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland established gymnastics and shooting societies that focused on cultivating a patriotic spirit, much like the concept of Muscular Christianity that was found in England. In fact, England influenced sports development worldwide, and specifically the development of German and other European sports clubs. In England, there was a greater focus in athletics on competition between individuals or teams in sports like tennis, soccer, or rugby. Sports like these and others manifested themselves in most European countries during a similar period in the nineteenth century as more traditionally English sports gained popularity and expanded rapidly. Along with the gymnastics and shooting associations, other organized sports clubs were established throughout Europe (Miège 2011).
By the end of the nineteenth century, English sports like tennis, sailing, golf, and rowing had been exported to Germany and other countries, primarily by traders. Due to often expensive equipment and time demands, these sports were generally restricted to the upper class, similar to the experience in the United States, which eventually led to the creation of a code of amateurism. While amateurism in America primarily means playing sports for an avocation and not a vocation, initially it was used as a way to separate the upper class from the lower classes, just as in day-to-day life. Nevertheless, both types of clubs, for the upper and lower economic classes, combined physical activity with the social, community aspect and gained popularity. The exclusive, upper-crust amateurism aspect of English sports waned as soccer became extremely popular between 1890 and 1910 and spread virtually throughout the whole country, from small villages to big cities. English sports slowly became more inclusive and popular with other social classes as the government (including the royal family) started to promote physical activity, seeing benefits for industrialized workers. Germany and other European countries followed England’s example of industrialization and modernization in many ways, including in the growth and development of sports (Frei 2015).
As the nineteenth century ended, gymnastics and English-style sports were no longer mutually exclusive, as they were combined within several clubs throughout Europe. Gymnastics became more competitive due to organized championships, and the traditional gymnastics-only clubs began to offer more sports and started to call themselves “gymnastic and sports clubs.” The original ideals of the gymnastics clubs were transferred to the adopted English sports, and this combination of German gymnastics and English sports led to a new concept of sports clubs as offering participation in various disciplines (Heinemann and Schubert 1999, 149). World War I temporarily stopped the spread of sports and gymnastics, but soon after the