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Abstract
International Sports has not been spared the effects of globalization, and among these is the migration of athletes from one country to another. Lately nationality of athletes has become a major issue for professional sports and the principles on which it is based. The problem arose from the lack of a clear and consistent rules on sporting nationality for athletes representing a country in international competition. For a long time, the mere possession of nationality was sufficient to check this link to a particular state. This thesis, outlines how the rules for each sport varies quite considerably, from sports that allow a high degree of flexibility and movement for Olympics to sports that have somewhat restrictive regulations such as football or very restrictive like tennis. It also emphasizes the advantages and disadvantages of quick naturalization and provides some ideas for how this issue can be handled.
Keywords: sport nationality, international public law, sports law, athletes citizenship
1.Introduction
1.1. Introduction
Citizenship can be defined as "the legal bond between a person and a state." This definition is, inter alia, having regard to Article 2 (a) of the European Convention on Nationality (1997). Article 2 (a) immediately adds the words "and does not indicate the person's ethnic origin." In other words, citizenship is a legal concept and not a sociological concept or ethnicity.
Sport nationality (or: Citizenship in sport), is a complex matter with various manifestations. The main issue to be addressed in this thesis is how the so-called national teams representing the country in international competitions (Olympics, World and regional Championships and other international sporting events) are composed on the basis of a legal citizenship or their members are "special sports people" which means that an athlete is allowed to participate in the national team without meeting additional criteria of citizenship as a regular person should. The same question also concerns individual athletes representing the country in international competitions.
There are also national laws which contain specific rules for athletes who will represent the country, so it cannot be said that the term sports citizenship jurisdiction rests solely in organized sport.
In the context of the problems that were created by what may be called accelerated naturalization, changes to citizenship were becoming increasingly frequent...