MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Social Studies Department of Sociology

Mgr. Zuzana Botiková

‘In search of a national sport?’:

Analysing the creation of Slovakia’s new sports policy

Doctoral Thesis

Thesis Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Ing. Radim Marada, Ph.D.

Brno 2019

“Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.”

― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and Secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

In Brno, April 23rd 2019 Zuzana Botiková

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ...... 6 Introduction ...... 7 “Small country with great potential” ...... 11 Institutionalising sporting success in national policies ...... 14 Slovak Sport 2020 – translating national success into policy ...... 15 State sporting representation ...... 18 The financing of sports policy ...... 20 Public voice in the proposition of sporting politics ...... 22 Pragmatic sociology and sports policies ...... 25 Six worlds of justification model ...... 26 Pragmatism in sport sociology? ...... 28 On the analytical method – following the “making of law” ...... 30 Law and Sport ...... 31 Homo Ludens: playful law? ...... 33 Analysis of the parliamentary debate regarding the “New” Act on Sport ...... 36 First reading ...... 37 Historical references ...... 40 Financial aspects...... 41 Social justice through sport? ...... 43 Second reading ...... 46 Private financing of sport – sponsoring ...... 47 International structures ...... 48 Sport for all ...... 48 Reform model for the whole society? ...... 50 Analytical conclusions of the parliamentary discussions ...... 52 Reality test: “Small country coming to terms with sports migration” ...... 56 Short overview of the “Žampa case” ...... 57 The threat of leaving ...... 58 Sports migrations in the past ...... 63 Sport politics/policies within international scholarship ...... 56 Sport and identity ...... 66 From identity politics to sports policy ...... 67 Sport in “small states” ...... 71 New Zealand’s vulnerability and resilience ...... 75 Austria – the case of sport space and national identity ...... 77 The anthropology of Slovenia’s national sport – alpine skiing ...... 79

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Sport policy in post-communist countries ...... 80 Some historical aspects of sport and sports policy in Slovakia ...... 83 Early stages ...... 83 Sokol and the growth of sport participation ...... 85 Other sport movements in Czechoslovakia ...... 87 Sports policy after World War II...... 88 Spartakiády – the mass gymnastic events ...... 90 Ideological significance of Spartakiádas ...... 91 Continuing the Sokol tradition in compatriot communities abroad ...... 93 Sport in Slovakia after 1989 ...... 93 Summary of the historical overview ...... 95 Conclusion - Should we save sport, or will sport save us? ...... 96 Epilogue ...... 100 References ...... 102 Online sources ...... 108 List of Tables ...... 109 List of Legal Acts referred to in the text ...... 109 List of Members of Parliament taking part in the discussions ...... 110 Appendix ...... 111 Author Index ...... 112

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all people who have accompanied me throughout my PhD studies and motivated me in conducting my research - be it my dear friends and colleagues from Brno, as well also those from Bratislava, Toronto, Vienna and Mainz. I am very grateful for the constructive feedback I have received from my supervisor, doc. Radim Marada, as well as for our entertaining football discussions. My thanks also extends to Lenka Kissová, who kindly and patiently answered all my last-minute questions and concerns. I am thankful to my sister Daniela, for feeding me and accommodating me during my study related visits to Brno. And last but not least, I need to thank my parents, who kept pushing me forward in pursuing this academic endeavour.

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Introduction

“Today we can improve the situation, set new rules, as well as fix the faults of the past, when sport stood on the margin of interest from both state institutions as well as politicians themselves.” (Member of the parliament D.G., 23rd Sept. 2015)

***

“The sports movement in Slovakia has always been and will always be big, despite the size of the country. Athletes from our small Slovakia manage to achieve nice results on the world stage, so I believe we deserve to be there, among the big ones.” (Ján Zachara, former Olympic boxer, 22nd Sept. 2018)

***

From its inception, modern sport has been a highly politized social phenomenon. Nevertheless, many still regard it as a non-problematic free-time activity. An activity which should not be placed on the same level as other important and perhaps more serious social matters, like economic or political concerns. Now, it is difficult to challenge such a label, when often it is sport representatives themselves who tend to encapsulate sport within its own bubble of structure and meaning. It is also the masses of more or less dedicated sports fans, who are attracted to the leisure qualities of sports; qualities, which enable them to forget their daily work routines and delve into the symbolic universe of victories, off-sides or relegations. A universe with its own heroes, villains, judges and places of worship. But from time to time, there are situations when the universes overlap and the notion of sport as an autonomous free-time activity is challenged.

On 16th October 1968, two U.S. Olympians, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists covered in black gloves during the 200m sprint medal ceremony at the Olympics in Mexico City. They did so as a political protest to show their support for the Black Power movement in the United States. This gesture, which is one of the most iconic sport images of the 20th century, remains critically discussed even 50 years later (Brown, 2017). In 2016, this act served as an inspiration and a cultural reference to the political protests of the American football player Colin Kaepernick, who started “taking a knee” as the national anthem was played before National Football League (NFL) matches. Martin (2017) points to the fact that such a protest not only oversteps the sphere of sport, but joins in the wider

7 social, political as well as academic discussion about the centrality of race and identity in the USA both historically and today.

In the European context, a flagship example of a “sports issue” that managed to overcome the free-time activity boundaries and in the end affect the Labour code of the European Union (EU), would be the so called “Bosman Ruling” of 1995. The case concerning the Belgian football player Jean-Marc Bosman being a hostage to the inability of two clubs to agree on his transfer fee, resulted in a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on the free movement of labour and had a profound effect on the transfers of footballers within the EU. It was also the first time the ECJ made a decision in the area of sport (Binder & Findlay, 2008; Ericson, 2000).

Political dimension of sport is best visible on its elite level, when victories and failures at major international sports events leave lasting marks upon the collective consciousness, moreover, they quite notably draw sport into the centre of public and political attention. Politicians welcome athletes at the airports, send them support messages via social media, or pose for photographs together. Because of its high profile and masses of spectators, it is the prestigious elite sport of professional athletes which often stands in the centre of concerns. Whatever the problem is, according to Dóczi (2012), “the final conclusion is always further or even stronger support of elite sport, either because ‘we are in a crisis’ or because ‘we are on the right track’” (Dóczi 2012: 179). Meanwhile, “sport for all” is left aside.

A wide sociology of sport scholarship has paid attention to the various cases when sport has become a discussion point for actors who are not primarily involved in this field. This happens mainly due to the “instrumental quality” of sport, which is valued for its capacity to “camouflage problems ranging from poor cardiovascular health and juvenile delinquency to low tourist volume” (Houlihan 1997: 113). Therefore, when studying the role sport plays in specific policy-making situations, we also have to keep in mind the various fields “outside” of sport, which might be affected or at least questioned within changes in sport policy.

Following up on previous research focused on the role and perception of (elite) sport in Slovak society (Botiková 2013, 2015), the main aim of this work is to conceptualise sociologically the process of the creation of Slovakia’s national sports policy. The backbone of the whole development is the legislative process of the so-called “New” Act on Sport,

8 which was passed in the Slovak National Council in the autumn of 2015. The broad spectrum of actors initially involved in the process ranged from athletes, sport officials, media, politicians as well as members of the wider public. The sociological objective of this dissertation is to capture, describe and analyse the process of symbolically and emotionally charged sport being “translated” or “transformed” into a technical legal text.

Two theoretical frameworks, which allow a comprehensive take on the matter in question, will also be presented as a methodological and analytical inspiration in this paper. These are the Actor-Network-Theory approach of Bruno Latour, especially when implemented into the legal sphere (Latour, 2009) and the pragmatic sociology approach of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot (1999, 2006), who analyse the justification mechanisms used in public debates. Using an ethnographic-inspired approach to gathering and analysing the research data, the methodology draws on 1) several participant observations conducted at sport and political institutions; 2) informal conversations with various actors involved in the creation of the sport policy; and 3) qualitative document analysis. The main part of the analysis, however, focuses on the legislative process and plenary discussions in the Slovak National Council, which are documented in video forms and written transcripts. Following the complex legislative process, this thesis seeks to answer the research question: how are the justification mechanisms used in the argumentations? What is more highlighted, the “national interest” in elite sport or the civic plea within sport for all?

The dissertation text is divided into eight main parts/chapters. In the first two chapters I introduce the opening stage of my research regarding the new sports policy in Slovakia (the study of conceptual document Slovak sport 2020) as well as scientific scholarship, which precisely deals with the aspects of the creation of national sports policies.

In the third chapter I elaborate on the analytical model of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) and how it can be applied to the topic of this dissertation. In the following chapter I speak more about the methodological inspiration provided by Latour within his study of legal processes (2009). This part also includes a brief take on the analytically interesting concepts from the field of sociology of law.

Chapter 5 deals with the main analysis of the parliamentary discussions regarding the new Sports Act. A specific case study (reality test) on how the new sports legislation affected the decision of an elite athlete to leave his national representation is discussed in Chapter 6.

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The following chapter provides an extensive analysis of the scientific literature published on the topic of sports, national identity and public policies in small countries. This part includes also a direct implementation of the analytical findings from the study of the Slovak sports policy. Well, and last but not least, 9th Chapter offers an exhaustive historical overview of sport and sports policies in Slovakia.

Therefore, the findings of this dissertation list and problematize also other cases when sport provided a platform for the negotiating of public interest, not only in the field of sporting competitions, but also in what defines the national identity or the character of the nation. It enables the translation of a shared idea of social/national fairness and objectiveness into an emotional and community bonding experience.

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“Small country with great potential”

The focus on the new Slovak sports policy - as presented in this dissertation1 - begins with the London 2012 Olympics, where the performance of the Slovak national team received a mixed public reaction (Botiková, 2015). To take part in the 2012 Olympics, Slovakia sent 47 athletes, who competed in 11 Olympic sports. Despite the initial high expectations2, the Slovak athletes managed to win “only” four medals, three of them bronze. Media referred to this result with a mocking title “the bronze age”3. In the aftermath, expert voices appearing in the public and media discourse pointed to the problem with overall sports governance, when Slovakia relied only on a few talented individuals and their eager (and financially secured) families, not on a larger base of grassroots’ athletes. This situation was portrayed in the Slovak media as an overall failure of Slovak sport (Botiková, 2015).

Following the perceived “failure” at the Olympics, in December 2012, the Slovak Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport4 presented a conceptual document - Slovak Sport 2020, which introduced the contours of a new sports policy. Even though the document had been under preparation before, the time frame in which it was released – after a failure at an international sporting event - was significant. The conceptual document consisted of two main parts: “Healthy and active society” and “Successful representation of Slovakia”, which were to address the wider public participation in sports (especially among school children) as well as mechanisms to improve sports governance in relation to elite athletes, be it “talented youth” or “professionals”. The most novel part of the draft policy document, however, was the introduction of a “financial formula”, which aimed at helping to determine which sports should receive financial support from public funds. Two main variables used in the formula were the “success” and “popularity” of the sporting discipline.

1 One sports lawyer disclosed that in fact several initiatives to reform sports policy began also before the London 2012 “fiasco”, but did not reach sufficient political interest. During the parliamentary discussion one opposition MP also pointed to the previous attempts to reform sports in Slovakia, which never passed further. This dissertation, however, focuses on the reform process, that quite notably set off after the wider public discussion that followed the results at 2012 Summer Olympics. 2 Before the start of the Olympic Games, the Slovak Olympic Committee president František Chmelár expressed his hopes that Slovakia may possibly win ten medals. On the opening day of the Olympics (27th July 2012), the economy daily Hospodárske noviny published an analysis on which athletes may win a medal, and a day later (28th July 2012), the sport daily Šport wrote that “the realistic expectations are six medals. No one under the Tatra mountains would oppose that.” 3 Besides other examples, an op-ed „Doba bronzová“ was written by a popular sports commentator Marcel Merčiak in the Týždeň weekly. (https://www.tyzden.sk/casopis/11740/doba-bronzova-2/) 4 Further on referred to as the Education Ministry for short.

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The proposed policy was discussed at various forums: be it conferences, workshops or smaller working groups meeting at the ministry or the sports federations. The Ministry also created a poll for the wider public to take part in, and point to what problems they saw in the sporting sphere. Involved in the drafting of the legal text were also former athletes, mainly as referential advisors. The final part of the legislation’s creation took place in the National Council of the Slovak Republic5 in the autumn of 2015. The act was passed on 26th November 2015, with an unprecedented support of the whole parliamentary quorum. Of the 135 present Members of Parliament (out of 150 altogether), 132 voted for the proposed act. As different media commentaries pointed out, it was a rare example of cooperation across the coalition and opposition parties6. The following appreciation was that MPs had done something “positive” for Slovak sport.

Perhaps rather cynically referring to the cultural sociological concept of a “trauma” (Alexander, 2004), when a “horrendous” event leaves lasting marks upon a collective consciousness, it is often such high-profile world sporting events, and an exceptional success or an exceptional failure at such events, which most notably draws sport into the centre of public and political attention. After initial questioning for the reason (or the person) behind the result, the wider public decides to take steps to either prevent the trauma from happening again, or to support a successful follow up (Dóczi, 2012). Nevertheless, such an overall acceptance of a new legal text, which aims at fighting some “national trauma”, across the entire political spectrum is seen as something quite unprecedented within the short history of Slovak politics7.

After this introduction into the timeframe in which the public and political discussion on sports policy in Slovakia took place, I will take a closer look on the first stage of the policy’s development – the conceptual document Slovak Sport 2020. This document was prepared and consulted at specialised working sessions taking place under the auspices of the Education Ministry. These meetings were attended by sports lawyers, educators,

5 The Slovak Parliament is unicameral, and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation every four years. 6 “Parlament schválil nový zákon o športe, má sprehľadniť financovanie” (SME, 26.11.2015, online: https://sport.sme.sk/c/8084690/parlament-schvalil-novy-zakon-o-sporte-ma-sprehladnit-financovanie) 7 Looking at the history of independent Slovak republic since its foundation on 1st January 1993. In the parliamentary discussion, several MPs point to the friendly atmosphere in the plenary hall, which they consider very uncommon. According to one of the opposition MPs, last time the Slovak parliament agreed on something in such a majority, was when the MPs were voting on their parliamentary immunity (M.P., 25.11.2015)

12 representatives of sports institutions8 as well as renowned specialists from the field. I acquired access to proceedings of two such working group meetings9 and requested a separate consultation with the ministry employees to discuss the main points of the proposed document. One of the points, which was most often brought up at these meetings was the notion of a “public interest”10 in sport and the need to define precisely, what should sport in Slovakia aspire to.

“Two years ago, when we started drafting the bill, we did not have public interest in sport defined. Many blamed us for it. On the contrary, today, I see it as a positive thing. We found it later, after many months of complicated discussions.” (M.H., sports attorney at a conference “Sport and Law”, 1th October 2015)

The wording of the “public interest” in Slovak sport, which was discussed at the working sessions in the earliest phases of the legal texts preparation concentrated mostly on the “sport for all” aspect of the policy as well as the successful representation of the country:

“The public interest in sport is, in particular, the promotion and development of mass sport for children and young people, ensuring sufficient preparation and participation of the Slovak sporting representation at significant competitions in recognized sport, protecting the integrity of sport and promoting a healthy way of life for the entire population.”11

This concept made its way also to the final legal text12.

In the following chapter, I will problematize the creation of sports policy, which institutionalises concepts such as success, popularity or public concern. Even though I am interested mostly in the Slovak example, similar examples of “translating” sporting aspirations into public policies appear also in a wider international context.

8 Those were either officials from the sports federations or the Slovak Olympic Committee. Specialised working sessions were organised also by the Slovak Football Federation, which took on the role of one of the reforms advocates. 9 One was part of a specialised conference „Sport and Law“, that took place in Bratislava in autumn of 2015. 10 Generally is “public interest” in politics understood as the welfare or well-being of the general public. Cocharan (1974) addresses public interest as the conflict and accommodation of interests – a notion that can be compared to the concept of “common good” used by Boltanski and Thévenot (1999). Both these approaches view the concept as instable and constantly negotiated. 11 Sepeši, P. (2015) Verejný záujem v športe podľa návrhu nového zákona o športe. Online: http://www.ucps.sk/Verejny_zaujem_v_sporte (Retrieved: 11th November 2018) 12 After minor stylistical changes, e.g. replacing “children and young people” with “youth”. § 2 Act No. 440/2015 Coll.

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Institutionalising sporting success in national policies13

“We have no agreed definition of success and what it is we want to achieve.”

This is one of the opening statements of “The Future of Sport in Australia” review, also known as the Crawford Report (2009). It is a policy document created by the Independent Sport Panel in order to point to the biggest problems of the Australian sporting system. The need to reflect on the current situation regarding sport governance came after the country’s apparent stagnation on the international sports scene, moreover, ahead of the pessimistic predictions about Australia’s medal ranking at the London 2012 Olympics (Gowthorp, 2014).

Australia is an example of a “big and well-supplied” country striving for absolute success in the medal rankings14 (Kiviaho & Mäkelä, 1978). Nevertheless, the strategic reflection of an ineffective national sporting policy, as presented in the Australian case, leads to rethink state interests and interventions in elite sport, also within the context of “smaller” countries with fewer resources, yet with relatively comparable aspirations for success (Kiviaho & Mäkelä 1978: 5). Such “smaller” countries also take part in international sporting competitions and derive their sporting policies in regard to their performance at these events (Hilvoorde et al., 2010; Sam & Jackson, 2017). This practice can be also observed in the case of the Slovak Republic, which sent its national sporting representation to the London 2012 Olympics with an optimistic motto: “Small team with a great potential.” However, this “potential” was not successfully fulfilled and in the post-Olympic follow up, media discourse reflected on the need for policy changes in Slovak sport in order to be successful in the future. Success would be measured by the number of medals won at the Olympics or other important sporting competitions (Botiková, 2013).

However, the problem with achieving sporting success at international events translates into problems with its objective definition. Subjective perceptions of sporting success occur in spite of the objective criteria defining competitive sports. Standardised sporting arenas, technically perfect measures and institutionalised rules secure accuracy and justice on the spot, as well as the capacity to quantitatively compare athletes and the countries

13 This chapter was presented under the title “Small country with great potential” - Institutionalising sporting success in national policies at the ISSA 2015 World Congress. 14 In the last four Summer Olympic Games preceding London 2012, Australia achieved a total of 189 medals, and the aforementioned “pessimistic outcome” of the London Olympics meant that Australia ranked in the top ten, not in the top five most successful countries in the world.

14 they represent. For this dissertation, it is the notion of a nation state and its institutionalised attitude towards “objectified success” that stands as the central framework of the analysis. Moreover, the cry for objectified success in the aforementioned Australian example also appears in a part of the policy document titled “Defining our national sports vision” (Crawford 2009: 5).

An analysis of this “definition of national sports vision” has been carried out in various national contexts (e.g. Great Britain – Houlihan, 1997; New Zealand - Piggin et al., 2009; the Netherlands - Hilvoorde et al., 2010; Slovenia – Coakley & Topič, 2009; Hungary – Dóczi, 2012; Germany - Haut, Prohl & Emrich, 2014; Canada – Thibault & Harvey, 2013; Sweden - Stenling & Sam, 2007). While most of the academic research on the connection between sport and state policies has been conducted by empirical studies, focusing in particular on the relationship between the public and the view of their elite athletes (Hilvoorde et al., 2010; Dóczi, 2012; Haut, Prohl & Emrich, 2014), my aim in this dissertation is to entertain a theoretical perspective, which might give a different explanatory potential to the studied phenomena. By examining the relationships and the process between actors involved in policy creation (Latour, 2009), we may see what legitimations they draw upon in the argumentation processes (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999). In what I studied, the explicit notion of success is attributed and associated most notably to elite sporting representatives or professional athletes, not as much with the sporty lifestyle of wide public. Therefore, I argue that national success remains observed with high profile sporting representatives, and thus the main discourse remains focused on elite sport and not as much on “sport for all” aspect.

Slovak Sport 2020 – translating national success into policy

The sports discourse in Slovakia that followed the London 2012 Olympics became strongly intertwined with the governmental initiative regarding the creation of a new national policy – a conceptual document in the short term, and a new act on sport in the longer term. Therefore the Slovak Education Ministry released in 2012 the conceptual document Slovak sport 2020, which assumed the realisation of its proposals for the following years15. The document also referred to a broader European framework defined by the European Commission’s White Paper on Sport (2007) and the Lisbon treaty (2007), which formalised

15 2013 - 2020

15 the sporting agenda within the EU in its policy articles on education, vocational training, youth and sport16.

The conceptual document Slovak sport 2020 proposed five main priorities for the Slovak sporting policy for the upcoming years:

- Support of sport as a recommended free time activity for the wider public, especially for children and youth.

- Support of sporting representatives and sport talented youth.

- Fight against the negative features in sports, such as fight against doping, protecting the health of athletes and harmonizing the anti-doping regulations.

- Securing transparent and effective financing of sport.

- Creating a consistent legislative framework for sports.

These priorities were further generalised into two main strategic goals, where the ministry planned to focus on a “Healthy and active society” and “Successful representation of Slovakia”. The two notions also aptly illustrate the ever-present “chicken-egg” situation in sports policy, which occurs most notably when the public funding for sport is negotiated – who should get more money: elite or grassroots? While the elite athletes provide role models and amiable achievements for the public to follow, a wider sporting population also means a healthier population and potentially a good pool of talent for future elite sporting representations17.

According to Houlihan (1997), it is the instrumental perception of sport that usually covers the concern for public health, and often stands behind the state’s intervention in its “healthy and active society”. Moreover, the political legitimacy of a state’s health concerns can be also studied through the recently appearing knowledge discourse of “in-activity pandemic” (Piggin & Bairner, 2014), where the new global “meta-narrative” is concerned

16 According to the treaty’s article 165, the EU should contribute to “the development of quality education” within its member states and “to the promotion of European sporting issues, while taking account of the specific nature of sport, its structures based on voluntary activity and its social and educational function.” 17 After we acquaint ourselves with the pragmatic sociology approach of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) in the 3rd chapter of this text, we will observe the interplay between these two notions also as a conflict between domestic and civic orders of worth.

16 with the well-being of society, which lacks movement18. The part on the “Healthy and active society” within the conceptual document addresses both the inactivity of adults as well as children in schools. Referring to the findings of the Public Health Authority (Slovak Sport 2020: 10), the document notes that more than 32% of the Slovak population is overweight and up to 35% of women and almost half of men have elevated blood cholesterol levels19. Therefore the state should create a multilateral cooperation between the Ministries of Education, Healthcare and Transport, to support health-promoting physical activities targeted at the general public. Besides the governing sectors, i.e. the ministries, cross- sectoral cooperation is needed also with the local self-governing regions, municipalities and the sports movement in general. Special attention in the conceptual policy document is paid also to the creation of conditions20 that should ensure a healthy lifestyle for children in all stages of the education system, which needs to be supported also in the school curricula.

The part of the conceptual document dedicated to the “Successful representation of Slovakia” is longer and more elaborate than the part devoted to the general society. Moreover, it is also when the notion of “success” steps in and assumes an important role. Explicitly speaking of success are parts of the document referring to:

- Sport talented youth – because the current state of the care provided to the sport talented youth is seen as insufficient, it also translates into fewer athletes competing in Olympic sports. Moreover, not all of them are able to achieve recognition among the growing international competition. The solution should come with a nation-wide testing of youth and a more precise selection of talented individuals. (Slovak sport 2020: 22)

- State sporting representation – this section deals with the issue of successful elite sport most extensively, therefore it will be discussed in more detail later. Summarising it briefly: the main goal is enhancing the quality of the state sporting

18 According to the latest Special Eurobarometer Survey from December 2018, the average percentage of European citizens that claim they never do sports is 46%. The number from Slovakia is slightly worse than the EU average, 49%. The neighbouring Czech Republic stands at 41%. (Eurobarometer 472: 8) 19 The issue of public health (i.e. wider public, not only youth), even though problematised in the conceptual document, has neither been raised in the media nor explicitly during the parliamentary sessions. Interesting to note here is also the focus on sporting youth and not as much on the free-sporting activities of adults or seniors. Moreover, the concept of ethnicity and the differing levels of sports participation among members of other ethnicities is in the Slovak policy not a contested at all (as opposed to e.g. policies in the UK, or Canada (Thibault & Harvey, 2013)) 20 Gym halls and school playgrounds.

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representation. The Ministry wants to make the system of the national team’s preparation more effective by providing suitable conditions for the athletes’ preparation. The positive outcome will be a secure success at prestigious international events. The main goal also states that this successful sporting representation of Slovakia should help the country with promoting itself abroad, moreover influencing patriotism of Slovak citizens and inspiring youth to a healthy and active lifestyle. (ibid: 23-24)

- Financing – even though the section on financing is aimed at both elite and public sporting activities, its strategic propositions are focused mainly on the elite sphere. Because I will discuss the financing schemes of individual athletes and sporting disciplines in the following sub-chapter, here I will at least draw a general image of the proposed financial framework. The overall aim of the state’s financial contributions into the sporting sphere is to enlarge its added value for society, which is listed in points such as securing the attendance of elite athletes at international tournaments, organising international tournaments, supporting Olympic, Paralympic, Deaflympic movements as well as school and university sports, supporting museum activities, creation of walking, skiing, water and cycling routes, as well as financing the sporting infrastructure of general importance. (ibid: 27-30)

It may be debatable as to whether it is important to analyse only the explicit mentioning of “success”, as the notion of it implicitly leads a thread throughout the whole document. However, if we are looking for the “objectives” of success, these are best distinguished by their explicitness and legitimation arguments. We can find such arguments in the two aforementioned parts of the document: in the section on state sporting representation and the issues of financing, which I will describe and discuss now more extensively.

State sporting representation

In the section dedicated to the state sporting representation, the policy document first describes its current state and achievements, which “are very well received not only among sporting fans, but also among other inhabitants of the country” (Slovak sport 2020: 23). It is especially the platform of the Olympic Games in which Slovakia has been achieving quality representation since the first summer Games it took part in as a sovereign country (Atlanta 1996) in sports like white-water slalom, flat-water canoeing and shooting. However, the

18 situation of collective sports is seen as problematic: “despite them attracting the biggest spectator following, besides ice-hockey21, Slovakia failed to assert itself on the international stage in any other collective sport” (ibid: 23). What might be found interesting is the “objective” excuse for this situation that the document provides:

“For objectivity, it is important to state that the qualification limits set by each of the international sporting federations and the IOC are really very difficult to pass.” (ibid: 23)

Bringing up the most successful centres of the elite athletes’ preparation, the document mentions the centres run by three ministries22: Education, Defence and Interior23. All the Slovak athletes who have won Olympic medals since the country’s independence have been part of these specialised resort centres. They are funded within the financial agenda of responsible ministries, however with the expenses for sporting preparation gradually rising, ministries do not operate with a sufficient amount of finances.

According to the policy document, a crucial (and slightly critical) aspect of Slovakia’s successful elite sport representation is the organization of prestigious international sporting events, especially if these are held in the Olympic disciplines. It is stated that Slovak sporting diplomacy is not successful in getting the rights to organize many such events, and if it succeeds, then only in the less attractive junior category. The right to organize the IIHF World Championships in 2011 is seen as a big break-through in the otherwise negative trend. Based on the claims made within the document, this inability to host international sporting events might be due to bad sporting infrastructure, where again only the two ice-hockey arenas that hosted World Championships in 2011 are sufficient for organising a prestigious sporting event24.

21 Peter Barrer (2007) describes the celebratory relationship of Slovak fans towards their ice-hockey players in the study named 'Šatan is God!': Re-imagining Contemporary Slovak National Identity through Sport. 22 Part of sports governance, which is viewed as a residuum of the country’s communist past. The chapter of this dissertation dealing with the historic development of sport in Slovakia partially explains the centralised role of military sport during the Cold War era. Plea to abolished these three pillars of sports governance has been brought up also during the parliamentary sessions. 23 The Defence Ministry supports The Military Sports Centre Dukla Banská Bystrica, which brings together mainly athletes from the track and field athletics, canoe slalom and biathlon. Police Sports Center functions under the auspices of the Interior Ministry and supports athletes from collective sports (i.e. handball and volleyball), but also shooters, triathletes and skaters. 24 At that point, it was only recent news that Slovakia would again be hosting the IIHF World Championships in 2019 (iihf.com). Regarding the new “representational” sporting infrastructure, document

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The overall interest of the state in supporting mainly Olympic sports is visible also in the proposal about reconsidering state sponsorship in some of the non-Olympic25 sports. Because the Olympic sports are acknowledged as being part of the prestigious, closely followed international events, Slovak sporting policy clearly wants to concentrate on its better performance at this stage. In regard to the level of national identity framework involved in these strategies, Houlihan (1997: 124) calls attention to a paradox of state managing national/ethnic identity using sport within the context of an emerging global culture. On one side, the state could strengthen the nation by supporting mass involvement in traditional26 sports, meanwhile it prioritizes the level of external recognition when it supports elite sport, the organisation of international sporting events and the participation27 in “globalised” Olympic sports.

The financing of sports policy

Piggin et al. (2009) speaks about contemporary policy being informed by “scientific- evidence”, as the creation of this policy is done by deploying scientifically derived measures and statistics28. This can be observed also in the section of Slovak sport 2020 document which focuses on what is usually most subjected to public controversies and criticism, and that is the financial aspect of sporting policy29.

The document Slovak sport 2020 is aware of the need for “objectivity” in this matter, and therefore it deploys methods that “lower the subjective influence and objectivise financing processes – where possible with the use of math calculations, where not, the

speaks also about the construction of a new National Football Stadium, which is regarded a priority also in terms of specialised state financing (the stadium gets finished in 2019). 25 Such as: Billiard, boccia, bowling, Frisbee, korfball, sports cynology, correspondence chess, modelling, arm-wrestling, radio amateurism and fishery. 26 By traditional, Houlihan (1997) refers to ethnically significant or locally developed sports. Similar paradox of taking up a „foreign game“ and mastering it so as to challenge ones opponents is described also by Bairner (2001) on the example of Scotland, which despite having its own traditional sports culture (and traditional sports such as shinty or golf), their sports strategy is to fight their rival countries (England) in „their game“ – (associate) football. 27 Houlihan and Zheng (2015) characterise the dedication of smaller countries in takin part in the global sports events by noting that those countries are “consistent in their presence and also their marginality.” (2015: 329) 28 When applying the analytical model introduced by Boltanski and Thévenot (1999), we will refer to this type of argumentation as industrial order of worth. Efficiency and transparency are among the characteristics highlighted in the industrial-like legitimations also in the parliamentary discussions. 29 The division of public finances via „objective formula“ introduced in the new legislation was eventually changed in amendments to the Act passed in 2016. Based on the amendment, sports as football and ice-hockey were taken out from the scheme and they got allocated 50% of the overall budget. This move was legitimized by the specific positions of these sports in the Slovak society. According to the new rules, both federations receive a fixed percentage from the budget (17% for football and 13% for ice-hockey).

20 ministry will set a commission to evaluate the applications” (ibid: 27). According to the proposal, the funding of elite sport in Slovakia should be divided among the 1) financing of sports branches, 2) financial rewards given to the athletes depending on their achievements, 3) supporting the state sporting representation, 4) the organization of important sporting events, 5) funding measures of general importance30 and 6) the individual financing of selected athletes31.

I will now take a closer look at the suggested propositions regarding the financing of individual sports branches. This support should be derived from a fair and independent “math formula”. Based on this formula, a so-called “coefficient of sport” determines the importance of given sport also in connection to its public financing. When simplified, this formula takes into consideration aspects as popularity and objective success achieved in the respective sport32.

Coefficient of sport = Sporting success x Popularity of sport

The conceptual policy document defines sporting success in a collective sport by the position of Slovakia in the world federation of the respective sport. Success in an individual sport is calculated from the results of its athletes at the official sporting events in the past four years, with several other statistical measures taken to secure fairness in regard to the occasional decline in athlete’s form.

More debatable is the variable labelled as “popularity” or “interest in sport, which consists of three components: “domestic” interest in the selected sport (measured by public polls), international interest in the selected sport (measured by a survey of foreign media), and the number of active athletes (those registered within the sporting federations). This variable does not seem to take into much consideration the problematic role of the media and their two-way relationship with sport. In this regard, Stead (2003) raises the question as to whether the media presentation of sport mirrors reality or whether it is a representation

30 For example sports infrastructure of national importance (e.g. National Football Stadium) 31 Also known as „Top Team“ programme. 32 Technically there are four parameters, as the notion of popularity is defined also by the number of registered athletes, especially those under 23 years of age. Determining aspect is also the overall size of the sporting field in international comparison which advantages globally popular sports as these have more registered national federations.

21 and a construction reflecting the media’s objectives and interests. Not only does the media influence the portrayal of sport and (re)defines sporting results, it also influences the public view of sport by the amount and extent of coverage of certain sports, moreover also the cultural context of the country at which the selected media are aimed.

One specifically problematic issue regarding this financing scheme has been brought up in a public debate when dealing with management problems in the Slovak skiing federation (TA3, 28. 3. 2015) – alpine skiing is a popular sport in Slovakia with approx. one million citizens recreationally engaging in it, moreover following it in the media, despite the very low numbers of registered skiers. The skiing federation therefore contested the notion of state providing funding based on solely elite athletes and not on the activities of the general public.

Public voice in the proposition of sporting politics

A legitimating action in order to have the public voice heard in the negotiation process was also undertaken by the Slovak Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport, when it released an on-line public poll regarding the newly proposed act on sport. According to the ministries press statement (minedu.sk, 9. 2. 2014) “Sport is of a great concern to Slovaks”, with a total of 4,748 people taking part in this poll. Almost half of this number were the laic citizens, 1,178 sport representatives/officials and 741 sporting bodies. More than half of the respondents spoke for sports like football and ice-hockey.

Again the sociological relevance of this kind of poll is more than disputable, when only self-selected respondents, with internet access and knowledge about this poll33 took part in it. However, the sole existence of such a poll illustrates the state’s interest in the public acknowledgement of their political action, even if done insufficiently. The results of the poll were simplified and released by the Ministry (2014). They read that public is concerned with the quality of sport governance in Slovakia, especially with the notions of its fair financing and transparent actions of responsible sporting officials.

***

In this chapter I have problematized the opening phases of creating a specific sports policy. The first steps are always crucial, as they initiate the overall direction the reform will

33 The poll was located on the Ministry’s website for approximately three weeks, and its existence was mentioned in a few sport related news platforms.

22 be taking. Based on my analysis of the conceptual policy document Slovak sport 2020, which stood in the foreground of the legal action on the new sports policy in Slovakia, the direction of the policy will be first and foremost framed in financial matters. Referring to the concepts of Kiviaho and Mäkelä (1978) as well as Sam (2015), it is especially smaller countries with limited financial and human resources that need to sufficiently legitimise the use of those scarce goods. Slovak sport 2020 document introduces the financial formula, which is supposed to objectively distinguish the social importance of given sport in the Slovak circumstances (coefficient of sport) and be accordingly funded. Following the argumentation of the policy makers behind the proposed formula, its aim was first and foremost to prevent subjective decisions of sports officials and politicians when allocating finances to various sports. Having talked about this formula with some representatives of sports federations, in general, they would perceive it in positive light. Even if “their” sport would not come out from it with better finances, they appreciate the firm setting of common rules for all. According to a representative of the tennis federation, these common rules (with the incentive laid on the number of registered athletes) may even have a positive effect on the competition and recruitment strategies among federations, when they have to sign up as many young athletes as possible.

Nevertheless, criticizing this mechanism from the sociological point of view, we may object to the loose use of concepts such as “success” and “popularity” of sports, which stem from more complex variables than the presence of sport in local media i.e.. Moreover, the social significance of given sports is measured mainly through the objectified criteria, such as the international federations rankings and numbers of registered professional athletes (or sport talented youth), and thus associating sport mainly with the professional / elite field, instead of highlighting the public health incentives encapsulated within the “sport for all” aspect.

Nevertheless, we have to understand this conceptual document as an introduction to a wider public discussion. Introduction that outlines possible solutions to the critical situation within the Slovak sport. In the following chapter, we shall take a closer look on the theoretical framework that studies the purposes as well as forms of argumentations in public discussions. It is the pragmatic sociological approach of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot (1999; 2006; Boltanski, 2011: 103-110), which understands the human action as always taking on the form of the practical involvement of actors with their surroundings. In other

23 words, actors refer to the moral and the material structures of their world in everyday life, especially in critical situations, which require precise framings.

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Pragmatic sociology and sports policies

The creation and negotiation of a public policy is just one example of situations within social life that fulfil the criteria of a dispute. Preceded by a “critical situation”, a dispute reflects on solving the situation by challenging arguments among each other, arguments requiring justification. In their recognized work On Justification: The Economies of Worth (2006), Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, representatives of the so-called “French pragmatism”, propose six types of “worlds of justification”. These are the arguments and principles of evaluation which individuals deploy in the process of trying to define what may be the most proper or legitimate action or standard of action. Through these, they try to re-establish social agreement, or the “common good”. Since disputes or “critical moments” are always transitory, Boltanski and Thévenot are in fact interested more in the process of negotiation and not as much in the arguments per se. The legitimacy for presented arguments comes from the so-called “common worlds” or “worlds of justification”. Since these are “historical constructions”, “some of them are less and less able to ground people’s justifications, whereas other ones are emerging” (Boltanski & Thévenot 1999: 369). Nevertheless, the interplay of these six “ideal-typical worlds” (inspiration, domestic, renown, civic, market and industrial) still serves well when describing and solving different forms of conflict, compromise and/or collaboration in given situations. We will deal with the concrete worlds of justifications later in this chapter. Nevertheless, here is when Bruno Latour comes into the picture, not only in the form of a methodological inspiration, but also as someone who has something to say on the pragmatic approach in sociology.

According to scholars interested in and critically analysing the work of Bruno Latour, we have to divide his scholarship into at least two stages. As Edwards (2016) notes, in his later works, Latour turns his sight away from purely focusing on actors and networks on to their various modes of existence. It is part of Latour’s longer ontological endeavour, questioning whether society has ever been modern (Latour, 1993). He provides an answer in his latest elaborate take on the issue within the book An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns (2013), where he claims that “the moderns” took on fifteen different modes of existence. According to Edwards (2016: 2), even though it may seem as a thought diverging from the “old” Latour, who through his ANT wanted to move beyond reductionism, it is not so. While in the ANT, mundane and non-humane objects of everyday use “are taken seriously also from an ontological standpoint; whereas a lot of other social ontologies would want to reduce these entities to a lesser order” (ibid.).

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Elaborating on Latour’s approach to ontology, Salinas (2014) further argues that Latour’s work can be understood as a case of pragmatic realism with circulating reference as a key concept. Through circulating references, actors mobilize the forms necessary to connect language, objects, scientists and common sense in a unique ontological unity. This mobilization is then expressed within modes of existence (Latour, 2013). Therefore, we may understand pragmatism as a way of dealing with the relationship between objects and experience, and based on that, “pragmatists have something to say not only about how to study reality, but also about what reality is” (Salinas 2014: 3).

This is when we come back to pragmatic sociology as represented by Boltanski and Thévenot, and perhaps show where their take on the matter of justification overlaps with that of the “later” Latour. As we have already established, the main focus of pragmatic sociology is “practical reasoning”. Similar to ethnomethodology, pragmatic sociology also looks into the methods, and more precisely, the practical reasoning and reflexive “accounts” that people use on a daily basis and that make social life an ongoing, practical accomplishment (Silber 2003: 429). On the other hand, according to Bénatouïl (1999), one obvious weakness of pragmatic sociology is that it fails to examine – even if it never denies – the unequal, socially structured access of individuals to diverse regimes of justification.

Even though a pragmatic approach supposedly overlooks power relations, what is seen as its forte is the “original theoretical matrix for registering the grammars of moral evaluation” (Blok 2013: 495), as actors search for the common good in everyday situations of conflict and coordination. One specific time when Latour gets into a theoretical dispute with the model of six worlds as conceived by Boltanski and Thévenot is when he tries to figure out into which world of justification the notion of political ecology falls into. In conclusion, Latour (1998) argues that the six worlds model is both fluid and constructive, as it enables the creation of new and more fitting worlds, yet the six main types remain as a strong and steady pattern.

Six worlds of justification model

By studying in detail how ordinary people engage in disputes over right and wrong, Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) have been able to identify six different regimes of justification34. For Boltanski and Thévenot, the object of sociological inquiry is therefore a

34 In French referred to as ‘Cités’.

26 critical situation which calls upon an adequate regime of justification. Nevertheless, the worlds of justification should not be understood as pure social worlds, but instead can be better compared to discourses, rationalities or logics. The six main types are presented in the Table 1.

Inspired Domestic Civic Opinion Market Industrial

Mode of Grace, Esteem, Collective Renown Price Productivity, evaluation nonconformity, reputation interest efficiency (worth) creativeness

Format of Emotional Oral, Formal, Semiotic Monetary Measurable: relevant exemplary, official Criteria, information anecdotal statistics

Elementary Passion Trust Solidarity Recognition Exchange Functional relation link

Human Creativity, Authority Equality Celebrity Desire, Professional, qualification ingenuity Purchasing competency, power expertise

Table 1: Orders of worth (Boltanski & Thévenot 1999: 368)

In the initial framing of my research, I have decided to pay attention to the question of what is more highlighted in the process of policy creation, be it the “national interest” in elite sport or the civic plea within sport for all? Therefore, I primarily focus on two worlds of justification, those being the domestic and the civic worlds which I will describe in more detail. In reference to the existing research on sports policies, it is especially the tension between the boosting of national sentiments and public concerns which dominates the wider discourse. While in the “domestic” world, the worth of an argument depends on hierarchy, personal dependencies and traditions, arguments referring to the “civic” world of justification are based on the authority of a sovereign public. Domestic arguments refer to the importance of belonging; be it belonging to a body, a family, nation or a state. Moreover, the logic of a domestic argument lies in a hierarchical mindset important actors are

27 distinguished representatives of power. In contrast to that, in the civic world, the hierarchy and individual actors are not important, as the ideals refer to collective power, with institutions like federations, communities and their representatives, who engage in mobilisation activities. In the domestic world, it is character that needs to be preserved through activities like reproduction and imitation.

The domestic world works with the principle of justifying the worth of something by the quality of its history, by the solidity of its roots. Often it steps into a situation which calls for the defence of a particular territory, a particular aspect of national heritage or a particular tradition against the de-territorialised, stateless character of a global enterprise (Latour, 1998). On the other hand, the civic regime and that is defined by “general will”. In this world, worth is defined by the ability of one agent to disentangle itself from particular and local interests so as to envision only the general good.

It is important to note that social actors in complex societies may draw on several of these worlds, for example when acting as citizens (civic world), consumers (market world), or family members (domestic world). In addition, social actors might not even have a singular connection to a specific world, but will appeal to several worlds in order to advance their arguments and interests. Therefore, we should look closer at how some of these justifications are more contested than others; and how some of these worlds rather than others are combined to advance particular interests.

Pragmatism in sport sociology?

Since the pragmatic sociology approach has not yet been widely used in the sociology of the sports field, Giulianotti and Langseth (2016) do pioneering work by applying the worlds of justification model to the topic of bidding for the Olympic Games. Applying the framework of Boltanski and Thévenot to the Olympics helps them understand how key social actors or stakeholders draw on different logics in order to justify their positions on a specific public issue in sport or more widely. In their analysis of the London 2012 bid, they define two new key processes at play – anticipatory justification and multi-world justification. While in anticipatory justification, social actors anticipate the possibility of critique from the other worlds, to incorporate it into their rationale, multi-world justification arises when social actors seek to justify their interests or intentions with reference to as many worlds and figures of worth as possible.

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Based on the study of Giulianotti and Langseth (2016), it is the combination of the market world, domestic world and the world of fame that creates the main layer of their newly developed model, thus the strongest argumentation to why the city should host the Olympics (Table 2).

Table 2: “Three Levels of the Six Worlds” (Giulianotti & Langseth 2016: 146)

As we shall see further, the conflict between tradition and novelty, hierarchy and equality, elite athletes and grassroots will accompany the entire process of the creation of the sports law in Slovakia. Being referred to in the original post-London 2012 media commentaries, the new conceptual documents also ask which part of the sport mechanism is more important and worth funding for Slovak society: “professional sport” or “sport for all”? A key role is played by the idea of national success and its codification into a binding legal text. In the following chapter, I will explain the methodological inspiration of Bruno Latour and his take on the study of legal texts and procedures.

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On the analytical method – following the “making of law”

Even though the work of Bruno Latour appears in this dissertation in various references, in the following paragraphs I would like to explain the use of his study of the French Council of State (2009) as a loose methodological inspiration. I am saying “loose”, because to copy someone’s approach is a very slippery thing to do, especially when doing so in a different context, case and timeframe. Nevertheless, his project at the Council of State is intriguing for both theoretical as well as methodological reasons.

When attaining to his research of the French administrative law, Latour followed his proposed “sociology of associations” method, also known as the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The earliest uses of ANT involved the examination of the processes of producing scientific knowledge, with detailed ethnographic practices revealing a complex network of factors that produce science. The notion of the ‘assemblage’ is central to ANT as it essentially encapsulates the notion that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ through arguing that combining humans and/or non-humans can create assemblages that have vastly different qualities and capacities from singular parts35.

Actor-Network Theory, while being called a theory, can also be considered a method. It relies on the ethnography and ethno-methodology techniques of following the actors and what they find relevant. It also places into focus inanimate objects (from technology, to archives, documents, museum collections, etc.) and the relations between them. Approaching this vast network of different actors is done through the technique of description (“thick description” in reference to C. Geertz). No further analysis shall be needed, as, according to Latour (2005), one needs to explain his description only when the description is bad (e.g. not sufficient).

Similarly, in his study on The Making of Law (2009), Latour observes different actors, objects as well as reasonings taken into consideration when creating a legal norm.

35 The approach of B. Latour is not yet very popular within the sociology of sport scholarship. An exception to the rule we might perhaps see in the book by Roslyn Kerr (2016), which deals with the relation between sport and technology. Drawing on case studies and examples, Kerr traces decisions about when and how technologies are integrated into sporting practice. In the book she also tries to demonstrate how sports evolve as a result of combining technologies and people in practice.

30

“We are going to ender one of the kitchens of the law, not in the manner of a health and safety inspector checking on hygiene standards, but like a gourmet keen to understand the recipes of the chefs.” (Latour 2009: 22)

Therefore, a close content analysis of legal documents, parliamentary sessions and follow-up media releases can perhaps daringly yet aptly aspire to a similarly comprehensive take on the creation of a legal text. In consequence, the empirical data analysed in this dissertation draw upon an in-depth description of the legislature process, especially the stage of the two parliamentary sessions held regarding the new proposed act on sport. Besides the transcripts and video footages of the parliamentary sessions, further data for analysis were provided by conceptual policy documents, public polls, personal attendance at a few working sessions, thematic scientific conferences as well as through engaging in casual talks with some of the actors involved in the legislative process. We should not forget to mention also the several media texts that serve for mainly illustrative purposes. I applied such a mixed method approach to both data collection and analysis, hoping to capture the ‘breadth’ (Becker 1996: 65) of the studied phenomenon, as well as to follow the sociological premise that “everything is data”. This premise also goes hand in hand with the ANT approach of describing everything relevant to the studied phenomenon.

Being aware of the researchers ethics in the field, especially during personal participation in some of the events related to the laws discussions, I have acknowledged and followed the basic principles of a participatory observation technique (Spradley, 1980) in the role of “peripheral member researcher” (Adler & Adler, 1987). This type of engagement involves a regular contact, when the interactions with members vary from the sorts of formal acquaintanceship to friendship with some of the informants. According to Adler & Adler, this is the most marginal role and least committed to the context. While on one side it may seem as a position that is not “deep” enough, on the other hand it quite conveniently keeps the researcher distanced from the possibility of “going native”.

Law and Sport

As the process of the creation and negotiation of a new sports legislation is constantly in our view, we need to problematize first the sole existence of a relationship between law (later understood as legislation) and sport. However, when speaking about law on sport in some national legislation framework, we have to keep in mind that sport has also sets of its own rules (laws) not only of play, but also of sporting practice (e.g. Court of Arbitration in

31

Sport). Nevertheless, we look into all the various connections between the formal aspect of law and the still observed as leisure quality of sport.

While on one hand we attribute to law the important position of a great pillar of society’s existence, on the other hand, said rather blatantly, society would have survived, and remained rather unaffected without organised sport. However, as Carlsson and Hedenborg (2014) argue, rearticulating the expression of J. Habermas, even though sport is regarded as a free time activity, it indeed “colonises the life world”. Yet, when speaking about the relationship between sport and law, we need to take into consideration its various forms; be it law in sport as well as law on sport.

First to mention are definitely the rules of a game, of a match, rules with possible disciplinary aspect. One who doesn’t follow the rules, or occasionally breaks them, ends up facing a penalty. The rules are there to support fairness of the game and a nonpartisan referee should protect this fairness.

The other important group of rules and regulation are applied to sports “from outside”, by stakeholders and institutions invested in sports. Commercial regulations, civil code, labour code, and criminal code… therefore at this place we need to discuss also the autonomy of sports, which raises the question whether sport world exists apart of the social world, by its own rules, or not as much? P. Bourdieu speaks about the autonomy of sport in his influential paper on Sport and Social Class from 1978, where he labels sports as a system of institutions and agents whose interests are bound up with sport tends to function as a field. Or put in another way, “a specific reality irreducible to any other”, a field of specific practices, endowed with its own specific rewards and its own rules, where a whole specific competence or culture is generated and invested (Bourdieu 1978: 821).

According to Bourdieu (ibid: 824) the idea of “fair play” is a bourgeoisie concept. To “play by the rules” would make sense only to those, who can keep distance from the game and not depend on the result. He then traces back the evolution of modern sport as a practice with inherited rules of obedience, when it was used as a disciplining mechanism at public schools in England.

Furthermore, autonomy of a field goes hand in hand with its rationalization. Rationalisation of sport is in Weberian sense about creating predictability and calculability – creating a set of rules. In case of sports, these rules would be overseen by designated sporting institutions, which would moreover have powers of self-administration and rule-

32 making. Their status would be guaranteed by the State, therefore these bodies have the right to lay down rules and standards of participation, as well as exercise disciplinary power (banning, fines, etc.) and award specific titles (from competition titles, to coaches diplomas). Nevertheless, (ibid: 832) “in an increasingly disguised way as State recognition and subsidies increase, and with them the apparent neutrality of sports organizations and their officials, sport is an object of political struggle.” Furthermore, if these days sports contests have become a measure of relative national strength and hence a political objective (Bourdieu, 1978: 829).

In his essay on the juridification of sport (2014), Bo Carlsson points to the interesting meet-up of the “playful and uncertain” sport, with the “serious and predictable” word of law. He sees the result of this meet-up in a two-sided process: trivialisation of law and the formalisation of sport. For most of its past development, sport has been considered a leisure activity, which is not necessary to be governed through legal means. However, as Carlsson and Hedeborg (2014) note, the later processes of professionalization and commercialization of sport, resulted in some sort of rationalisation of the otherwise leisure, or entertainment industry. Since sport is these days under a massive influence of consumption culture and media coverage, the business surrounding this leisure industry “has to” fulfil also legal obligations. Everyday life is both implicitly and explicitly framed by legal aspects, from the traffic rules, to the licences of food produce.

Homo Ludens: playful law?

The similarity between sport and law can be seen in the influential work of Johan Huizinga on Homo Ludens, (1938) – the playing man, who according to the Dutch philosopher, should be considered as important (if not more) as Homo Faber - the working man. Huizinga proposes a compelling argument that all human culture has developed through the aspect of “play”. “In comparison, rituals, sacraments and mysteries, à la religion, are also moulded by the play element, through certain established but voluntarily applies rules.” (Huizinga in Carlsson & Hedeborg, 2014: 1325) Following this point of view, also law and sport has developed from the element of play. Moreover, these have also some similar traits, be it preserved autonomy, fairness, justice, concurrence and some sort of normativity.

Right in the foreword to his book on Homo Ludens, the author notes, that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play. Huizinga’s main aim is to integrate the concept of play

33 into that of culture, therefore he sees play not as an element “in” culture, but “of” culture. According to Huizinga play precedes culture, since animals also play, yet they do not have culture. It is especially the fun of playing, which “resists all analysis, all logical interpretations”. Play is also grounded in language, as we can speak of many word plays and metaphors. Metaphors are according to Huizinga in fact analogous to myths and rituals.

“Now in myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.”(ibid: 5)

However, the characteristic of play - not being serious, is what brings criticism towards his thesis. According to Huizinga, “play is the direct opposite of seriousness” (ibid: 5), at the same time, it can still be serious, or taken seriously.

When speaking particularly about the play-element in law, Huizinga notes that judicial processes started by “being a contest and the agonistic nature of it is alive even today” (ibid: 76), where contest, agon is synonymous to play. The metaphor of judiciary being a competition between two teams goes further, with describing court as a magic circle, a magic place, a play-ground where the customary differences of rank are temporarily abolished. Just like play, it is “extra-ordinary”, as the participants – e.g. judges – step out of ordinary life, and step into the special playground – the courtroom – also in special attire36, which transforms the bearer into another being. Law is also regulated by special rules and modes of behaviour, thus “the judicial contest is always subject to a system of restrictive rules, which quite apart from the limitations of time and place, set the lawsuit firmly and squarely in the domain of orderly, antithetical play.” (ibid: 78)

***

In the two previous chapters I have sketched the main theoretical and methodological frames used in this dissertation research. These frames are inspired by the pragmatic sociology approach as represented by Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) as well as Latour (2009, 2016). In summary, I am studying the critical situation of a public policy creation. Since the drafting and passing of a legal text is technically a process of translating public

36 In England those would be gowns and white wigs.

34 concerns (or what lawyers call public interest) into formal text, I am following the argumentation employed by different actors present within this process.

Following up on the opening chapters, which deal with the notion of institutionalising success into national sports policies, in the next part of the analysis I closely observe the usage of two argumentation strategies: 1) the domestic world of some national belonging, symbolised also by the declarative support of elite athletes, and 2) the civic world of mutual cooperation for common good. However, I do not want to stay analytically blind to other justification mechanisms, which might be appearing in the studied data. As Giulianotti and Langseth (2016) convincingly speak about the concepts of anticipatory justification and multi-world justification, I take these into consideration and actually await them other worlds of justifications supporting those that are in the centre of my concern.

Entertaining the popular notion that “everything is data”, the main intention of the following analytical chapter, which focuses on the parliamentary discussions regarding the new act on sport, is to stay alert to every argument presented in the plenary. Inspired by the ethnographic approach of Bruno Latour regarding the study of a state administrative body37, I significantly rely on the method of descriptions38 and associations, as the presented arguments may navigate me in the end to other types of data worth of consider (e.g. historic literature). It is also good to keep in mind some concepts taken from the field of sociology of law, and therefore apprehend the whole situation of a parliamentary plenary composed of (mostly) men and (some) women in formal clothing, discussing the way sport should be governed in the country. Following the politicians discussing sport and physical activity may provide us with an excellent example of juridification of sport… or sportification of law perhaps?

37 If I were to follow Latour and his ethnographic study of the French Council of State into the slightest detail, I would have to get the rare possibility to access all the hidden chambers of the Slovak Parliament, which perhaps due to my age and position of an aspiring PhD candidate I am not eligible to get. Nevertheless, what I found especially entertaining in Latour’s take on the „making of law“ in the French Council, was his capability to interconnect the process of laws creation with the physical appearance of the Councils impressive building, which still remembers the times of Bonaparte. In the Slovak case, the building of the Slovak parliament is much younger (from early 1990s), yet it also remembers significant change of the Slovak statehood – the creation of the Slovak republic in 1993. As pointed out by one of the tour guides around the building, one of its most impressive features is the chandelier in the plenary room, which even though seems fragmented on first glance, it comes together, just as the various ideas presented in the room end up within one legal text approved by the majority in the hall. 38 This description being as thick as possible within the given context.

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Analysis of the parliamentary debate regarding the “New” Act on Sport

“The law itself won’t solve anything. Everything is upon us, on all people, who work in sport. It is upon us, whether we will care or not.” (D. G39., 1. reading)

The first parliamentary “reading” (discussion) of the proposed act took place on 23rd September, 2015, in the morning session. According to the usual legislative procedure, during the first reading the draft bill is discussed in more general terms40. In the second reading, the presenting Members of parliament (MPs) would also speak of concrete adjustments and amendments to the legislature, which were then voted upon in what is called the “third reading”. The Slovak Parliament is unicameral, and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation every four years. In the electoral term in question (2012-2016), it consisted of six parties, with the ruling majority being represented only by one party – the centre-left SMER-Social democracy41. The remaining centre-right and right wing parties, ranging from conservative Christian- democrats to right wing liberals, would form the rather incoherent opposition. In the following chapter, I will be describing the proceedings of the parliamentary discussion(s) and directly engaging the “worlds of justification” within their analysis. I believe this not only adheres to the descriptive methodological approach of Latour (2009), but it bridges further to the analytical model of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999), which I have elaborated upon in one of the preceding chapters. As discussed before, when using the specific analytical model of the six worlds of justification in the sports policy context, I am mainly interested in the dynamics between the domestic and civic orders of worth, as I

39 Throughout this analysis (as well as in other analytical parts of the dissertation) I anonymize the names of the actors presenting their arguments, despite them being public figures. My decision is therefore not based that much on the ethical principles of preventing the exploitation of the sources. On the other hand, I am not explicitly interested who says what, as in the fact that something is being said. The power structure present in the coalition/opposition division is not of a concern, as this act has been passed with an unprecedented majority of all MPs present. Nevertheless, basic information as is the political affiliation or coalition/opposition affinity of the MPs taking part in the discussion are provided for elementary orientation. In the end of the work, there is also a name list of the MPs that presented their arguments during the parliamentary proceedings. 40 Several members of parliament in the plenary discussion even said that they were in fact addressing the “philosophy” of the act. 41 The ruling party in question, however, does not fully represent the “leftist” notion of social democracy, as the party often sympathises with national and conservative sentiments.For some time in 2015, the ruling Smer-SD party lost its membership of the Party of European Socialists, mainly because of its negative stance towards mass migration from the Middle East and North Africa.

36 assume that these will be reflected upon within the critical discussions on the higher financial support for either the elite athletes or the wider grassroots participation.

First reading

Returning to the plenary hall of the Slovak parliament, we begin with the opening address, during which the Education Minister presents the core ideas of the proposed act. He speaks for the proposer of the reform, the ministry. The act is therefore presented as a governmental reform, as a governmental initiative. Nevertheless, the minister notes right at the beginning of his speech that the legal material has been prepared for a long time, in a bottom-up approach, with the cooperation of athletes, athletic unions, furthermore, both the scientific and lay public had its say in the policy’s creation. The highlighted bottom-up approach underlines the civic aspect of the argument, as well as the aim to search for the general good of all actors involved. General good is here understood both as the legally framed public interest in sports as well as the more general plea for a better situation in Slovak sports. As the Minister highlights, the main policy reform the act introduces is the change in the financing of sport in Slovakia. Sports shall no longer be financed only through direct donations, as was the case before. The act follows up on the previous conceptual documents (Slovak Sport 2020) and working papers (conference proceedings), and proposes the idea of standardised financing distributed based on an “automatic” formula. This formula, as introduced earlier, takes into consideration variables such as popularity, success and grassroots’ involvement in given sport, mainly that of youth athletes. Even though these arguments refer to the civic part of the justification spectrum, there is a domestic notion present in a second clause, and that of “traditional sports” being still eligible to receive extra public donations, even if they fail to receive support from the new financing mechanism. The minister does not explicitly state, however, which traditional sports we are speaking of, or what constitutes a traditional sport per se. Moreover, the fact that the “financing formula” works with notions such as popularity and success, refers to national sentiments already present in the Slovak public thanks to the past successes of athletes in given sports. According to the proposed act, popularity should be measured through public polls, as well as through media coverage of particular sports. This, even though not explicitly, refers to the domestic order of worth in a way, as it has been proven in sociology of sport scholarship that sports media coverage is predominantly “nationalistically framed” (e.g. Rowe, 1998;

37

Poulton, 2004; Poulton, Maguire 2012). Nevertheless, when speaking about success and popularity, we have to acknowledge also the opinion or renowned order of worth (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999) making its way into the political argumentation, backing up the domestic world of justification. On the other hand, the proposed act draws also on the civic order, when it reiterates that national sporting federations are considered the ultimate representatives of any given sport in the country. This is because these institutions should be best aware of sports functioning, moreover of its specific problems. The federations thus have the autonomy to deal with the public funds as they consider appropriate for the successful development of the sport42, yet they also need to comply with and follow the common plea for transparency and good governance. The legal text also introduces a new governance position of the “main controller of sport” and regulates the positions of professional athletes who become employees of sporting clubs. The support of grassroots sport is ensured by the introduction of sporting vouchers, for children aged 5-14 as well as by the provision in the financing mechanism that rewards those sports federations that manage to attract more youth. In what I observe, the government, represented by the Ministry of Education, in its official legislative performance seems to be mostly interested in helping sport through improving the transparency of its relations and finances, clarifying the positions of actors within sport as well as clarifying the way in which finances will be distributed among different sports. It is a general plea for a better governance, which should refer to a civic world of justification. Having public institutions as sports federations responsible for the transparent handling of public finances serves as an example of the decentralisation of power, which stemming from the country’s totalitarian history is still considered a novel approach to governance. It is also important to note the perceived autonomy of national sporting federations regarding their decisions on how the specific sporting discipline should progress. The sole expectation of the state is that the federation should take its role responsibly and invest wisely into youth, elite athletes, infrastructure as well as managerial costs. The desired benefit is a well-governed sports institution, a prerequisite which in the future may “hopefully” lead also to sporting success in the future. When again applying the analytical model of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) to the proposed act, moreover to its presentation in the parliament, the minister/ministry operates

42 Successful development as summarised in the public interest in sport, and thus supporting the mass sport among youth, ensuring successful representation of Slovakia at international sports events, protecting the integrity of sport and promoting a healthy way of life for the entire population.

38 mainly with the civic order of worth. Nevertheless, appearing in the argumentation is also the concept of a successful national representation, which draws on the domestic world. Furthermore, both these orders are “backed up” by argumentation logic stemming from two other orders: the opinion (renown, which supports the domestic order) and the industrial (which supports the civic order of worth). We can see the industrial rationale of the proposed act first and foremost in the “financing formula”, which is introduced as a fair and efficient, hard data-backed mechanism for the distribution of public funds. Paradoxically, this industrial logic, even though it proclaims to work for the common good, counts on (and with) elements from the domestic and opinion world of justification: such as success, tradition and popularity, thus in the end, undermining the “fair” civic idealism43. One of the first reactions to the proposed act comes from an MP representing the opposition Christian Democrats, who notes, that a similar draft bill has been created already 10 years ago, and therefore is surprised, why the parliament did not discuss it already back then. On the other hand, he positively acknowledges the fact the proposed legislation has been inspired by the previous legislative efforts. On one hand the mention of an older legislation initiative might undermine the initial framing of the draft act, which has been publicly introduced as a new tool to deal with the crisis situation, which appeared in connection to the failed performance of Slovak athletes at the London 2012 Olympics. On the other hand, we may also argue that the new policy is being more constructively discussed now thanks to its stronger political appeal created also through the framing of Slovak sport being in crisis44. The following parliamentary proceedings shall be ordered regarding the referential points that appear within the argumentation. Nevertheless, I preserve the order in which these are presented, thus allowing the reader to follow also the process of argumentation, which is a notion crucial for both Latour (2009) as well as Boltanski and Thévenot (1999).

43 This notion appears especially in the later amendment to the legislation from autumn of 2016, when popular and “traditional” sports as football and ice-hockey are taken out of the financing mechanism and become subsidized directly from the state. 44 A situation corresponding with the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy, also known as the Thomas theorem” „if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.“ On the other hand, as Dóczi (2012) notes in his study of the Hungarian sports policy, the need to support (elite) sport in Hungary gets often discussed even if the sports results are on “the right track” and not framed as a critical situation.

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Historical references

A specific problem that the opposition MP mentions, is the fact, that sport in Slovakia is regulated and financed through three ministries (Education, Interior and Defence). He sees the problem not as much in the regulatory function of the ministries, as in the financial aspect, when there are three ways that enable “cash-flow” of public finances into elite sport. This point addresses mainly the hard to follow distribution mechanisms of public funding, which may be subdued to different (also political) influences. In the following plenary discussion, another opposition MP (from a minority Hungarian party) also shows his dismay with the fact that the new legislation does not tackle the position of the main governing institutions in sport. He also brings up the financial aspect, since according to him, the Armed Forces or police are very generous with the funding of their athletes, while on the other hand, athletes funded by the Education Ministry cannot count on similar benefits45. Since we are talking mostly about elite sport training centres, in his argumentation, the MP draws on the logic of the domestic order of worth. Nevertheless he does that through questioning the acknowledged authority of “power” institutions, which have historically governed sport and prepared elite athletes in Slovakia in the past century. Despite the fact that this issue will be raised by several other MPs throughout the parliamentary discussion, it will not be reflected upon by the proposer (the government) or changed within the new legislation. The authority of the power resorts and their right to raise elite athletes will thus remain “untouched”. Sometimes it becomes visible more, sometimes less, but the domestic world within the sport discussion is often referred to in terms of the past/history. Nevertheless, this is done in both notions: as to point out what used to “work well” in the past, what did not, and how the new changes are in fact copying the old model. When speaking about the past, it is most often the communist past of the country we (and the presenting MPs) have in mind. Referring to the past is not solely done so as to produce or revoke “wilful nostalgia”46, yet the historic framework still plays an important role in the discussion. As we will learn in the special chapter on history, the communist regime had different forms of governance, when compared to the modern liberal-democratic setting. Nevertheless, it is these three ministries

45 The concrete example presented by the MP in this case is the inability of the Education Ministry to fund professional gymnasts, while athletes from the sports as white-water canoeing or biathlon, who are under the auspices of the Armed Forces, get better financial support. 46 Concept by Robertson (1990) referring to mythmaking strategies of emerging nation states.

40 with their specialised funding and athletic training centres which are pointed to by some as the negative legacy of the past. It is stemming from the Cold War era, when sport was being developed within military and police units, who were able to employ “professional” athletes, yet keeping their “amateur” status pro forma. Nevertheless, even today, most of Slovakia’s elite athletes, especially in the individual disciplines, remain under the supervision of military clubs, which are financially better off than clubs governed by the municipalities or the Education Ministry. This point is, however, brought up mainly by the opposition MPs, not the coalition ones. It would be tricky to give a definite reason for this observance, nevertheless, the centre-left coalition party was originally set up by politicians who used to be active members (or sympathisers) within the former Communist party of Czechoslovakia. Another interesting reference to the past regime and governance structures is, when the opposition MP from the Hungarian party questions the newly established position of a chief sports controller at the Education Ministry. Allegedly, this move reminds him of the era before 1989, when sport was governed by one centralized umbrella organisation and controlled by bureaucrats. On the other hand, he supports the (rather out-dated) model in connection to the prioritisation of state financing of sports, as he suggests that the state keeps more control over how the finances are distributed within sporting federations, as opposed to letting the federations decide on their own. If it was up to him, he would introduce stricter rules. Therefore, we may again observe the domestic emphasis on established institutions and hierarchies existing in sports governance, including the strong oversight of the state, which is strongly reminiscent of the centralised governing structures of the communist era47.

Financial aspects

When discussion the logics behind the proposed financial formula an opposition MP from the liberal party questions whether this formula does not disadvantage smaller and more peculiar sports, which despite their size and lower levels of popularity48, are still successful

47 One other proposed challenge that questions the legacy of sport during communism is leaving the honorary titles for former successful athletes, as were used in sport. MPs addressing this point in the discussion agree that is would be good to keep the honorary titles and thus distinguish those who contributed to the Slovak sport in a significant way. However, the also agree on the fact the present system should have more specific criteria, who gets what honorary title for what achievement. One opposition MP also points to the fact, that honorary titles are not only a relic of the Soviet era, but might “be given away by the British Queen as knighthoods”. This discussion strongly picks up on the framework of the opinion/renowned order of worth, which again stands in support of the domestic order. 48 The proposed legal text says that a sports federation needs to have at least 10 active units and at least 200 registered athletes. According to some MPs, these requisitions might be too much for smaller sports to fulfil, thus making them create phantom units or athletes.

41 at international events by showing great athleticism and dedication in training. Or, were successful in the past. By challenging the domestic order of worth, he gives an example of ski jumping, which nowadays has minimal participation, yet used to be a very popular and successful discipline some thirty years ago. Moreover, the international ski jumping competitions remain a popular TV spectacle for many Slovaks.

“…but our generation that grew up with Matouš, Höhnl, Raška, Kodejšek, world champions, Olympic winners, of course, now sadly watches how this marginal skiing sport – once a showcase of Czechoslovak and Slovak sport – has now disappeared.” (P.O., 1. Reading)

The argumentation problem therefore stands on the paradox, that perhaps the domestic order, supported by the opinion order through mentioning the former successful athletes, is not fulfilling its apparent intention – to treat accordingly sports, which have become part of the “national tradition”. Is then the domestic order as true to itself as it should be? There come no other reactions to the ski-jumping example, only a more general answer that the smaller sports need to be aware of their marginal position. This perceived “fairness” of the financing formula is on the other hand strongly defended by another opposition MP, who also comes from the liberal party and has personally contributed to the drafting of the legal text49. In his argumentation he draws on the domestic order of worth, which strictly sets its priorities within the traditional sports:

“When taekwondo cannot attract youth in the way football can, then perhaps that’s their problem. Or it is a problem that this sport doesn’t have a tradition in Slovakia, simple as that.” (J. M., 1. Reading)

Sports that have a tradition should be supported, even if they do not show current success. On the other hand, sports that might be successful yet are not attractive to the wider population, have to fight for their funding elsewhere50.

49 He would often highlights this fact as to support the notion of the entire political spectrum agrees that something needs to be done with the sports policy in Slovakia, moreover, constructively contribute to the legislative changes. This MP also actively cooperated with the legal team, which stood behind the precise wording of the proposed draft. In his free time, he would also hold special seminars for the members of sports federations to explain mostly the financial technicalities introduced by this legislation. 50 An interesting comparison can be observed here with the case of the new sports funding policy as introduced in Great Britain after London 2012 Olympics. According to this the state selected certain “possible-medal sports” (track cycling, gymnastics, swimming), which even though did not follow up on

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Further praise for the proposed transparent legislation as well as objective financial formula comes from another opposition MP from the liberal party, who highlights the aspect of predictability as introduced in the new scheme for sports financing. This is an interesting example of an argument drawing from the industrial order of worth. Nevertheless, even though predictability is a feature that governing bodies might strive to work with, the overall social attractiveness of sports (participation and spectatorship) is based on the pure notion of sports unpredictability. This of course refers mostly to the sports match/race itself, when spectators prefer not knowing the final result before the race begins. On the other hand, when we speak about the unpredictable world of sport becoming subdued to the legal and governing sphere, we refer to sport taking on characteristics of predictability, regulation and accountability. Carlsson and Hedeborg (2014) addresses this change in sports character by the concept juridification of sport.

Social justice through sport?

One interesting point from the parliamentary discussion, where the domestic argumentation is backed up by the celebrity world, is the proposal to make the Slovak Olympic Committee subsidise the retired successful Olympic athletes in their post-active career life51. This notion, however, has also a wider social significance, when we relate it to the overall problem of the ageing of population and insufficient pensions. Furthermore, the presenting opposition MP suggests that the Olympic Committee could financially support also the young Olympic athletes, who are currently studying – perhaps through a special scholarship fund. The notion of “out of sport” life and concern for retired athletes is not what the new sports policy would stress as one of its priorities or even work on a specific measures related to this issue. Nevertheless, the same goes also for the dual career support or education incentives of the current active athletes52.

some traditional aspect, but provided a high chance to “bring home” a medal from the next Olympics. These sports then became heavily funded, while others were cut off from the funding completely. As B. Garcia told the Guardian newspaper, this is “a very rational, cold approach. Medals have gone up. British elite sport is certainly booming. The returns of medals per pound is there.” (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/15/brutal-but-effective-why-team-gb-is-winning-so-many- olympic-medals; retrieved 19.3.2018) 51 Similar topic is raised also later in the discussion in connection to the honorary titles for retired athletes, which are generally appreciated, even though they might be seen as a relic of the communist past. 52 Moreover, this is not of current concern also to the Athletes Commission at the Slovak Olympic Committee as found out by going through the official website of the Commission. On the other hand, this is a topic of importance for example in Germany, which sees the rise of a newly organised union of Olympic

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Nevertheless, what is considered as more problematic, is the novelisation of the so- called “sports labour code”, which regulates the “active” relationships of athletes and their employers/clubs. Therefore in this case the civic world of common labour policy for all pushes aside the issue of celebrity athletes, which either have already retired from an active career or are currently pursuing one53, and focuses instead on the notion of athletes as everyday people/employees, who have to pay their taxes yet are not always treated as equal employees by their clubs, but also by the law. A former athlete, now a coalition MP also takes part in the discussion. Referring to the civic order of worth, he appreciates that the legal text is the result of many discussions with different stakeholders and institutions. He also praises the role of the media, which reported on this draft legislation as well as on its ongoing discussion. When the MP addresses problematic topics, he claims he is doing so from his position as former athlete and coach, thus he feels legitimated to do so, underlining his authority and professionalism (domestic order of worth) and asks everyone else to join in the fight for a better sports policy.

“Today we can improve the situation, set new rules, as well as correct the faults of the past, when sport stood on the margin of interest from both state institutions as well as politicians themselves.” (D. G., 1. Reading)

He also brings up the civic aspect of the financing dispute in connection to a newly introduced sports labour code, asking for solidarity with those athletes who are not getting the basic income as well as the fact that they do not work under standard labour conditions54. As he states further, drawing up on the celebrity order of worth, “athletes are the golden icons of the country55”, and therefore we need to support them.

athletes, who put forward their interests in receiving support from the state in the dual-career education strategies, and in general foreseeing their „life after“ active career. (https://www.athleten-deutschland.org/) 53 One of the possible explanations that comes to mind regarding this is the relatively young existence of the Slovak republic and not that many retired “Slovak” athletes, but also the lacking cooperation among athletes themselves, in form of unionisation. 54 Several MPs consider important the newly introduced labour regulations, which aim to create more transparent and flexible relationships between the clubs as employers and athletes as employees. The set rules should enable elite athletes, as well as youth, change clubs in an easier way, as well as make the clubs responsible to pay wages on time – this follows up on critical situation in many Slovak clubs in collective sports, which in the past years had problems paying the players their regular monthly pay. Moreover, the new rules should also change the status of athletes from “freelancers” to “employees”. 55 This MP would eventually list all the names of athletes and particular sporting disciplines, which are currently popular among the public, be it ice-hockey, football, the cycling star Peter Sagan, tennis players or the successful motorists at Rely Dakar. On the example of Peter Sagan he illustrates how a country can fall in love with a particular sport and end up massively participating in it. This craze is usually driven by successful

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What has been less discussed so far, however, is the civic framework of “sport for all”, therefore not only the support of civil (labour) rights of the elite athletes, who are referred to as “the golden icons”. One of the main propositions of the new policy in relation to the active involvement of youth in sports is done through the introduction of sporting vouchers. These should be small financial contributions that children might use when paying for a free-time sports activity. Moreover, some MPs see these vouchers also as a possible financial support for the coaches who work on the lower levels of sports institutions. Therefore, the grassroots participation is understood mainly as an organised participation through sports clubs and sports organisations, not as much as a physical activity done in someone’s free time for heath purposes. At the same time, several other MPs appreciate the notions that such vouchers should be regulated by strict rules and dedicated only to the existing sports organisations, as they point to the previously introduced vouchers for the so- called free-time centres, which were allegedly misused and thus failed their intended purpose. What I find particularly interesting in this argumentation, is this overall praise of organised sport, which leaves the other objectives, e.g. sporting infrastructure or accessible playgrounds, on the margin. This only underlines the common understanding of politicised sport within the framework of a collective organised activity, not an individual past-time. Moreover, it only underlined the understanding of youth support as an investment to the wider talent pool, from which the future elite athletes may come out. Therefore, even the democratising aspect of sports for all tends to fall to the category of domestic success.

***

The first parliamentary reading, which was supposed to address mainly the “philosophy” behind the proposed policy changes, focused mainly on the three aspects discussed in this subchapter: 1) historical legacy of the previous sports policies, 2) fairness and effectiveness of the proposed financial mechanism and 3) the social fairness for the active athletes and sporting youth introduced within the specialised labour code and sports

athletes and their achievements. Besides road cycling, the MP mentions also the ice-hockey players, who became successful in foreign competition, as is the National Hockey League in the US and Canada. This is an example par excellence how celebrity world of the successful athletes finds its way also to the strictly political discussion in the Parliament. Referring to this point, another MP brings up the notion of celebrity athletes often being misused by the politician for situations, when the popularity of athletes can help to boost the popularity of the politicians: “We need the athletes. We need the athletes, but not so that after they win someone can take pictures with them, but because athletes are still proud people. You cannot play around with them.” (A. H., 1. Reading)

45 vouchers. Even though some of the argumentation would draw from the civic order of worth (being supported by the industrial), when speaking of the decentralisation governance and fair approach to the athletes, nevertheless, the primary centre of MPs attention were the elite athletes (even in the categories of retired elite athletes, or aspiring elite athletes), which reference the domestic and opinion orders of worth.

To comment also a little on the legislation proceedings and the atmosphere at the first parliamentary reading, this ends with an overall positive acceptance of the proposed act, which is then passed to the second reading. The fact that there is an unprecedently positive mood during the discussion in the parliament is summarised by one opposition MP:

“Dear chairman, dear minister, for a moment I began questioning whether I am still in the Slovak parliament. Such a friendly and idyllic atmosphere there is today.” (A. H., 1. Reading)

Second reading

The second reading of the draft legal text takes place on 25th November, 2015, in the morning and the afternoon sessions. The voting upon whether the text will become part of the official legislation is scheduled for the following day. As in the first reading, the discussion process begins with an address from the Education Minister, as the proposer of the new legislation. He briefly summarises the same key points of the reform as he did the first time. The floor is then given to the Speaker of Parliament, who has asked for a speech56. In his address he suggests that for the future, sport should not be dependent only on the will of politicians, on whether they see sense in supporting it or not. This is why he proposes a new provision that would prevent the state financing of sport to be lower than the year before. This would enable the steady rise of public finances into sport57. This proposal reflects mainly on the civic and industrial orders

56 He is granted the floor based on his “domestic” authority as well as the internal rules of the Parliament. Important to note, however, is that the current Speaker of the Parliament served short time also as Education Minister, and personally organised some of the work meetings regarding the new sports legislation. 57 This notion gets challenged by some opposition MPs, who ask whether such provision should not be introduced also into the financing of regional and higher education. Speaker of the Parliament acknowledges this criticism and clarifies, that sport has no special priority over education, but at the moment this legislation is dealing explicitly with sport and that is why they should not be too distracted by other fields of political concern.

46 of worth, by creating a legislative technicality, which should effectively support the financial flows, which can be used for the “common good” – the development of sport in the country. The following analysis of the parliamentary discussion will again be ordered into sections based on their common topic, though trying to keep the order in which these topics were presented and commented upon, as to preserve the Latourian inspiration (2009) regarding the precise capturing of the legislation process.

Private financing of sport – sponsoring

So far, most of the discussion regarding the financial aspect of Slovak sport has been framed by the idea of state support/ division of public funds. At the same time, in the proposed reform there are also points regulating the aspects of sports sponsoring or private contributions. These are, however, opened to discussion mainly in the second parliamentary reading58. In his address, Speaker of the Parliament appreciates that the new legislation works also with the notion of sponsoring. Moreover, as he points out, Slovak sport should be better financed, also thanks to the lottery subventions59 taken from the Finance Ministry’s budget. Speaker further claims, that the new “fairer” governance rules, most notably the information system60 in sports, should make sponsoring more transparent and thus more functional61. Even though here, when speaking about financial mechanisms, the discussion seems to be referring to the market rationale from the six worlds of justification (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999), it is in fact the industrial order of worth, as seen within the praise of transparent and efficient mechanisms, that remains to play an important part in the discussion. These technical measures are also further praised by other MPs that take part in

58 Similarly this aspect does not catch wide interest within the conceptual document Slovak sport 2020. When speaking to some representatives of sports federations, they would also stress that when speaking about finances, the core interest is in the state support. Some attribute it to Slovakia being a small country with small commercial environment, and therefore relying on private and commercial sponsorships is not always seen as a pragmatic thing to do. On the other hand, state is regarded as a stable „donor“. Moreover, supporting sport and physical culture is also in the “public interest”, which should stand in the foreground to the private interests. 59 One conservative MP points to the paradox, when a “problematic” and “unhealthy” activity as betting/gambling should finance “positive” and “healthy” activities like sport. This point receives no further comments from the plenum. 60 Internet based platform for the supervision of all financial operations. At the same time, there remains a possibility to stay hidden in the system, and to give private gifts/donations. On the other hand, these then cannot be deducted from the taxes. Some MPs view private sponsoring also as a tool that can in the future help less attractive sports (less traditional sports, e.g. bobsleighs or wrestling), which then do not have to rely only on public financing, but can be supported also through private donors. 61 Part of the sponsoring legislation contains also the idea of tax deduction for those, who plan to invest in sports.

47 the discussion. Almost in unison they call for technical and governmental measures, which should prevent money laundering through sport.

International structures

Throughout the entire parliamentary discussion62, not much attention is being paid to other (foreign) sports policies besides the one currently discussed63. An exception to the rule is brought up by an opposition MP from the Christian Democratic party, who speaks about the modernisation processes that also need to follow the European legislation (e.g. White Book on Sports). According to him, European Union plays a significant role in the developing of “sport for all” programs, but also in the overall support of sport and physical activity in EU member countries. He asks, therefore, that the new act on sport shall thus work well with the already existing European framework. This speech is, however, not followed upon by any of the present MPs. The framing of the new sports policy thus remains nationalistically enclosed.

Sport for all

Despite not being of significant concern in the first parliamentary reading, the question of healthy and active society gets revisited in the second reading of the proposed legislature. Again it is addressed mostly through the need to motivate children to actively participate in sport. This motivation to actively engage in sport is repeatedly seen as a result of the positive influence of sports role models64 as well as the well organised and well- functioning sports clubs.

62 A short ethnographical observation regarding the studied legislative process in the Parliament: Sometimes the speeches of the presenting MPs get interrupted by different instances, such as previously scheduled voting procedures, lunch breaks, calls for “order” in the plenary hall or acknowledging the presence of lay public in the audience (separate balcony for lay public) with an applause. This commotion then results in a busy and chaotic situation in the plenary hall, which at times becomes difficult to follow. Following the formal procedures, in such instances the chair of the session needs to step in. At one of the occasions, for example the chair of the session ordered someone to search for the Education minister, who got delayed during lunch break, as the minister as a proposer of the reform needs to be present during the discussions. 63 Or the past/historic policies, which get used as a referential scheme. 64 It is important to note here, that when referring to elite athletes and their role-model function, all MPs speak only about healthy athletes. Throughout the entire parliamentary proceedings, the notion of athletes with physical disabilities is not mentioned once. The sole mention of Deaflympians is done in order to lobby for their different legal classification (not as Paralympians, but as Deaflympians). Nevertheless, nobody in the plenum follows up on this point. The national framing of elite sport remains thus exclusive for strong and healthy bodies, without any imperfections. Similar observances are made also by Purdue & Howe (2012) and Bruce (2014).

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“(b)ecause if we claim we want healthy youth, healthy young people, then undoubtedly sport is the phenomenon, which can help these young people. Of course, if we help to build appropriate opportunities to engage in sport, then these people will be also in a better physical as well as mental condition.” (D. G., 2. Reading)

Nevertheless, in the second parliamentary reading it becomes apparent, that the new legislation despite introducing (and praising) the institution of sporting vouchers for children has not fully figured out their financial backing. According to an opposition MP from the liberal party, the vouchers serve an important motivational purpose, as this is one of the few moments within the financing scheme, when children and their parents can independently choose, where they want to invest their money – as opposed to the idea that state choses where the money is invested based on the new financial formula. Therefore the MPs ask that the issue of secure financial backing is opened also in the future and gets at least a minimum financing budget secured for its existence. As also another opposition MP notes, the financial burden for raising young athletes usually remains on the shoulders of their parents65.

“And the last thing I want to say, is to give my gratitude to the parents of the athletes, seriously hats off, they are the biggest financial sponsors of their, well and our athletes, and not the state or sports federations.” (L. N., 2. Reading)

Even though the sole support of family sports may work in some special highly successful cases, according to the MPs this cannot be the system Slovak sport will rely on in the future66. Moreover, the failure to fund the sports vouchers, as an opposition MP from the Hungarian party points out, will also result in fewer finances for coaches and other professionals working with youth sport.

65 This problem will be raised also in the following chapter – reality test – when parents of successful Slovak skiers criticize the insufficient financial contributions from the state to their sport. To provide one more “anecdotal evidence” to this problem appearing in the public discourse also in the year 2019: the father of a successful Slovak alpine skier said after her daughter won gold medal at the World Championships, that this was not a victory of Slovak skiing, but a victory of their family, who managed to supporting the young skier all the way to this achievement. (https://sport.sme.sk/c/22049404/igor-vlha-hodnoti-vykon-svojej- dcery-petry-vlhovej.html; retrieved: 9.2.2019) 66 Slovakia relying on the so-called family sports has been seen as a problem already within the London 2012 media coverage. While on one hand the close-knit family support can prove more efficient than a distanced oversight from the state run sporting bodies, as we will discuss in one of the following chapters, there are cases when families of the successful athletes challenge the fairness of the state funding of sport.

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Reform model for the whole society?

In one of the presentations that take place in the second reading, an opposition MP highlights the civic cause of the new sports policy by stating that it is these transparent governance measures introduced in the field of sport which can in the future serve as a model for further reforms also in other fields of social life in Slovakia.

“So if one day, somebody was jealous of athletes and the advantages they get regarding their sponsoring or volunteer registration measures, then please let’s keep in mind also you, who do not like and follow sport that much, that the new act on sport is in fact a pilot project for our society and introducing the information system is its backbone.” (J. M., 2. Reading)

In their presentations regarding this issue, several other MPs (especially from the ruling coalition party) reinforce the idea of the common good or the “pilot project for the Slovak society”, which can be tried out on the field of sports67. A project, where the Slovak society can “try out” good governance. Within this issue, furthermore adding to the civic aspect of the proposed legislation, the topic of volunteering is brought up by an opposition MP from a liberal party. Even though she likes the logic behind the introduced transparency measures applying also to volunteers at sports events, she does not understand why these measures should be only applicable within the sports field. She adds that in the future her party will introduce similar measures also to the fields of culture and healthcare, and she hopes that the plenum will support them just as they support the volunteering measures in sport. From an analytical point of view, an interesting clash between civic and domestic orders of worth appears in this argument. Even though volunteering is seen as a civic initiative, the MP undermines when volunteering is

67 However inspiring these words may sound, we have to keep in mind also the practical reason behind the use of these words at such a specific occasion. And that is the fact that even though the parliamentary discussions take place “behind the closed doors” of a plenary room, this space is not hidden from the public eye. The entrance of non-politicians/lay audience to the discussions is opened (though regulated by security criteria), moreover there are journalists present as well as a continual TV coverage made from the sessions. Though parliamentary discussions are not the most popular news genre for the wide public, yet the speeches of MPs made in the plenary room might (or might not) appear also in the media. Additionally, with the general elections coming up in 2016 (a few months from when the discussion takes place), we should also not forget the possible campaigning incentive of the studied situation. Nevertheless, let us leave the cynical view for a moment and continue with points further raised during the discussions.

50 done especially at “domestic and celebrity framed” sporting events, such as high-profile sports competitions for elite athletes. These events do not serve further good as for example volunteering Similar point is raised and argued by another opposition MP, who also represents the liberal party. Besides praising the bottom-up process of the text’s creation, he notes that on the other hand the new act bends (flexes) the philanthropic environment in Slovakia. It does so by making the sponsoring and volunteering activities in sport easier and more approachable than in other fields of social concern. It therefore creates an “unfair” environment, when entrepreneurs will rather invest into a sport sponsorship, instead of sponsoring theatre, galleries, or healthcare facilities. Therefore the MP hopes that this precedent introduced within sport, will soon be introduced also in other areas and that the philanthropic environment can again become more democratic and fair68.

“(I)f the financial generosity, which is shown in front of the athletes, would be also shown when it is about educating our children… Culture has been shouting for some time, that it needs similar help, science and research were shouting for some time too, that they need similar help. Nevertheless, I strongly believe, that the passing of this act will become an example for building new type of philanthropy in Slovakia and create a more transparent circumstances for the division of funds for free-time activities.” (M. P., 2. Reading)

On a more methodological note, I have to mention the legislative procedures that accompany the second reading of the legal text in the parliament. These are the formal propositions of precisely worded amendments, which are read out loud after the initial

68 The MP also points to the fact, that since the year 2010, this is the first time that the Speaker of the Parliament as well as the Deputy Speaker got involved in a legislative process by presenting possible amendments to the proposed legal text. He compares this personal involvement of politicians across the whole spectrum with the act on MPs immunity. Therefore, he notes that in the stretch of the past six years only two legal texts gained such importance: texts on parliamentary immunity and sport. The presenting MP attributes this also to the upcoming elections, nevertheless, he acknowledges the thorough preparation of the sports legislation. Moreover, he also points to the significant amount of money invested into sport – be it lottery revenues as well as the set budget from the state. He would like to see someone explain this to the teachers at elementary schools, who usually when asking for additional finances, get the answer that there is no money for education. He hopes this kind of legislative bottom-up process will be applied also when laws for regional education will be worked on. In reaction to this appeal, a coalition MP states that this is an example of an “opposition folklore”, when on one hand the opposition expresses gratitude regarding the creation of the act, yet it goes on to say that they worry this act will not work. Nevertheless, the coalition MP admits that similar financial schemes should be applied also to other parts of the education system.

51 argumentation. In his study of the French Court, Latour (2009) would refer to similar procedures as “writing workshops”, where the final wording of a legal text is carefully negotiated by all the actors involved in the process.

After all the amendments are read out loud, the Education Minister in the end thanks all for taking part in the constructive discussion as well as for raising their concerns. He especially highlights the amendments presented by the coalition MPs and the Speaker of Parliament. In regard to the concerns about this new act creating an unfair precedence, he states that the ministry plans to work on measures that will help to introduce transparency of governance and finances also in other parts of the Slovak education system.

“And to the act on sport. I would not take it now as a closed set, since only practice will bring more improvements to such a ground-breaking act. It will test the proposed mechanisms in order to widen them.” (Minister, 2. Reading, conclusion) ***

The Act No. 440/2015 Coll. on Sports, and on the amendment to certain acts was passed on 26th November 2015 and came into force on 1st January 2016. Of the 135 MPs present at the voting procedure (from altogether 150), 132 MPs voted for the passing of the new act.

Analytical conclusions of the parliamentary discussions

Despite my initial expectations69 that the parliamentary discussions will be explicitly (and exclusively) nationally framed with references to the need for a successful elite representation of the country, I observed throughout the proceedings the rather implicit frame of a “better national society” being referred to with similar importance. Not to discard my original hypothesis, yes, the notion of an elite sports representation did dominate the overall discussion, also when speaking about the support of youth sport. Nevertheless, this notion appeared alongside the plea for common good in regards to the wider society. Even though we speak of sports and physical culture, in this case the idea of “better society” should not be solely understood in the terms used within the nation building strategies of both the late 19th century and Cold War era - as a society that is better physically built and more

69 grounded by the opening theoretical overview

52 successful in sporting competitions against its ideological (or political) rivals70. Nevertheless, in the analysed discussions, sport took on (was attributed) a more symbolic role as a model platform, which enables the construction of a better, fairer and more transparent national society. It is as if the parliamentary plenum agreed on the fact that if there was something that could unite society in its strive for a better version of itself, it would be sport. During the two “reading” sessions, it was evident how the MPs also used the given space to comment on various other problematic matters besides the sports policy in question. Since it was not an expert meeting (those took place behind the closed doors during the bottom-up approach to the proposed acts creation), the parliament served as a public forum for the exchange of ideas regarding an issue (almost) everyone had an opinion about.

When looking at the proceedings through the analytical framework of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999), I initially focused on the prevailing domestic and civic orders of worth. The domestic order relied mostly on the notions of traditional sports, historic legacy, well- established practices and the respected authority of those who should govern sport in Slovakia. Nevertheless, we also need to acknowledge the supporting role of the opinion/celebrity world, which operated through the renowned order of worth. It did so by mentioning famous athletes (both from past and present) within the discussions. Similar celebrity logic remains also in the variables that are used within the financial formula – popularity and success of the specific sport.

On the other hand, the civic world of justification appeared mainly when the MPs wanted to praise the overall democratic and bottom-up approach to the legislations creation. It also showed up when fairness of the proposed measures was contested – be it regarding the issue of “smaller sports” or the different spheres of social life in Slovakia, which also need a progressive action to improve their current deteriorating condition (e.g. culture, education, healthcare). This world of justification was often supported throughout the argumentation process with the logic coming from the industrial order of worth, especially when pointing to the fairness being preserved through efficient and transparent instruments – such as the predictable financial formula or the transparent information system of sports71.

70 Even though such notion would not be fully disregarded. 71 The constant praise of these notions are only some of the examples of the popularity of evidence- based policies (as also observed by Piggin et al., 2009), with an emphasis placed on rational decisions.

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Referring to more than one order of worth when building up a good argument does not undermine the analytical model of the six worlds of justification as proposed by Boltanski and Thévenot (1999). As we have already established in the chapter dealing with the theoretical aspect of this model, the six worlds are merely ideal types rooted in given historic contexts. These should therefore only enable and not constrain the complex analysis. Moreover, in my analysis I have observed similar mechanisms to what Giulianotti and Langseth (2016) speak about with the multi-world justification. This concept supports the argumentation practice where logics of more worlds of justification are taken use of when building up a convincing argument.

Furthermore, the domestic and civic worlds are also not only contradictory - they meet in a common project for a better society. Even though the notion of a common good, as Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) would argue, comes mainly from the civic order of worth, in the analysed case some of the domestic rationale also plays an important role. It can be seen, when the fair financing of sports done through an objective formula works with variables such as popularity and success that are part of this “nationalised” domestic logic.

The notions of vulnerability and resilience, as conceptualised by Briguglio et al. (2009) and used by Sam (2015), also play their role in the discussion on new sports policy in Slovakia. However, in this case vulnerability does not refer only to the international competition and the “big players” there, but vulnerability towards the countries’ own persisting problems – clientelism, corruption or nepotism. That is why the cry for a better governed society finds its place also in the discussion regarding a new sports policy. I would further argue that the notion of resilience does not only have to be applied to the performance of a small country within the international context, but also to the political changes aimed at reforming the local scene – as illustrated through asking for a across-the-spectrum approval of a new sports policy, which might finally lead to a better state of national sports performance.

Summarising the analytical findings so far, the case of Slovak sports policy, especially within the part of its parliamentary discussion, provides an interesting example of where sport becomes a testing ground for an overall better governance. In the concluding thoughts I will try to elaborate on what features in particular give sport this power, as well as problematize as to whether sport should be playing this “saviour” role at all.

***

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However, we shall not leave the parliamentary discussion on purely positive terms. In the following years, as I kept my interest centred on the public discussion regarding the new sports policy and its adoption, several problematic issues stood out from the process. One of them was for example the withdrawal of the two biggest sporting federations – football and ice-hockey – from the financing formula, thus undermining its original philosophical backing as a fair and objective policy mechanism, and returning the support of the domestic argumentation regarding the traditional sports. Follow-up problems appeared also in connection to the labour code provisions for the athletes, which turned athletes into dependable employees of their sports clubs. As it turned out, within the next three years several sports clubs filed for bankruptcy as they were not able to pay the levies for their “new” employees72.

One other problematic issue that stirred up the debate at about the same time as the passing of the new legislation was taking place, was the “threat” presented by an elite Slovak skier and his plans to leave the Slovak national representation and move to a foreign country. Since this particular case was discussed through the frameworks of the new “objective” legislation, questions of national identity as well as the issue of sporting migration, we shall look at it in more detail in the following section.

72 Following basketball team in Košice filing for bankruptcy, an op ed piece in the sports daily Šport asks, “whether the professional sports clubs shall collapse on January 1, 2019?“ (https://sport.aktuality.sk/c/338608/skolabuju-profesionalne-sportove-kluby-1-januara-2019-ii/; retrieved: 24.11.2018)

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Reality test: “A small country coming to terms with sports migration”73

To see if and how judgement is passed in the end of a critical situation, Boltanski and Thévenot (1999: 367) suggest that we critically approach the pragmatic conditions of attributing worth to other persons as well as objects. “Criticism can be internal to a world when flaws or faults are noticed, and beings are re-qualified or discovered as relevant” (Boltanski & Thévenot 1999: 373). Hence, one can make reference to reality in order to criticize what is happening and in order to improve it, but one can also change reality by drawing upon other elements from the different worlds of justification. These elements take the form of singular experiences, which become critical political elements through the construction of equivalences. To examine such practices, Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) use the concept of “reality tests” which demonstrate whether judgements have reached a grounded and legitimate agreement and have possibly provided the end to a dispute. Nevertheless, the aim of such criticism can be more or less radical. One of the forms of criticism consists in denouncing a reality test that is relevant in a certain world by unveiling the presence inside the testing device of aspects relevant in another world. The radical criticism challenges the very principle of equivalence on which the reality test is based. In this case, the aim of the criticism is to substitute for the current test another one relevant in another world. “(T)he less pure74 a situation is, the easier it is to denounce it.” (Boltanski & Thévenot 1999: 374) In the following chapter I will look on one of such “reality tests”, which appeared in connection to the negotiation of the new sports policy in Slovakia.

Among the various critical situations that were brought up alongside the discussion on the sports legislation, was also the issue of the insufficient financing of elite skiing representatives. A heated debate emerged after a top Slovak skier, Adam Žampa, publicly announced that he might be leaving Slovakia to represent a different country, since the financial conditions for his professional preparation in Slovakia are not adequate. This issue became discussed in the nation-wide media in various forms, receiving mixed reactions, from being labelled as a great loss to Slovak sport on one side, to blackmailing and threats on the other.

73 This chapter was presented under the title “Small country coming to terms with sporting migration” at the ISSA 2016 World Congress. 74 In the sense that it contains objects relevant in different worlds.

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This case, which will be further referred to as the “Žampa case”, will now serve us as a “reality test”. Moreover, it will also be framed through the issue of “a small country coming to terms with its sports migration”. The framework for this part of the analysis is further discussed in the literature overview presented in this dissertation. There, Sam (2015) elaborates on the problems of small states which face specific problems due to their vulnerability and resilience. Therefore, the “Žampa case” not only illustrates a reality test by employing justification mechanisms to the proposed policy changes, but also demonstrates the striking vulnerability of small states and their sports policies to even minor personnel losses.

Short overview of the “Žampa case”

In the early spring of 2015, the Slovak alpine skier Adam Žampa filed a request to the Slovak skiing federation – to be allowed to represent a different country (at that time yet not specified). The timeframe of this announcement reflected on the recently ended 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where Adam Žampa achieved quite successful results75, as well as by the opening phases of the newly presented sports policy.

As a reaction to this announcement, the Slovak skiing federation decided to open this issue also in the media before the final decision on whether Žampa could leave Slovakia or not was made. The major part of the media coverage framed the issue as a “shock to Slovak sport”, which further provoked a wider public discussion about athletes leaving the country, where athletes and politicians also became involved, as well as media commentators, be it through posts on social networks or opinion pieces in various types of media76. The main argumentation behind the intention to leave was significantly drawing upon the “market order of worth” (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999), pointing to the actual expenses paid by the Žampa family for one skiing season. These, according to the father/coach Tomáš Žampa, reach up to €400.000 per year, while the skiing federation as such receives from the public funds around €550.000 per year. Furthermore, even after the introduction of the new financial formula this sum should not significantly change. Therefore, the state alone could

75 Žampa finished 5th in the Alpine Combined discipline, only a few tenths of seconds behind the medal ranks. “Fantastic Adam Žampa enjoys in Sochi his life achievement!” wrote the sport daily Šport on 14th February 2014 (https://sport.aktuality.sk/c/162935/zoh-2014-fantasticky-adam-zampa-v-soci-sa-tesi-zo- zivotneho-uspechu/) 76 I took part in this public discussion by publishing an opinion piece in one of the nationwide dailies: https://dennikn.sk/83611/z-kuzminovej-sa-stale-tesia-aj-rusi-my-by-sme-sa-tesili-z-rusa-zampu/ (published 26.3.2015)

57 not cover the costs of an elite athlete such as Adam Žampa. Moreover, analytical aspects referring to the domestic world (national affiliation) or celebrity status (elite athletes) were present in the initial framing of the situation, too.

Shortly after the Žampa family publicized the possibility of moving for better sporting conditions to Russia, the overall tone of the public debate changed into a more disapproving one77. Nonetheless, by the end of March 2015 the family declared their final decision to “remain Slovak”. Moreover, they backed their decision by a promise they received by the representatives of the Slovak government to “do something” about the unfair system present within Slovak sport.

The threat of leaving

Following the case of Adam Žampa through media articles, I decided to select one particular media encounter and subject it to a qualitative analysis. I concentrated on a special TV discussion program “Sports and money”, which was broadcasted (in prime-time) via the news TV channel TA3 on 28th March, 2015. In the studio representatives of the Slovak skiing federation, representatives of the Education Ministry, sports lawyers as well as the protesting “parents” of the elite Slovak skiers78 were present. After transcribing the TV discussion, I looked for main topics and justification mechanisms characterising the presented problem.

Within the televised program, I observed three main topics framing the discussion. Those were 1) scarcity of financial resources, 2) faulty (and non-transparent) governance system, and 3) the sacred notion of national identity. Aforementioned three frameworks also encompassed particular issues and questions, such as:

- losing the elite athletes and their potential to positively form national identity/pride79

77 This was due to Russia being for a good part of the 20th century seen by the general public as a country, which supported the communist rule in Czechoslovakia, moreover acted as an aggressor in the 1968 occupation. It sparked several sports protest initiatives already back in the past (Waic et. 2014) Nevertheless, there were several concerns publicly raised also in connection to Russia hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, with alleged censorship and deprivation of human rights in the country. 78 Besides the father/coach of skier Adam Žampa – Tomáš Žampa, there was also the father/coach of skier Veronika Veléz-Zuzulová – Timotej Zuzula. At that time, the Zuzula family was tackling problems with the Slovak skiing federation regarding the issue of sponsorship deals and elite representation status. 79 One part of the media discourse regarding this issue was comparing the athletic „brain drain“ to that of highly qualified professionals. An op-ed feature titled “Why do we fear more the emigration of a skier than that of a young doctor ?” published in the Denník N daily on March 25th 2015, questioned the need for

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“I have to admit to the Slovak public, that this was the worst decision of my life, to announce that Adam would represent another country. We are Slovaks and we want to represent Slovakia. On the other hand, I am happy that this decision opened a wider discussion on this issue.” (T.Ž.)

Overall, this argumentation draws on two worlds of justification from the analytical model of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999), namely the domestic world and the celebrity/renown world. Even though the positive role of elite athletes to motivate the public to actively engage in sports has been brought up also in the conceptual documents as well as in the parliamentary discussions, the discussion taking place in a television studio only underlined the renowned aspect of the people in question. Moreover, they (were expected to) explicitly stress their national belonging and the feeling of their national responsibility.

T.Ž. later states in the debate that it is not only athletes who should feel some responsibility and affinity towards their country, but also the sports officials and politicians who are at the moment preparing the news sports policy.

“I received a promise from the Prime Minister himself, as well as from the Speaker of Parliament and the Education Minister, that they would personally act to prevent similar misunderstandings. For example through the new act on sport and new rules for the financing of sports…” (T.Ž.)

Here again we have to underline the concepts of vulnerability and resilience that characterise small states and their approach to the solving of problematic situations (Sam, 2015). When compared to the situation in bigger sports countries, it may be a rather unprecedented example when some of the country’s top political representatives personally engage in a problem regarding one sporting representative deciding to leave. Nevertheless, it is also important to introduce this type of sports policy problems into the wider sociology of sports scholarship to demonstrate specific geographic and cultural contexts in which sports policy takes place.

When applying the analytical model of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) to this part of the reality test, we mainly see a confirmation of the argumentation that has been used also in other stages of the dispute on the future of Slovak sport. The parents of the representational

public debate regarding elite athletes’ migration, as this is “not that important for society” as when a highly skilled professional leaves.

59 athletes, however, highlight the domestic order of worth within the televised discussion even more by addressing the notion of belonging and ties also within the concept of a family.

“Adam will stay Slovak, because we have always been Slovaks and have always wanted to represent Slovakia.” (T.Z.)

- dilemma whether to support talented youth or elite athletes?

“Speaking of youth, there is only one thing I want to say. We keep on proclaiming that we need to support youth and build sports infrastructure. So I need to ask now, hypothetically: when the youth gets its infrastructure, they train hard and eventually achieve world-class quality, then what do we tell them? You are on your own now, because we need to support youth and not the elite.” (T.Z.)

With the public resources dedicated to sports being rather limited, the issue of specifying who to support has been opened quite often throughout the whole policy negotiation process. Stemming from the media analysis post-London 2012, sports professionals called for a redefinition of the situation from a medal-oriented system to attempting the mass involvement of youth in sports (Botiková, 2013). While the wording of the public interest in sports from the new sports legislation (§2) underlines mostly the need for a wide involvement of young athletes, there were voices challenging it. I also followed up on this question with some of the representatives of sports federations in Slovakia, who admitted this “chicken-egg” issue was a tricky one. Nevertheless, some representatives from the minor/smaller sports (incl. alpine skiing) stated that they were aware the public finances would come only after they had recruited enough young athletes. That means they will actively have to seek them out and recruit them, but also further support them via specific funding structures.

Even though the framing of such a dispute may appear to be drawing upon “civic” vs. “renowned” orders of worth, when the state support of mass sports stands in opposition to the plea to support elite representatives, this notion may be a bit misleading. As different conversation partners explained to me in informal discussions, they view the mass grassroot support as primarily a pool for finding talent80, and not through the wider civic objective for

80 As one representative of the tennis federation confided at a “Sports and media” conference (3.4.2019), he is surprised by the fact that more and more parents who bring their children to the federation are not interested in their offspring becoming elite athletes. Another representative of track and field athletics

60 a healthier society. Therefore, even if declared as an intention aiming for a common good, the notion of supporting young athletes can be viewed in similar frames as the support of elite professionals. Then the argumentation of one of the “skiing fathers” as illustrated on the presented quote addresses further problems within the funding of the elite.

Representatives of the ministry present in the TV discussion claim that the question of who receives what support is left to the decision of individual sports federations. These, however, have to keep in mind the incentive of supporting the active involvement of young children in sports.

- the problem not being “about the money, but about the system”

“We keep on hearing that the system is faulty. But one needs to see the system as a whole, not only through its smaller parts, as financing.” (L.Č. from the Ministry)

“We have never asked for money (…) I rejected the finances offered by the prime minister, because this money should serve to someone else in the country; there are people dying, there are people with more serious problems, and those are the issues money from the prime minister should help with. Sport needs to be dealt with on a completely different platform.” (T.Z.)

Despite the fact that this point of the discussion was trying to reject the “market” argumentation for which monetary transactions are the format of relevant information (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999: 372), it may be framed as a plea for a better governance of sports in Slovakia through transparent and efficient mechanisms (which may deal also with finances), thus referring more to the industrial order of worth. As we have observed this also in the parliamentary discussions, the industrial order of worth often supports the civic aim for a better governance. In the televised discussion this notion is supported mainly by the representative of the Education Ministry, who also tries to highlight other associated governance technicalities introduced within the new policy. The opposition, here represented by the fathers of the skiing representatives, also supports the overall need for changing the technicalities in the system of managing sports in Slovakia, though they do not go too much into detail on how this should be done. The insufficient financial condition of Slovak sport

observes that even though mass running events are gaining popularity in Slovakia, this does not lead to more elite runners among Slovak athletes.

61 must be therefore tackled through better and more transparent policy tools, when we acknowledge that there might not be more money coming from the state into the field.

Moreover, a particular “systematic” issue that was raised among the topics discussed in the television studio was the heated situation in the Slovak skiing federation.

“In general, I view the problems taking place in the Slovak skiing as a result of long- term personnel issues in the Slovak skiing federation.” (F.R. – from the federation)

Even though this is a very specific point that I do not want to get too much into, nonetheless, it provides once again a good example of personalisation strategies and what Piggin et al. (2009) calls “managed intimacy”81 in small societies. Since the people present in the discussion knew each other from various other forums, this knowledge would become eventually handy when bringing up a personalised contra-argument to their opponents82. In the end (of the discussion), however, they decided to agree on the fact that united strive for change should replace individual hostility, as was also summarised by the TV host:

“Dear ladies and gentlemen, you will change the system only when you manage to agree and cooperate.” (P.B.)

Similar to the argumentation about the need to change the system, there was also one other problematic issues raised, namely

- the overall problem of Slovak sport (and Slovakia in general) stemming from the corruption and lack of transparency in public finances

This point has been addressed also in the parliamentary discussions, especially in the second reading. Here again sport plays the role of a litmus paper showing that if something is not functioning in wider society, it will show in an undesirable way also in its various fields. Also in the TV debate issues around the lack of transparency, nepotism and corruption were brought up and labelled as the cause of many problems in the sports field. Seen as the most efficient solution to such problems, which are undermining good governance is the clarification of roles in sport, if needed, then also through a binding legislation.

81 Small-state inhabitants learn to get along, like it or not, with folk they will know in myriad contexts over their whole lives. (Lowenthal cited in Piggin et al. 2009: 39) 82 Timotej Zuzula e.g. brings up the “failed” management of the Slovak skiing representation at the World Championships, who raced in different attires, as the Slovak skiing federation was no table to prepare and distribute one common attire for the whole national team.

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“… I do not want to discuss the new act on sport too much, but there will be set straight some rules on how the statutes of each and every sports should look like. This applies also to the statutes of sports federations which will apply for public finances.” (L.Č.)

***

Looking at the arguments presented in the TV debate which aimed at bringing all parts of the conflict together in a television studio, we observe similar traits of argumentation that were present also at the parliamentary discussions analysed in the previous chapter. Even though the original problem was framed by the “market” order of worth, and therefore pointing to the insufficient financial donations from the state to alpine skiers in Slovakia, during the television discussion it was again the worlds of civic justice and domestic allegiance that were most visibly referenced. Again, these were supported via multi-world justifications from the industrial world as well as the opinion world. While the efficient mechanisms of state governance should help the civic aspect of a fairer sport policy, the domestic order, supported by the notion of celebrity sphere, pushed for a clear dedication to supporting successful national representatives – elite athletes. Moreover, even when the discussion seemed to be addressing also the issue of sport for all vs. elite sport, in this case grassroots are observed mainly as the talent pool for future elite athletes, instead of their public health incentive.

In conclusion, the reality test run on the example of the Slovak skiing federation and the potential threat of one of its elite representatives leaving the country, remained framed by similar argumentation models as other discussions regarding the new sports policy in Slovakia. The radical criticism, which may have appeared in redefining the sports migration into a political or identity matter has, however, not taken place in the given discourse. Nonetheless, to elaborate on this different critical argumentation, in the following subchapter I place the issue of athletes’ migration into the historic framework of athletes leaving Czechoslovakia before 1989. Acts which were strongly labelled as ideological.

Sports migrations in the past

For a wider picture, the public and media discussion on sports migration which appeared in 2015 needs to be seen also in a historic context, since it was not the first time that Slovak athletes had considered leaving the country. Especially significant were the sporting migrations from Czechoslovakia during the communist regime (Waic et al., 2014).

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Leaving the country (for whatever reason) became a problematic matter especially after 1948, when the Communist party seized political power in Czechoslovakia. State laws prohibited leaving the country, moreover, certain cases would even be regarded as a treason (Feldstein, 2014). Despite the official/ideological framing of the problem, in most of the cases the public viewed those who managed to leave as heroes, as those who decided to take “fate into their own hands”. This situation was present across various fields of social life – from culture, science, politics as well as sport.

Paradoxical situations stemming from such opposing understandings of problematic migration would appear in sport related cases, as the state-owned and controlled press tried to make the fleeing athletes look bad, while the public kept the positive image of those who managed to pursue their dreams (Waic et al., 2014). An interesting example was the public delight when the popular Czech tennis player Martina Navrátilová, who left Czechoslovakia for the USA in 1975, returned in 1986 to play the Fed Cup in Prague as a member of the US team (Feldstein 2014: 266). The stands at the Štvanice tennis fields cheered for Navrátilová, despite her image being severely marred in the nation-wide media83. Another example would be the ice-hockey Šťastný brothers who left Czechoslovakia in 1980 and moved to Canada where they became the first players from the “Eastern-Bloc” countries to play in the National Hockey League. The Czechoslovak media would stop reporting on achievements these hockey players would earn. Despite that, after the fall of the communist regime in 1989 and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Peter Štastný became the flag bearer for the independent Slovak Olympic team at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

A much more recent case of sports migration not only from Slovakia, but also to Slovakia, is the appropriation of the Russian born biathlete Anastasiya Kuzmina who moved to Slovakia and started representing it in 2008. She raced under the Slovak flag at three Winter Olympic Games winning six medals, three of them gold. However, following an interview she gave to the Russian media during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi where she mentioned that she sees herself as “a Russian with a Slovak passport”, she received a wave of dismay from the Slovak sports fans. Reacting to this public disappointment was also the Foreign Affairs Minister who wrote a blog especially addressed to Kuzmina, where he asks

83 “Fedcup Look-back: In 1986, Štvanice supported the emigrant Navrátilová, Mandlíková raged” retrieved online: https://www.sport.cz/ostatni/tenis/clanek/437551-fedcupove-ohlednuti-stvanice-v-roce- 1986-fandila-emigrantce-navratilove-mandlikova-zurila.html

64 her to forgive the Slovaks for their ungratefulness84. Nevertheless, Anastasiya Kuzmina was awarded three times the Slovak Sportsperson of the Year trophy85 (2010, 2014, 2018).

When looking at how sports migrations affect the identity politics of a certain country, we have to mention the study by Emma Poulton and Joseph Maguire (2012) regarding “Plastic and Fantastic Brits”. In the media commentaries they studied British identity politics towards athletes who moved to the UK and represented the new country at the London 2012 Olympics. Poulton and Maguire note that the discourse on the migrants changed based on whether they were successful in their competitions or not. A special attention to the transnational identities in the Czech context was also paid by Radim Marada (2009), who aimed for a better conceptualisation of the idea of transnationalism in sports, football in particular. According to Marada (2009), transnational experience is seen in the context of international sports migration within the increasingly interconnected globalized world. Thereby the role of fandom in constituting transnational situations and generating transnational experience becomes more accentuated than in most contemporary writings on sport transnationalism.

In conclusion, the case of a possible sports migration in the reality test studied in this chapter shows that for the specific discussion on new sports policy in Slovakia, the framing did not take into consideration fluid national identities or a globalised sports market, but remained seated among the concepts of national belonging and better public governance. However, it also showed how strongly sport, national identity and public policy are interconnected in both public and political discourse. Therefore, the Slovak case of a rather minor, but popular and selectively also successful sport provided an ideal platform for challenging the idea of an objective national governance initiative. In the following chapter, I will provide an extensive overview on the state of the arts in the field of sociological inquiry into the topics of sport, national identity and public policy.

84 The blog is called “We are sorry, Nasťa!” and includes an official as well as personal apology by the Minister: “I am ashamed, Nasťa, that we can be so petty that instead of being enthusiastic, celebrating and congratulating you for the incredible representation of Slovakia we dishonour you for having Russian nationality. It is, Nasťa, probably our Slovak feature, that we have to spoil every beauty by looking for a mistake.” (online: https://lajcak.blog.sme.sk/c/348897/Prepac-nam-to-Nasta.html, published 12.2.2014) 85 This is a trophy awarded to the best Slovak athletes. as chosen by the members of the Club of Sports Journalists of the Slovak Syndicate of Journalists. The trophy was founded in 1993, following the annual award Czechoslovak Sportsperson of the Year, which ceased to exist after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.

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Sport politics/policies within international scholarship

As already mentioned in the opening parts of this dissertation, the relation between sport and politics, despite being often (intentionally) neglected by fans, athletes and institutions, is of a crucial importance to the role sport has played and still plays in society today. This is especially seen in connection to identity-forming processes.

Sport and identity

A general formula says that social groups are formed of individuals who possess some common attributes. In the words of Benedict Anderson (1991), certain imagined communities of people sharing common traits86 can exist across a vast area of space, even though their members do not know each other in person. Nonetheless, these people feel affiliated thanks to shared common traits and knowledge – e.g. they read the same news items in the same newspaper, which is written in the same language, and most importantly, they read it at the same time. If, as Anderson argues, media can glue an imagined community within a nation together, then certainly this should also be true in the case of sports media, which bring daily updates about different athletes and teams to specific audiences (Stead 2003). As a result, sport creates social groups, which might or might not possess the same attributes, but which share a certain sporting affiliation. This then becomes a metaphor for their supposed unity. In the case of national teams, Eric Hobsbawm would add that “the imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people” (Hobsbawm 1992: 143).

Sport plays two roles in defining a certain group identity. The explicit one relates to the existence of national teams or teams representing a specific (local) community. Sometimes the mere fact that a community has its own team is proof of the existence of the community (Giulianotti, 2002; Maguire, 1994). National teams represent their nations at international sporting events, while their fans and fellow citizens root for them in stadiums, in sport bars, or at home. Such team support also helps to create a group’s metaphorical auto- stylizations, such as: “It is not only our team, but all of us are competing there”.

However, there are also cases when sport as such plays a role in group representation. In this case, they might become a sort of national commodity, or a “habitual code” (Poulton, Maguire 2012: 11), which helps to define the group according to the rules of the game or a

86 Anderson (1991) refers to nations.

66 distinguishable style of play, e.g., “Brazilians play football as if they danced salsa, while Germans play as if their team was a machine made of steel”. Such statements usually rely on stereotypes, which are used to label one’s opponent, as well as one’s own style of play, creating what we can then call auto-stereotypes.

Applying these notions directly to the case of Slovak sporting identity, we have to distinguish two defining layers of importance, which highlight specific “national” sports over others. First, it is the historical contexts of certain (collective) sports, which have been played in the country at the highest level over the past century – these would be the traditional sports such as football or ice-hockey (Machajdík, 2011; Grexa & Souček, 2007; Barrer, 2007; Černák et al., 2018). Even when the governing structures of those two sports were part of the Czechoslovak sporting system, the popularity of local clubs and Slovak- born athletes, who were part of the national representations, added to the “cult” status of these sports within the present-day Slovak society. It is also important to note the mass appeal of these concrete sports elsewhere in the world, too, especially when speaking about football (Giulianotti, 1999). In the last decades, the second layer of “national” or “nationalised” sports has been composed of individual sports, such as tennis, road-cycling or alpine skiing. As the media analysis of the London 2012 press coverage in Slovakia showed (Botiková, 2013), the appeal of these sports is built on family involvement, dedication and self-sacrifice. These positive notions are often highlighted in contrast to the apparent weakening of the state-run sports structures, which should be able to support young or elite athletes, yet in the end it is the “strength of the family” that takes over the role of the state. Therefore, the sporting identity in Slovakia is either encompassed within the traditional collective sports, which attract a higher active participation (based also on the fact that they are collective sports) as well as viewership, or successful individual athletes, who often only remain in the top competition thanks to the support of their families. Nevertheless, the notion of success is important for both these categories. Be it past success (collective sports) or present-day success (individual sports).

From identity politics to sports policy

According to Pierre Bourdieu (1978), we can often observe certain symbolic tensions in the public discussion about which sport should be considered representative of a certain “national” culture or group. The British sociologist of sport, Alan Bairner (2001), has described various examples of the process of defining a “national” sport in countries like

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England, Scotland, Ireland, the USA, or Canada. However, these public debates can also be seen in countries that do not have as rich a sporting tradition as, for example, Great Britain, which is considered the cradle of modern sport (Bourdieu 1978). Nonetheless, these countries also take part in prestigious sporting competitions, and they even achieve considerable success there. Therefore, other arguments must also be considered in the debate about the “chosen” representative sport, including natural and geographic conditions, the history of the nation, and its recent political strategies (Kiviaho & Mäkelä, 1978).

One of the most influential and cited studies exploring this phenomena on a conceptual basis is the paper by Barrie Houlihan (1997), who examines the use made of sport by governments to help manage identity. As he notes in the introduction, while sport possesses a powerful symbolism that can be exploited on occasion to great effect, the flexibility of sports symbolism often undermines its capacity to exert a lasting effect on national identity. Therefore, paradoxically, sport is often intentionally used to strengthen some sense of national togetherness, but the results of this intention have been shown not to be reliable.

According to Houlihan (1997), the steady increase in the public funding of sport lies in the instrumental perception of sport. This instrumental perception gives sport the already mentioned capacity to “camouflage problems ranging from poor cardiovascular health and juvenile delinquency to low tourist volume” (Houlihan, 1997: 113). Moreover, the trend to promote national identity via sport has been visible mainly in the past 30 years, which Houlihan ascribes to factors such as the awareness of cultural globalization and the end of the Cold War and the fragmentation of the Soviet Union. The cultural globalization tendencies may be observed in various forms, be it via the lenses of the cultural imperialism of western civilization, or the interconnection and interdependency of all global areas (Tomlison, 1991). Nevertheless, according to Houlihan (1997), the result is that both powerful and weak states face the problem of greater cultural insecurity. I would argue that the cultural insecurity Houlihan (1997) observes in the 1970s is still present in the world even to this day. Therefore, it should be no surprise that the already cited Crawford Report (2007) prepared by the Australian Sports Commission, or the Canadian “Own the Podium” initiative (2010), was drafted for similar incentives and in a similar time frame as the conceptual document Slovak Sport 2020 (2012).

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Global sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, provide important reference points for the public sports policies in most of the studied countries. In connection to the global culture of international sporting events, which makes a virtue of being ahistorical and rootless, Houlihan notes that “(m)ost modern international sporting events possess many of these characteristics, mixing classical allusions, militaristic triumphalism, fashion show glamour and a degree of national sentimentality that would have embarrassed Walt Disney” (Houlihan 1997: 115). This might be one of the basis on which countries strive for heritage politics also in sports – even if that tradition is “short-lived, fabricated and forced to operate within an international framework” (ibid: 115).

Switching focus to Central and Eastern Europe, there is a popular post-Cold War argument which deals with the fact that with the fall of Soviet Union, there was a sudden and rather massive emergence of ethnic nationalist politics in post-communist Europe. Applicably for this reference, Geertz (1972 cited in Houlihan 1997:116) argues that “sport, as a collectively sustained symbolic structure, is a powerful metaphor which reveals the most deep seated values of a culture”, and thus is often used as a platform for the emerging state controlled/supported nationalism. And while state and its interventions into public policies might be the manager of meanings, moreover, it operates in a more pluralist arena and in competition with other sources of cultural change, like e.g. the church or media.

Even though there are arguments that a national character/identity is set, essentialist, representative (Smith 1995), Robertson (1990) refers to this vision of an unchanging and unchangeable culture as “wilful nostalgia”. A contrary approach is that national identity is the product of negotiation and is constantly being refined, and occasionally redefined. Therefore, national identity, and the sporting elements of it, is more likely to be founded on historical invention and reinvention than on a historical fact (Hobsbawm, 1992). This process remains a challenge for the long-established nation states, moreover, in the newly established states, or multi-ethnic states, the challenge is to manufacture a coherent mythology/history, which will help to anchor the new identity as well as sport politics in the longer run. Consequently sport, and particularly elite sport, is used to provide the focus for the definition of national identity, which once successfully established, is often projected back to foster the impression of cultural continuity.

To bring up one more important point from Houlihan’s study (1997), when drawing this to the wider topic of “national sports”, there is a paradox of maintaining national identity

69 and social cohesion through sport. The paradox lies in the practice, as on the one hand, the states want to differentiate themselves from their “neighbours” or “rivals”, but they do not do this by developing their unique sporting culture, but by adopting “foreign” sports, which then provide a global arena for competition87. According to Houlihan (1997: 132), one of the questions that arise from the discussion on the triangular relationship between ethnic identity, state managed national identity and globalisation is whether states still retain the capacity to exploit sport as a significant element in a strategy of national identity management. In conclusion, governments might use sport to produce national symbolism and reinforce national identity, yet Houlihan claims that sport remains a very unstable cultural source. It is due to its intensity, which is, however, very brief in duration. A similar observation was also made by Hilvoorde et al. (2010), who identified a rise in the national pride of countries after successful Olympic Games, however not with a significantly long- lasting effect. On the other hand, it would be interesting to look closer at the cases when sports-related national identity narratives – most notably linked to an exceptional achievement or exceptional loss (trauma) that remain reproduced and kept alive in the society. These would be e.g. the Hungarian victory over England in the 1950s, the Czechoslovak ice-hockey defeat of the Soviets in 1968, the Czech Nagano 1998 gold medal in ice-hockey, or the Slovak world ice-hockey title from 2002.

When speaking about national identity and sport, we may distinguish a certain cultural demand for certain sports in specific settings – usually stemming from a historical national “tradition”. Therefore, here we can bring up some points entertained by Alan Bairner in his book on Sport, Nationalism and Globalization (2001), on how some countries in the Anglo-American context appropriated certain sports, while overlooking other. The special case would be that of Canada, which has developed its national identity based on solely one sport – ice-hockey, which dominates both the public as well as local discourses.

We should not forget, however, that even “national” sports are not always opened for everyone. The national narrative makes clear who gets to participate and who does not. What are the preferred personal characteristics as well as socio-economic background of the athlete? On the other hand, if there was a path for successful inclusion, it would first and foremost be done through these sports. Again, we can look closer at ice-hockey in Canada,

87 Similar case is described by Bairner (2001) on the case of the Scottish national sporting identity, which is formed around the premise, that they want to beat „their rivals“ England in „their game“ – football.

70 where in its popular (mediated) version, this sport is “reserved” for white men, from middle, to upper-middle class families, now mostly from the suburban areas of bigger cities (Crossman & Scherer 2015). Moreover, the sport portrays masculinity and roughness, and it also requires special clothes and kits to play it, which are not affordable for everyone. Nevertheless, in Canada it is one of the platforms that also provides room for the integration of ethnic minorities, such as the popular Hockey Night in Canada “Punjabi” version. Even though the mediated image of this sport is more or less restricted to white rough men, in its popular “street hockey” or “pond hockey” versions, it gets played by girls as well as kids from ethnic minorities. Some (both state organised or volunteer/community) ice-hockey programmes are also designed in such a way as to help the First Nations people to integrate into “contemporary” Canadian society (Szto & Gruneau, 2018).

Advocates of sport seem obliged to add values in order to support and strengthen its importance especially within the national policies. As Carlsson and Hedenborg (2014: 1225) note, “this implicit tactics of adding various values to sport might be scrutinized critically and even recognized as ideological burden”. On the other hand, there are critics that point to sport’s negative influence, such as maintaining social exclusion, sexual harassment, violence, injuries, medicalization, post-colonialism, nationalism and even fascist attitudes. Carlsson and Hedenborg (2014) argue that one of the challenges for the social science of sport is to tackle the dialectics of the importance/unimportance of sport, as well as of its external/internal values.

In the following sub-chapter, I will discuss the work of M. Sam and S. Jackson, who applied the national sports policies to the specific cases of smaller countries, where the legitimating process of public spending in sport are to be legitimised in specific terms. Following, there are examples of small countries from the Central European context and sport sociology studies dedicated to the analysis of their sporting nationalism.

Sport in “small states”

Specific attention to the topic of sports policy in small states was paid in a special issue of International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics. In its editorial, Michael Sam and Steven Jackson (2015) illustrate the problem of small states using the biblical story of David and Goliath, where when taken to the sporting field, the small states are challenged to strive for success at international tournaments dominated by superpowers, e.g. the USA, China or

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Russia. Therefore, when examining the national sport policies it is important to take scale into consideration, too.

First, together with the authors, we need to distinguish what characteristics constitute a small state. Even though such characteristics are obviously arbitrary, nevertheless, the authors try to distinguish some points based on existing policy studies. For comparative reasons, there are three relevant dimensions: population size, geographical size and the size of the economy. In terms of population, the collection of works edited by Sam and Jackson (2015) uses an arbitrary population of under 10 million inhabitants. The geographical size is again relative, yet it has become accepted that the smallness of a state should be seen in a continuum. The size of the state’s economy is determined based on its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Since economic scale affects many facets of sports development and sustainability, the country’s GDP matters also when speaking about its sports policies. Especially since “limited economic power has great relevance in the contemporary world of international professional sport” (Sam & Jackson, 2015: 2).

To use also more symbolic concepts, small states can be determined by their “vulnerability” and “resilience” (Briguglio et al. 2009). As to vulnerability – the small states are most often dependable on the “bigger players” and thus end up affected by global forces beyond their own control88. Resilience encompasses the capacities of small states to react and adapt better, to respond successfully to global challenges. The perceived vulnerability generates also the idea of social partnership, which can act as a glue for the corporatist politics of the small states. Moreover, closer personal ties within the different sectors of the state may enable better adaptation in terms of policy creation. The personal problems need to go away, as there are not many possibilities personal-wise, to step in. Sam and Jackson bring up Lowenthal’s (1987) thesis of “managed intimacy”, where:

88 Here we can mention the problematic tendency of small states to specialise in a particular (or even peculiar) sporting discipline might result in their vulnerability to shock, when a larger sport’s governing body decides to withdraw a certain sport from the programme. When the IOC entertained the idea of removing wrestling from the Olympic programme, this would have most affected Azerbaijan and Georgia, which have most of their medals (Azerbaijan 7 out of 10, Georgia 6 out of 7) in this sport. A similar threat hangs above one of the most prestigious sports medal-wise for Slovakia – white-water slalom – which is slowly being pushed out from the Olympic programme due to its high and unsustainable costs (the construction of a specialised venue – canal) and rather limited competition. Changes in this discipline are already being proposed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. https://www.canoeicf.com/es/node/55730.

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“Small-state inhabitants learn to get along, like it or not, with folk they will know in myriad contexts over their whole lives. To enable the social mechanism to function without undue stress, they minimise or mitigate overt conflict. They become expert at muting hostility, deferring their own views, containing disagreement, avoiding dispute, in the interest of stability and compromise.” (Lowenthal cited in Piggin et al. 2009: 39)

However, when talking about the creation of sports policy in Slovakia, and the whole sports field in general, as will be discussed further on, we have to challenge the positive thesis of “managed intimacy”. As the analysis of the commentaries in the Slovak media following the London 2012 “failure” shows, the idea of close-tied “family sports” as well as the concept of closeness, with the “everybody knows everybody” premise was not always seen as positive or constructive, but as a threat to corruption and nepotism (Botiková, 2015). Therefore “managed intimacy” if not managed well, can be seen also as something which eventually creates problems of distrust.

Houlihan and Zheng (2015) also identify some of the objectives and strategies small states follow when they participate in international sport and invest in elite sport. According to the authors, the most interesting paradox of the small states in the global sporting world is that they are “consistent in their presence and also their marginality.” (Houlihan and Zheng, 2015: 329) When wondering why the small states should even invest in the development of sport, the obvious answer comes in counting up the sporting as well as non- sporting objectives – those being e.g. the projection of national identity, economic and social benefits, or diplomatic resources. According to Houlihan and Zheng (2015), when conceptualising the theoretical insight on sports policy in small states, we should follow a so-called neoliberal paradigm, which gives less emphasis on capabilities and more on institutions and the institutionalization of interests. It also takes into consideration a broader range of political actors, including international governing bodies.

When returning to the policies created in small states – we can assume that their smallness and comparative resource scarcity invite “consolidation, the narrowing of objectives, targeting and rationing” (Sam and Jackson, 2015: 4). The topic of “searching for a national sport” is then similarly focused on targeting and rationing, as we can see tendencies to consolidate efforts around particular sports. However, such practices tend to distort sports systems in small states, which then follow associated targets, benchmarks and performance-based budgeting, instead of a more civic approach to sport for all. Applying

73 the framework of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) and their worlds of justifications, it is the cry for rational, efficient and well “deserved” funding that relies on the domestic and industrial orders of worth. On the other hand, the more democratic - civic order remains contested, since it often does not work with historical or statistical based arguments. In addition, with the contemporary emphasis on accountability, small states might struggle to reconcile the ideals of social partnerships (Sam, 2015). Furthermore, there appears a neoliberal paradox: “scale invites consolidation, targeting and rationing, while also invoking strategies to break the very communal bonds that provide them with the fertile conditions for growth and comparative advantage” (Sam and Jackson, 2015: 5). Therefore we have outcome-oriented targeting on one side, with communal bonds and social capital on the other.

Sam and Jackson (2015) also note that perhaps the most common theme around small state sports is how sport is portrayed within the image of national identity, national prowess. Here again comes the reference to Alan Bairner and his work on “sporting nationalisms” (1996, 2001), nevertheless, there is a wider field of sports scholarship on how sports becomes a platform for projecting national identity (parts of it already discussed in the previous subchapter).

When returning to the issues that small states tackle in the field of sports, we also have to mention the topic of migration: both that of the athletes who leave small countries to find more lucrative possibilities abroad, as well as when small states acquire athletes from abroad to develop their own sporting capabilities (Sam, 2015; Kanemasu & Molnar, 2012). Similar observances come also from the study of the Slovak sport policy, especially in the part of this dissertation dedicated to what Boltanski and Thévenot (2006) call “reality tests”. There we can see the public discussion that appeared in connection to the “threat” by one elite athlete, who considered changing his citizenship and representing a different country due to better funding opportunities. The fact that this public discussion arose because of one individual, who arguably was not the top in his field, is emblematic for the context of small states and their rather emblematic “sporting problems”.

Summarising what issues constitute the sporting field in small states, Sam and Jackson list “cultural homogeneity, unique and highly efficient communicative and organisational networks, the need and ability to be innovative, flexible and resilient, and the high level of visibility and celebration of sporting victories” (2015: 7) – these may offer

74 small states some advantage to big states, which have perhaps higher economic and human capital, but have their own vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, according to Lee and Smith (2010, cited in Houlihan and Zheng, 2015: 333), “rather than treating smallness as an analytical category … it can be understood as a discursive construction”.

Following up on these points raised by Sam and Jackson, when we analyse the new sports policy in Slovakia further, we shall see the issues of transparency and accountability among the emerging topics. On the side will be also the problem of celebratory nationalism, migration and the ever-present division between sport-for-all and elite sport. A research question that raises from the presented ideas is whether we can observe something such as “targeting” also done in the Slovak sports policy? And if so, is it done explicitly or implicitly? The fact that an objective formula to “rationally” distinguish targets of the public funds has been devised already in the conceptual documents for the new legislation, is an issue worth bringing up. With this in mind, we may say that targeting in the Slovak case may be done rather implicitly by the funding mechanisms devised to select the successful sports and appropriate their funding accordingly – relying on the civic and industrial logic if we referred to Boltanski and Thévenot (1999). Nevertheless, the unique situation with ice- hockey and football, which have acquired a special position by being taken out from the formula a year after the original legislation passed, undermine the concept of financial and political objectivity and return us to the arguments based on historic tradition and rootedness. In the following subchapters, I shall introduce a few examples/case studies of sport and identity policies in smaller states – from both the country leading research on sport in small countries (New Zealand) as well as examples from the closer proximity, i.e. the Central European region (Austria, Slovenia).

New Zealand’s vulnerability and resilience

In his case study of New Zealand’s sports policy, Sam (2015) looks at how legitimations around a country’s small size induce compromises to buttress particular policies. He finds it worth considering whether the sport policy trajectories of small nations might be shaped by their context-specific legitimations. Smallness is used as the discursive frame here. Moreover, it is this smallness constructed by the nation itself, as “size is internally or domestically imagined, forming part of its cultural makeup and by extension, informing its choice and actions” (Sam 2015: 3).

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Therefore vulnerability, or the “exposure to shock”, of small states in the sporting field is often illustrated by the small medal count they expect at any international sporting events. Therefore, any small deviation from the expected target (due to injury, sickness or bad luck) represents a proportionately greater blow to the medal count … “and by extension a vulnerability to the legitimacy of their sporting systems” (Sam 2015:3). The legitimacy of sporting systems in small states therefore lies on individual achievements, be it successful achievements or failures. The public expectations of good results is not invested into more general sporting disciplines, but into concrete individuals. Similar observations were made following the London 2012 Olympic results of the Slovak athletes, who did not meet the expected medal count there due to often “personalised reasons”. The follow-up public discussion led to updating the sports policy in the country, which shows how important the personalisation aspect is that exists within the limited framework of a small country (Botiková 2015).

After studying New Zealand’s sports policy documents, Piggin (2010) notes that “typifying the narrative” of the country’s smallness emerged to legitimate the policies’ sole existence. Again, it is important to keep in mind that the same discourse frame which creates a “positive” typifying narrative of a small, but resilient country, can take on a negative connotation, or even become a source of resistance to proposed policy changes. Moreover, due to the personal closeness of all actors involved in the negotiation process, Piggin (2010) found that in the case of New Zealand, sometimes any kind of opposition towards a proposed policy can be hardly traceable, not because the policy was supported in unison, but rather due to the fact that sport administrators did not want to speak against changes, noting that “New Zealand is a very, very small place” (Piggin 2010: 90).

New Zealand often compares its sport policies with incomparable countries, either by size – Australia, or by historical ties – Great Britain. Moreover, with Australia and Great Britain they also share some of the sports they focus on – such as cycling, sailing and rowing. When we ask, “who does Slovakia compare itself with?”, the obvious answer would be the “ever-present” neighbour and former state-partner – the Czech Republic. But then there are also the other countries in the Central European region, such as Hungary, Austria or Slovenia, which very often gets confused with Slovakia. When I asked this question of “rivalry” to some of the actors involved in the new sports policy preparation group, my conversation partners would point to specific examples from the neighbouring countries,

76 especially when a comparable sporting discipline was taken into consideration (e.g. ice- hockey or football). Nevertheless, a strong reference frame to comparisons would lie in the historical context and sporting achievements. This would also include an interesting referential frame of Slovak athletes within the Czechoslovak sporting system, therefore already a non-existent country with a specific dual-nationalist ideology. This is discussed more in-depth in the chapter on the history of sports and sports policies in Slovakia. In the following subchapters, I continue the overview of the specific case of sport and national identity in small (Central European) countries. The selected examples of Austria and Slovenia were chosen mainly due to the existence of specific studies done in this regard (and my awareness of these studies). Here I have to stress once again,that scholarship on sport policy and national identity is yet not developed enough in this specific geographic and cultural region, which this dissertation also hopes to address.

Austria – the case of sport space and national identity

Even though most of the scientific work regarding the development trends in Austrian sport has been carried out by the research team around Prof. Otmar Weiss (e.g. Weiss et al., 2016), the outcome of this research most notably consists of descriptive statistics on sports participation. Since we have established to look also into the more symbolic matters of identity building in connection to sport, we will now discuss perhaps a marginal study by Horak and Spitaler (2003). Nevertheless, this study introduces two interesting layers of determining the concept of a national sport.

In their paper, Horak and Spitaler (2003) are looking at how the establishment of a national sport space interacts with the development of a national self-awareness and national identity. They do so by placing the concept of sport space in a political context, approaching the concept of a nation from the viewpoint of social history, given the fact that “an actual nation can always only be confirmed post festum” (Horak & Spitaler, 2003: 1507). They see sport space as a contested cultural territory, as well as a sphere of established institutional interests. This takes into consideration not only active participation in sport, but also sport as a phenomenon of popular culture.

Within the case study of Austria, the authors speak of a more general process of “Austrification”, which took place post World War II. The two disciplines that helped to define the national sport space after 1945 were football and skiing. In the interwar era,

77 football developed into a popular urban past-time of the working classes. Politically, football was located in the social-democratic circles of Vienna and became an important manifestation of the urban culture (Horak 1994). Nevertheless, it was also alpine skiing that became a phenomenon in the inter-war years89. Skiing, however, remained for a longer period of time a bourgeois and rural-alpine pastime that was of little interest to the urban population. What helped with the “austrification” of these sports was the role of the media, when sport became an important part of the television programming beginning in the 1950s90. Television brought a wider audience, as well as new interpretations of the success and failure of the national squad. As Rowe confirms (Rowe et a. 1998: 120), media play an important role in creating the symbolism of nation-making and mythologizing through sport.

Austrian national self-awareness was created especially through international football, when Germany became the main rival – and defeating Germany in the “miracle of Cordoba” during 1978 World Cup in Argentina became a formative moment for the Austrian sport identity. While football in Austria had to leave the urban environment, alpine skiing had to enter it. The mass popularity of skiing is ascribed to the phenomenal success of Toni Sailer in the 1956 Olympics. In the beginning, alpine skiing was connected to the rural, Catholic identity, which later changed into a wider national identity. Nevertheless, the involvement of sports media in the building of a national identity is, according to Horak and Spitaler (2003), two-fold: firstly, it happens on an everyday procedural level, strengthening the so called “banal nationalism” practices (Billig, 1995); secondly, through the extraordinary moments of success and failure, which later become a part of the collective national memory.

The Austrian sporting example is interesting for at least two reasons: because of the turbulent 20th century, Austria is still regarded as a young nation-state, whose inhabitants began “feeling Austrian” only in the 1970s. Moreover, it is a rather small state, which is often used as an example of efficient sporting policy practice (Kiviaho & Mäkelä, 1978), which focuses on a particular sport and develops a wide field of professionals within this sport. Wisely investing its human and geographical resources into alpine skiing has brought Austria an unproportioned number of Olympic medals, especially when compared to

89 Here comes a tongue-in-cheek comment from the authors, that both main national sports gained wide national popularity thanks to immigrants. While Matthias Sindelar and Josef Uridil were popular Viennese soccer players, Matthias Zdarsky was the pioneer of alpine skiing. 90 ORF was founded in 1955.

78 similarly small states from the Central European region. The political context of both alpine skiing and football in Austria remains, however, interesting, as both these sports in the course of time have rid themselves/or changed their previous ideological backgrounds. Now,

“football and skiing have finally come together. They form and formulate a national sport space and complement national identity, which at the present time, however, is leaning toward an anti-urban orientation, culturally as well as politically” (Horak and Spitaler, 2003: 1515).

The anthropology of Slovenia’s national sport – alpine skiing

In this sub-chapter, the role of alpine skiing in Slovenian culture and society is analysed by focusing on the construction and maintenance of a “sporting national story”. Slovenia might be an interesting example to compare with Slovakia, as both countries were founded only in the 1990s, they both experienced a communist past and in a more light- weight approach, often get confused because of their name, size and a similar flag. The following paragraphs refer to the study on alpine skiing with its references to the natural landscape in Slovenia. This notion fits in with what Kotnik calls “the essentialist ideology of national sport” (2007: 56). Moreover, according to Kotnik, mountains and ski resorts are widely used to build a national sporting iconography. Again, it is the notion of space, as already discussed by Horak and Spitaler (2003), which has its importance in the discussion on national sporting identities and policies.

In his study, Kotnik (2007) asks whether national sports are supposed to be indigenous practices. This is a question we may rather disagree on. As problematized in the chapter of this dissertation dedicated to the exhausting description of the history of sports and sports governance in Slovakia, I point to the ways in which the development and popularity of certain sports came about thanks to “foreign” influence from abroad and not “pure” indigenous practices (along the arguments of Bairner, 2001). Nevertheless, Kotnik provides an intriguing description of a national myth about alpine skiing being developed in the Slovenian Alps, claiming that the wider public is aware of this myth as it is also often reproduced in the media. Skiing has been also an important distinction maker for Slovenia within the former Yugoslavia, as other nations of the socialist state did not really practice this sport. Moreover, Slovenians were also considered “the skiers” by other Yugoslav people. This is what Kotnik refers to as to the process of “national commodification”.

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Nevertheless, this national myth of an indigenous sport has empirical opposition, as encyclopaedias claim that skiing as such was developed in Scandinavian countries (now known as Nordic skiing), and Alpine skiing was first and foremost popularised by the Austrian mountaineers. In response to this, Kotnik argues that such an “alternative” take on skiing is not well recognized in Slovenia, which is more interested in its “invented tradition”.

Of course, there are many more examples of national sporting myths, or “stories which people tell themselves about themselves” (Rowe et al. 1998)91. As long as they are “just” part of some national sporting mythology, that is one thing, but when they are applied to legitimise sports governance and sports funding, following the principle of a national interest and history, this provides interesting problems for further analysis.

Sport policy in post-communist countries

Before we move on, we should pay one more short stop to the contextual framework of sport in communist, later post-communist, European countries. Since in this dissertation I focus on the case of the Slovak sports policy, this historically drew its inspiration (or distance) from the communist legacy. Helping to shed analytical light on sport policies in post-communist countries is the work by the sport historian James Riordan (2007), who similarly to Houlihan (1997) claims that sport in communist countries played a special role in “nation building”, especially during the so-called Cold War era. This means that the sport was integrated in a model for a modernising community, employed in utilitarian purposes to promote health and hygiene, defence, productivity as well as the integration of a multi-ethnic population into a unified state. Besides that, there was also the desire for international prestige – the so called Cold War in sports. According to Riordan, besides the GDR and Czechoslovakia, this Soviet model of sports policy focused mostly on a mass rural population. As discussed in the special chapter on history, in Czechoslovakia, an important part of the sports culture took place in the city environment.

Nevertheless, Riordan (2007) goes as far as to say that in many communist countries, sport in the past acquired the revolutionary role of being “an agent of social change, with the state as pilot” (Riordan 2007: 110). It is important to note that after the communist

91 Beautiful example is the one written down by Roland Barthes in his essay on Tour de France as an epic (1979). There he demonstrates how sport/play is inseparable from myth, from its accompanying mythic discourse. Barthes compares the cyclists, the competitors to characters from Homerian epics, who by taking part in the Tour in fact perform the ancient story of fighting against the odds of Nature.

80 revolutions, and in the context of a communist class-less society, there was hardly any “leisure class” to promote sport, or to engage in it. Moreover, there was a strong tendency to value the physical aspect of human development as much as the mental one, thus investing in individual health/well-being as well as the collective health and capabilities of the society.

In his analysis of different national contexts, Riordan (2007) distinguishes six main/principal communist state priorities in sport:

• Nation-building – especially in new communist countries, such as the Soviet Union, which needed the political stabilisation of an ethnically diverse population into a newly unified state. It would also transcend the bounds of kinship, race, language, religion and geographical location. • In connection to nation-building, there also comes the aspect of integration, especially in the multi-ethnic states92, but also of the rural society into a more urban lifestyle. • Defence is seen as a prime consideration due to the constant threat of war, terrorism and subversion which these newly emerged communist states faced. The processes of the “militarisation of sport” were always present. All communist nations had a nation-wide fitness programme with a bias towards military training, modelled on the Soviet “Prepared for Work and Defence” – Gotov k turdu I oborone – system, which was loosely inspired by the Boy Scout movement and their achievement badges. Nevertheless, military presence in the sports movement was visible through armed and security force clubs, which provided military sinecures for full-time athletes. • Sport also served as a good channel through which the state could educate people in health and hygiene. The new approach to health and recreation would then become a special system of physical culture (e.g. Korperkultur), an approach implementing both social policies and social control from within. Sport in the workplace was also approached in a utilitarian way, so as to reduce sickness, injury and fatigue among the growing working class, resulting in a “health-oriented system of sport”. • The other priority was also introducing social policies to combat juvenile delinquency or alcoholism, alongside promoting women’s sports in societies where

92 The USSR had over a hundred nationalities within its 290 million people. Czechoslovakia operated with two nations – Czechs and Slovaks, as well as with many representatives of ethnic minorities (Hungarian, Rusyn, Jewish or Roma).

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women were traditionally left out of public life. At the same time, women were already seen as an equal part of the workforce, moreover, female athletes at international events also brought medals and thus fought for international recognition. • International recognition and prestige was the last state priority promoted and achieved through sport that Riordan (2007) mentions in his text – “sport here is unique in that for all communist countries (…) it was the only medium in which they were able to take on and beat the economically advanced capitalist nations” (ibid: 114).

While in some post-communist countries the existing elite sports system and its attainment tended to provoke apathy and resentment – Riordan gives Hungary, Poland and Romania, Bulgaria and the GDR as examples, where after the communist revolution they had “alien” sports system and values thrust upon them. Feeling that the sport heroes are not “theirs”.

“On the other hand, in countries like the now defunct Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia, as well as the Slav regions of the old Soviet Union (Ukraine, Belarus and Russia), the patriotic pride in sporting success and heroes would appear to have been genuine. One reason for this may be that the socialist revolution of 1917 in the Old Russian Empire, and of 1946 and 1948 in the cases of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, came out of their own experience and had some popular support.” (ibid: 115)

***

The relationship between national political interests and sports governance should also be elaborated upon in its historical dimension. Especially as the discussions in the Slovak parliament often referred to certain national sporting traditions, popularity, previous achievements or even “national sports.” These framings appear as part of the argumentation strategy, which refers to the domestic order of worth (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999). The following chapter thus looks at the historical aspect of sport and sports policy in Slovakia. It aims to give an overview of the conceptualisation of the “traditional” or domestic aspect of sporting culture in the country, moreover, its interplay with the democratic/civil interests.

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Some historical aspects of sport and sports policy in Slovakia

In the chapter dedicated to the parliamentary discussion taking place in the Slovak National Council in 2015, I have pointed out several arguments presented by the MPs, which referred to the historic framework of sport in Slovakia. Those arguments would mostly draw upon the domestic legitimacy (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999) of “traditional” sports and their vital role played in the development of physical culture in Slovakia. Another important referential point that was raised by the MPs, though also openly contested, was the influence of Interior and Defence ministries to the financing and governance of sport in the country. All these, as well as many other discussed points, have their basis in the historical context. Therefore, a sociological take on the issue of sports policy in Slovakia would not be complete, without at least a brief historical overview of its development over the past century. I gathered material for this overview in various historical studies, as well as at themed exhibitions organised by the Slovak Physical Culture Museum and the Slovak National Archive. This overview, however, is not as exhaustive as it could be if done by sport historians (e.g. Souček & Grexa, 2007), nevertheless, it pays closer attention to the concepts of governance and “traditional” sports, which are the backbone also of this dissertation text.

Early stages

In his preface to a book on sport in totalitarian regimes, Marek Waic (2014) writes that while the 19th century can be characterised as the century of nationalism, then the 20th century should be without a doubt characterised as the “century of sport”. He ascribes this mostly to the observations that during the 20th century sport turned into “the most universal, most popular and most watched phenomenon” in the world, with important political and economic consequences (Waic et al. 2014: 7). According to Waic, the interconnection between sport and politics is nothing new also in the Central European region, as one can trace many examples of their relationship within the history of sport in Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, and all the way back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Machajdík 2011, Waic et al. 2014). There, in the late 19th century, we can observe the emergence of the first sport clubs and organisations formed around and for leisure activities. The process and progress of sport in the early stages was more or less similar in all the countries within the region, moreover, they would tend to influence each other. For example, the present-day

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Slovak capital Bratislava, according to Machajdík (2011), served thanks to its location and the strong German and Hungarian influence of the late 19th century, as the “entrance gate” for modern sport to Slovakia. Most of the modern sport clubs back then were organised by Hungarians, Germans and Jews.

The international aspect of the introduction of modern sport to the region is backed by the fact that representatives of Hungary and the Czech lands were also present at the first/founding Paris Olympic Congress of 1894, which stood behind the creation of the Olympic movement (Waic et al. 2014: 7). The Czech Amateur Athletic Union, which had under its supervision most of the existing sports clubs, was established in 1897, and two years later, the Czech Olympic Committee was founded. Slovak Olympic athletes were united under the Hungarian sports institutions. The first Olympic medallist born in Slovakia was Alojz Szokol, who won bronze in track and field athletics already at the first Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens, Greece (Grexa & Souček, 2007).

Nevertheless, while most of the sports institutions in Western Europe and North America were at the end of 19th century already “in full swing” - also thanks to the developed urban culture and industrialisation - in Slovakia majority of the population was still employed in agrarian production, and therefore, most of the physical culture per se was connected to the physical work on the fields (Beňušková 2012: 197). If one was not directly employed in the agrarian sector, the alternative employment opportunities would be found in the logging works in the forests, mining or full-time employment in crafts and manufacturing. The area of present day Slovakia was not industrialised enough to create a modern lifestyle, which would also provide time slot for leisure activities. Even though the need for physical exercises was highlighted already by the representatives of the “national awakening” movement in the 19th century, the first textbook on how to do physical exercises was put together by I. B. Zoch in 1873 – “Krátky návod k vyučovaniu telocviku” (A short guide to the teaching of physical education). There he wrote about the ways one can exercise with equipment, as well as how to do athletics, hiking or folk dancing. The aim of this book was to introduce a complex and versatile physical culture in the school system, even though just pioneering it. The first physical education classes were held at the gymnasium in Revúca in 1866.

In its early stages, sport in the Slovak regions of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy used to be solely for the “upper classes”. This was also due to bad economic and

84 social situation of the society, as well as the involvement in agrarian production. According to Beňušková (2012: 198), physical activity in the rural areas of Slovakia was aimed more at showing off skills and physical prowess, and not necessarily done for any utilitarian reason as e.g. staying healthy, staying in shape. Aesthetics of physical movement were best encapsulated within folk dancing, which would stay as a popular free time activity also later in the 20th century. Activity, which would not be solely done at spontaneous village celebrations, but also through organized folklore ensembles.

In the developed urban areas, team sports were among the first to become widely spread. Those would be football, tennis93, rowing or even rugby (Machajdík, 2011). Altogether, physical activity both in rural as well as urban areas was mainly reserved for men, as women were only occasionally allowed to join the sporting or exercising events. A notable involvement of women in physical culture began with the spread of the Sokol gymnastic movement.

While on one hand, the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian monarchy enhanced the development of sport in the cities (which were mostly German and Hungarian), its political context may have halted the mass development of modern sport in Slovakia. Beňušková (2012) notes that it was especially due to the Bach absolutist government and the Hungarian influence (magyarisation) of late 19th century, which restricted not only the development of athletic organisations in Slovakia, but also other national cultural institutions. An important impulse in the development and mass appeal of sporting activities came alongside the foundation of the Sokol organisation.

Sokol and the growth of sport participation

Sokol gymnastic union was officially founded in 1862 in Prague by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. The union based its existence upon the motto of "a strong mind in a sound body". Since its creation, it put the national94 ideology into its forefront, and the organisation of mass gymnastic events enabled this ideology to spread. These mass events - “Slety” (flocking of birds) - would become a very popular stage for the presentation of national identity and prowess. Of course, we could trace the mass gymnastic movement to Germany and Turnvater Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who as a liberal democrat saw already in

93 Since played by members of „tennis clubs“, it would not be regarded as purely individual sport. 94 First it was the Czech national identity within the Czech-German setting.

85 the early 19th century the potential of mass athletic gatherings in helping Germany with its unification. Besides overcoming the “weak” condition Germany was left in after the Napoleonic wars, the physical exercises were also supposed to create an exemplary community to inspire the disenchanted and demoralised population (Roubal, 2003).

Despite mass gymnastic originated in “ethical and aesthetical choices, which define the aristocratic asceticism” (Bourdieu 1984: 214), Roubal (2003) notes, that mass gymnastics did not aim on reproducing the class distinction. On the other hand, they fought the separate class identities and tried to replace them with a single shared identity – and the national aspect was thus best fitting. Matching uniforms worn for exercises and celebratory events not only practically helped with the physical movement, but also created a uniform democratic mass. Roubal (2003:4) adds, that it is “exactly the abstract character of gymnastics, free of any regional and class characteristics, that made it so suitable for bridging class and regional barriers and therefore for modelling the imagined community.” Visual and symbolic practices not only strengthened the perceived national community, but they also helped to determine, who should or should not be involved in the gymnastic organisation95. Throughout the next century, mass gymnastic displays were to be “misused” by totalitarian regimes.

Nevertheless, according to Roubal (2003), the Czech gymnastic tradition did not draw its inspiration only in the German “Turners”, who later became associated with the Nazi regime. Roubal argues that the Czech movement stressed more the democratic aspect of unity, than the fascist exclusiveness. This argument might be challenged by bringing up the popular Sokol chant - “Every Czech is a Sokol”. On the other hand, members of Sokol became known (and persecuted) as avid fighters against the Nazi regime (Uhlíř & Waic, 2001). Various presentations of democratic values were seen within the Sokol practices, such as e.g. the familiar addresses towards each of the members, who would refer to themselves as “brothers” and “sisters”.

In Slovakia, the Sokol organisation was first established in 1905 as part of the already spreading Federation of Slavic Sokols. This means that there were partner organisations established also by other Slavic nations: be it Czechs, Slovenians and Croatians, and since 1910 also Bulgarians, Polish and Serbian. Roubal (2003) refers to this spread of gymnastic

95 In Germany this was aimed against Jews, Poles or French, in the Czech lands mostly against Jews and Germans.

86 tradition of Sokol as some kind of “gymnastic geopolitics”. Nevertheless, Sokol also remained an important political power on the national scene, and stood firm against totalitarian regimes introduced in Czechoslovakia96. Despite the distinctive national ideology present in the functioning of the Sokol union, membership was not explicitly97 ethnically exclusive.

Interestingly enough, the first Slovak Sokol unions were not founded in the Slovak part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, but in the United States. The Slovak Sokol USA was created in the New York City in 1896. One hundred Slovak members of Sokol USA took part in 1912 “Slet” and performed a gymnastic routine with valašky - traditional Slovak axes. The first Sokol union in Slovakia was founded in 1908 in Žilina, despite the hostile and forbidding legislation of the Hungarian government.

Many Slovak members of the originally Czech gymnastic organisation Sokol would regularly take part at the “Slet” events in Prague (1920, 1926, 1932 and 1938). At the same time, another strong gymnastic association was forming among the Slovaks. This was most notably the catholic athletic organisation Orol (eagle). Head of the Slovak organisation was Andrej Hlinka, a catholic priest and a politician. Only after the creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, the Sokol organisation could openly spread throughout the country. The organised exercising was introduced mainly thanks to the Czech officials moving to the public offices in Slovakia.

Other sport movements in Czechoslovakia

In early 1920s also several left-wing working class groups founded a Federation of workers´ exercising unions (FDTJ). Supported by the recently founded Communist party of Czechoslovakia, this federation managed to attain land parcels and build a stadium to host their own version of “Slets”, named after the Roman hero Spartakus. Ideologically, Spartakus was a former slave, turned gladiator, who managed to provoke an uprising of slaves in ancient Rome. The federation also published its own magazine, with Klement Gottwald98, being in its editorial board (Beňušková 2012: 199)

96 1938 Slet and 1948 Slet were to be seen also as massive protests against first the Nazi regime, then the communist regime. Sokols were thus strongly persecuted by both totalitarian regimes, the gymnastic movement being forbidden by in both. 97 Though the actual practice may have varied. 98 The first communist Czechoslovak president in office 1948-1953.

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Physical culture was also developed in several other organisations gathering people based on religious or ethnic affiliation, e.g. YMCA, YWCA, Jewish club Makkabi, Hungarian as well as German sports clubs. In short, sport in Slovak towns was organised for different communities, which shared social, ethnic or political characteristics (Bitušíková, 1999). Moreover, mass athletic gatherings organised by these groups helped them to manifest their shared identity as well as shared interests.

Beňušková (2012), however, points to the contradictory situation appearing in the newly founded state. While in the Czech part of the common country Sokol played a nationalist function of supporting the so-called Czechoslovak identity, in Slovakia it was not very well accepted by the workers or the catholic groups. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia shortly before World War II.99, the existence and functioning of Sokol was forbidden in the now clero-facist Slovakia. Besides the catholic Orol organisation it was also the football association100, which negatively opposed the prominent role of the Sokol organisation in Slovakia.

Sports policy after World War II.

In 1945, there were appeals to unite the physical education and sport in the re-united Czechoslovakia. The Central National Committee for Physical Education was supposed to centralise sport and physical education. Nevertheless, the Sokol movement kept its strong position, as this Czechoslovak gymnastic organisation eventually became the umbrella organisation for sport in the country. This was despite the communist government seizing power in 1948, which many of the Sokol members avidly protested against (Waic et al. 2014).

The centralised governance of sport in Czechoslovakia began in 1952, when the government declared dissatisfaction with the current state of sport and physical education in the country. The official reason for the re-structuring of the sporting field was the inadequate following of the Soviet physical culture and not fulfilling the message of Tyrš and his “competent body”. This “competent body” category was renamed to PPOV – Připraven k práci a obraně vlasti (ready to work and defend homeland).

99 Following the Munich Accord of 1938, Czechoslovakia was in 1939 eventually separated into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the independent Slovak state (an ally of the Nazi Germany) 100 Slovak football association was founded in 1938, and functioned as a governance body of the sport also during the existance of Czechoslovakia (Černák et al., 2018)

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Through the act adopted in 1952101, state become the main supervisor of the organisation of physical culture and sport in Czechoslovakia. Sport governance was centralised under the State Committee for Physical Education and Sport. There were six governing bodies – Workers unions, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour, Sokol, Ministry of National Defence and Ministry of National Security (Interior). Sokol became a voluntary organisation.

The new act on sport stated right in its §1 that the physical education and sport are needed “to improve the health of people, higher their physical, defence and work capabilities as well as raising them to determination and courage in the will to defend their homeland and the people’s democratic government, just as well as the support of the world peace.”

Among the first challenges for the new sport’s governing body was the organisation of the 1. National Spartakiad, which fell on the 10th anniversary of the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Red army in 1945 (Roubal, 2003)

Another updated legislative framing of sports organisation and governance in Czechoslovakia came about in four years’ time, when The Organisation of Recreational Physical Education (ZRTV - Zväz rekreačnej a telesnej výchovy) was formed by the act on the organisation of physical education from 1956. This act cancelled the interim state governing body and transformed it into a volunteer organisation.

Besides other things, the Slovak section of the newly founded organisation was responsible for the organisation of mass gymnastic events in Slovakia, which would take place in-between the country-wide “national” Spartakiádas (organised every five years). Despite there existed a Slovak fraction of the sport governing body, it was based in Prague (Labudová 2006: 11).

The division of the Czechoslovak sporting body appeared only in 1969 together with the federalisation of the Czechoslovak republic. Now the centralised governing body had two official sections under itself - for the Czech and Slovak sport.

Looking only on the development of the recreational sport organisation in the following years, one interesting decision came about the year 1976, when each physical education unit had to establish a division for recreational sport or tourism. The main aim of

101 Act no. 71/1952 Sb

89 these units was according to Labudová (2006) taking care of the youth, preparation and acknowledgement of trainers/coaches and their socio-political importance, prepare for Spartakiádas. Based on the membership statistics, 90% of recreational sport attendees were women (Labudová, 2006). In 1980s this trend was also thanks to the growing popularity of aerobic and TV exercising.

Throughout this subchapter on the sport in the communist Czechoslovakia, we have come across various governance initiatives, which focused on the development of recreational sport as well as the “sport for all”. While elite sport was supported by the Defence and Interior sectors, there was a mass “civic” incentive present through the political (and ideological) support given the physical culture of the masses. Even though the political discussion in 2015 would still refer to (and perhaps also problematize) the support and success of elite athletes in the country’s totalitarian past, interestingly enough, there is very little nostalgia regarding the mass sport present in the latest political argumentation.

Spartakiády – the mass gymnastic events

This subchapter is dedicated to the mass sporting events of the second half of 20th century, which on one hand had a very strong civic/egalitarian notion, on the other, they were often framed by strong domestic ideas of belonging to a specific national community and political regime. To some extent we may even claim that the Czechoslovak Spartakiádas fulfilled some concept of a “national sport”. Their organisation followed up on the mass gymnastic tradition of the late 19th century, yet was timely framed in the political ideology in power at the given moment. Perhaps the one failing attribute of sport that was missing at these events, was the apparent non-competitiveness of the gymnastic spectacle.

National Spartakiádas were organised every five years as a celebration of the liberation of the country by the Red Army at the end of the Second World War. They took place at the massive Strahov Stadium in Prague. Even though we shall speak only about the Czechoslovak example, the rituals and ideology connected with the synchronised mass gymnastics used to play an important role in all countries of the former Eastern Bloc.

According to Roubal (2006) and Beňušková (2012), even though Slovaks due to a missing strong Sokol nationalist tradition and a rather lukewarm approach towards the communist movement of the late 1940s initially hesitated to acknowledge and appropriate the Spartakiádas, participation at the mass events became a source of prestige over the years. This was connected also to the popularity of the capital Prague, which became the regular,

90 though not that frequent, host of these mass events. For many attendees from Slovakia (as well as the rural parts of the Czech lands) taking part in Spartakiádas was often a rare chance to visit the capital.

In the totalitarian regime, the so to say “natural” individual sporting activity lost its significance and authenticity, and its meaning was gradually moved to the building and military aspects of the socialistic society (Strachová 2015). The USSR was seen as an example worth following, as its elite sport was on a very high level and was comparable with the Western capitalist countries. “Success at international sporting scene and the medal counts from international competitions become one the few examples, where the socialist regime of the second half of 20th century could successfully compete with the enemy, back then seen in the capitalist regime.” (Strachová 2015: 46)

Roubal in his article (2003, later in the book from 2017) on the history and social significance of Spartakiádas, paints the picture of a strong nationalised festival. The political representatives were comfortably seated on the stands, observing thousands of participants exercising synchronised to the tones of Smetana’s musical tribute to “Má vlast” (My homeland). The mass gymnastic events taking part at the Strahov Stadium in Prague were accompanied with demonstrations of national prowess – besides choreographies for youth and family with children, the performance of young men/soldiers was always considered as the “cherry on top”. The elaborate gymnastic sessions of soldiers was accompanied with the demonstration of military power also through jet aircrafts flying above the stadium.

According to Roubal (2003), there is a paradox present, when the mass gymnastics initially based on the “volkish” ideology reached their peak during communism (2003:2). He points to the fact, that mass gymnastics as a political movement were studied more within the context of 19th century and interwar period, yet less in the communist setting of the Eastern Bloc countries.

Ideological significance of Spartakiádas

When reading “the peculiar body language of mass gymnastic displays” and to “understanding their grammar” (Roubal 2003: 2-3), we can observe how key concepts such as “strength, youth, beauty and discipline” were transformed into strong, young, beautiful and disciplined socialist society, images used to legitimise the political ideology.

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Since “body is our most reliable, continuous and comprehensive metaphor for life and its meaning” (Mangan, 1999: 11), the mass gymnastic events might serve as a metaphor for “a desired society and its leadership”. Moreover, body as such does not have a certain political affiliation, therefore it is “ideologically variable” (Roubal, 2003). The same practice of a mass coordinated gymnastic event could have been used by different ideological regimes, from the right side of the political spectrum to the left.

Fascination with gymnastics, hand in hand with the disciplination of the body, goes back to the Enlightment period. When body began to be viewed as a reasonable machine, which is able to better itself with drill and exercise (military training) to a skilled body needed within the working process. While exercising for military and work purposes had a utilitarian reason behind it, performing gymnastics was supposed to have create “effect not efficacy” – irrational and aesthetic experience. Therefore, mass gymnastics could address key topics of that time, from nation building to social (in)justice. The enabled a positive expression of community and social solidarity, as well as racial hatred and class struggle. According to Roubal (2003: 4), mass gymnastic performances “were less part of the implicit politics of domination than part of explicit politics of representation”. Paraphrasing the observation of Walter Benjamin (1968: 240), who says that when parliaments and theatres get deserted, then radio and television become the mediums, through which not only actors, but also those who govern exhibit themselves, we can note together with Roubal (2003) that stadiums and mass sporting events could play the same role.

Besides highlighting national unity, mass gymnastics were supposed to represent also social empathy or social justice. Important is to note, that the mass gymnastic associations were not originally formed by the bourgeoisie. According to Roubal (2003), the Proletkultists would even despise competitive sport and the idea of fair play as a reminiscence of bourgeoisie past. Communists called for “revolutionary innovation of proletarian physical culture, which would take the form of labour gymnastics and mass displays, pageants and excursions” (Riordan, 1977: 101).

Interestingly enough, Beňušková (2012) notes that even today, almost three decades after the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, Spartakiádas are still remembered and veiled with romantic nostalgia. Similar notion can be ascribed also the revived Sokol movement and their organisation of Slets. In 2018, at the 16th All-Sokol Slet 2018 in Prague, around

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15,000 members took part in the mass gymnastic event, dedicated also to the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918.

Continuing the Sokol tradition in compatriot communities abroad

Sokol fraternal organisations remained a vital part of compatriot communities also abroad. Already since the late 19th century and early 20th century, Sokol units were established in the United States and Canada, in the centres, where the immigrants from Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, later Czechoslovakia settled. Important centres of Sokol USA and Sokol Canada organisations were New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Louis102, Omaha and Toronto.

Despite it not being the main area of this dissertation research, I have come across and studied the Sokol movement also while at my study exchange in Toronto, Canada. The local fraternal organisation was founded in 1911 and besides serving as a platform for sport and physical culture, according to its members, it played an important part in preserving the national identity of the Czechs and Slovaks, who immigrated to Canada103. For them, Sokol served (and still serves) as an important institution, where social contacts were created among the compatriots, moreover, it also served the practical role of providing (e.g. financial) support for the new immigrants from Czechoslovakia, who were starting their life in the new country. The organisation in Toronto also owns their own premises, located in one of the city’s suburbs, where outdoor activities and bigger gatherings usually take place. The place is symptomatically named “Masaryktown”, paying tribute to the first Czechoslovak president T.G. Masaryk.

Sport in Slovakia after 1989

With the fall of communist regime in Czechoslovakia and the split of the country in 1993, also the sports policy underwent significant changes. The process of switching from the centralized governance to a gradual democratization of the political structures also within the sports organizations began. The new organization of physical education and sport has been restructured according to the act approved by the Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic in 1990, which repealed the interim legislation from 1956.

102 The first Sokol union in the United States was established in 1865 in St. Louis, another union was established a year later in Chicago.) 103 This migration took place in three mass waves – early 20th century, post 1948 and post 1968.

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Following these changes, sport in Slovakia became organised through the cooperation of governmental and non-governmental organizations at national, regional and local levels. At the same time, decentralisation of governing competences to self-governing bodies took place. The basis for this cooperation was the law of the National Council of the SR no. 198/1990 Zb. on physical culture, which defined the responsibility of individual articles of the sports movement and state bodies in sport in Slovakia.

In 1992, the Slovak National Council also approved an act on physical education, public sports and touristic events and in 1993, the conditions for financing of sports from lotteries were introduced. New legislation also took into account measures preventing violence in sports facilities. In 1997, a new legislation104 amended and regulated the field of education and trade in sport.

The Slovak Olympic Committee as one of the central sport governing bodies was founded in December 1992. It became member of the International Olympic Committee at its session in Monte Carlo. Within less than five months, an independent team of Slovak athletes took part in their first Olympics – The Winter Games in Lillehammer 1994. The first success (and a medal) came two years later at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta won by the shooter Jozef Gönci.

“I was full of expectations from the first Olympics, and I can still remember the emotion when I felt it was not only my whole country following my results, but the whole world in fact. It was very special to represent our small country, just a few years after it had separated from the Czech Republic, and was trying to find its place in the world of sport. Nevertheless, we managed to do so.” (Jozef Gönci, 22nd September 2018)

Besides shooting, the country gained the best medal achievements from the white- water canoeing at Summer Olympics105 and biathlon at Winter Olympics106.

104 Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic no. 288/1997 Zb. on Physical culture and an amendment of Act no. 455/1991 Coll. on Trades Licensing (Trades Licensing Act) 105 Since 1992, Slovak canoeists have scored 18 Olympic medals: 8 golds, 6 silvers and 4 bronzes. Famous are the names of Michal Martikán, the Hochschorner brothers or the Škantár cousins. 106 This is especially thanks to Anastasia Kuzmina, who moved from Russia to Slovakia in 2008 and won 6 medals (3 golds, 3 silvers) for her new homeland. One bronze medal was also won by biathlete Pavol Hurajt at 2010 Olympics.

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Summary of the historical overview

This comprehensive overview of the historical development of sport and sports policies in Slovakia intended to give a more precise context to the latest public and political discussions on the country’s “new” sports policy. Since being interested in the national framing of sport and physical culture, I paid more in depth focus to the mass sporting events organised first by the Sokol gymnastic movement, and later Spartakiádas. These ideologically referred to the national unity and social equality.

Knowing what sporting activities were framed within the national interest in sport in the past, should also help us better understand the current national interest in sport and its political framing. Many of the historical references (usually taking on form of an “optimistic nostalgia”) were used also in the latest legislative processes. The overview of the political changes also points to the strong tradition of a centralised governance practices, which influenced the everyday life and was therefore also visible within the field of sport and physical culture. Interestingly enough, while highlighting some of the state’s responsibilities in the current political debate has been quite evident, the “civic” idea of promoting healthy and active society eventually left the public and political discussion in recent years.

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Conclusion - Should we save sport, or will sport save us?

This dissertation took a closer look at the process of transforming political concerns into sport. Despite being popularly disregarded as a non-serious free-time activity, sport, especially in a national context, serves also as a platform for social, economic and political interests. As the study of the legislative process of the new sports policy in Slovakia has shown, this platform can become even more encompassing. Public and political discussion regarding the new sports act turned from sorting out practical sports governance issues into a more general plea for a better governed national society. But why did such a plea appear while sport was “on the table”? Why not culture? Or education? I tried to answer this question though an analysis of the arguments appearing throughout the process of the act’s creation and negotiation.

Loosely inspired by the methodological as well as the theoretical approach of Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, most notably when applied into the legal sphere (Latour, 2009) and bridging it with the pragmatic sociology approach of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot (1999), I continuously followed and problematized the justification mechanisms used in public and political debates in connection with the new sports policy. Drawing from the extensive overview of the scientific literature on national identity and sports governance, I narrowed down my focus to the “chicken-egg” situation, which occurs most notably when the public support for sport is negotiated: one can either support elite athletes/professionals, or support the grassroots, also known as “sport for all”. While the elite athletes provide role models and amiable achievements for the public to follow, a wider sporting population also means a healthier population and potentially a good pool of talent for future elite sporting representations. What made this “chicken-egg” situation, however, more interesting, was the notion of Slovakia being a rather small, post-communist country, which similarly to other small countries (Sam, 2015) needs to think twice about the legitimate investment of its scarce public finances into sport.

The jumping off point for the whole reform process in Slovakia was, as in many other international examples discussed in this thesis, a failed performance by the national representation at a recognized global sporting event. Slovaks returned from the London 2012 Olympics with the mocking title of “bronze age” athletes (Botiková, 2015). Despite the fact that in the following years many more predictable failures and less predictable sporting

96 achievements momentously altered the public and media view of the problem, all these were taking place alongside the running legislative process aimed at introducing a new, fairer and more efficient sporting policy. The policy’s main ideas have been encapsulated in the conceptual document Slovak Sport 2020 – these being the successful representation of the country through elite athletes and aspiring talented youth, with the second pillar being a healthy and active society. The most novel policy concept, however, was represented by the “objective” financing formula, which should fairly distribute public finances to the various sports federations.

The most intriguing discussion on the proposed policy appeared at the two plenary sessions in the Slovak Parliament. As I expected in my initial hypothesis, most of the presenting MPs drew their arguments from the civic and domestic orders of worth (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999). The civic argumentation followed the notion of a common good, which can be achieved only through transparent funding of all the sports federations. Federations should possess the public trust in redistributing the public finances responsibly, with the oversight of transparent mechanisms. On the other hand, there were obvious domestic and renowned variables, such as success and popularity that were part of the civic (and industrial) formula for the redistribution of public funding. Nevertheless, the domestic order of worth is visible besides speaking about traditional sports, historical achievements and the need for a good elite representation, also in a few cases, when the legitimacy of hierarchical and traditional authority has been challenged, e.g. when the governance structure of three ministries supporting elite sport in Slovakia was questioned. Nonetheless, this governance residuum from the country’s communist past in the end remained as an uncontested part of Slovakia’s new sports policy.

As argued by Giulianotti and Langseth (2016), the ideal-typical model of Boltanski and Thévenot (1999) may be constructively elaborated by acknowledging the so-called multi-world justification processes. In our case, the argumentation drawing on the civic world was often supported by some of the industrial logic, while the domestic order of worth took advantage also of the opinion/celebrity world.

Since numerous historical references were used during the entire legislative process to support (most notably) the domestic argumentation, I have dedicated one chapter to an extensive historic overview of the development of sport and sports policy in Slovakia (to be historically accurate, also the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Czechoslovakia). This

97 overview has confirmed the unique status (later referred to as “tradition”) of collective sports, such as football or ice-hockey, which first were a popular past-time activity in the urban working-class environment, but later took on a more national character – even when Slovakia was part of different (multi-national) state units. Since the military involvement in sports development and popularisation in the region was present throughout the whole 20th century, it has remained as one of the back bones of the local sporting identity. This means that even today there are specialised athletic centres under the auspices of the Defence and Interior Ministries. An interesting, and perhaps a little contradictory example drawn from the historic overview is the public and political appeal of mass gymnastic movements and events, such as Sokol meetings in the late 19th and early 20th century or Spartakiádas during the communism era. Despite the fact that these activities were supposed to enhance national identity, morale as well as physical readiness for military combat, they were organised on a strictly non-competitive, or in other words, civic rationale.

Returning to the question that eventually stood out from this study, and that being “what makes sport this special platform” for the whole Slovak parliament, across the entire political spectrum, ending up voting for an act that aims at its reform? A reform that is, even by its proposers, seen as not thorough enough or final at its best, and eventually ends up amended within the next few months? And in general, should sport serve as a project for a better society? In other words, why can this “honourable” function not be taken by other respectable fields, such as culture or science? I try to answer this in a few points which I have deducted from the discussed theoretical frameworks as well as the analytical process.

1.) What makes sports policy a treasured political action is its national framing and the incentive of common good. The common good, as Latour (2006) would perhaps put it, is a category that is so vast and empty in its meaning, that it deserves nothing else than to be kept… and filled with fitting content. Common good as in a respectable national representation at international sporting events, or common good as in a healthy and active society.

2.) Sport promotes both civic and domestic engagement – it works with the notions of belonging and hierarchy, as well as with group dynamics and active participation in public affairs.

3.) The mass appeal of sport exists also thanks to the personal experience of many people with sport activities. Therefore, we can even say that sport is one of the most common

98 grounds through which politicians may approach their public. When compared to personal experience within the fields of culture, arts or science, personal experience with at least some kind of physical activity is the advantage of sports (also thanks to school curricula, where physical education plays a marginal, yet consistent role).

4.) Sport for all promotes health incentives as well as educational qualities (learning positive values through sport). Even though these concepts have been already problematized by many scholars (e.g. Houlihan, 1997), they remain a popular myth.

5.) The apparent free-time, fun and playful qualities of sport make it attractive to the masses, despite the fact that (not only) we have established throughout these previous chapters that sport is in fact a strongly contested field full of politics, power and inequality. Here we can again refer to the interesting meet-up between “playful and uncertain” sport, and the “serious and predictable” word of law, as analysed by Carlsson and Hedeborg in their study of the juridification of sport (2014). Moreover, it is this notion of playfulness and the enjoyment of unpredictability, which brings us all the way back to Johan Huizinga and his concept of Homo Ludens (1938). Simplifying his explanation, according to Huizinga, it is the joy of play that makes people continue pursuing their project of a functioning society. Perhaps this last reference goes a bit too far, nevertheless, sociological scholarship should more often acknowledge the field of sport as an eligible field for a more thorough analysis of complex social issues regarding identity politics as well as good governance strategies.

And to dispute the question as to whether sport should serve as a project for a better society, I see no reason why it should not. Of course, if sport is to become a functional project, then it also has to be demythicized of all the sentiments attributed to it perhaps also in the preceding paragraphs. A phenomenon that becomes subdued to critical assessment not only by scholars, but also by politicians and the wider public (including the sports fans). If it is not possible to demythicize sport completely, then at least we should be aware of these myths.

In final conclusion, this thesis only confirms the importance of sport as a wide social phenomenon, which besides tackling issues “ranging from poor cardiovascular health and juvenile delinquency to low tourist volume” (Houlihan 1997: 113) can be also used as a platform to tackle the common striving for a better society.

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Epilogue

The warm spring days of 2019 are full of blooming flowers and blooming expectations ahead of the Ice-hockey World Championships. As I am concluding the work on my dissertation, I follow the discussion on national sport and its representative symbols again appearing in the Slovak Parliament. Soon, Slovakia will host the Ice-Hockey World Championships, and it is exactly this anticipated high profile sporting event that stands out as a concern to the Slovak politicians, most notably those from the Slovak National Party. Only a few months ago, the Slovak Ice-Hockey Federation introduced a new logo which should replace the Slovak Coat of Arms on the hockey jerseys of the national team. The three blue hills, which carry the white double-cross on the official national emblem, have been succeeded by three blue hockey sticks. Is it a creative approach to the sporting identity or a mockery of the state symbol? A question that again attracts a wide public discussion with arguments coming from all parts of the public and political spectrum.

“Do not attack our symbols. Honour them, just like our ancestors had, as we had and as all normal cultural nations honour their national symbols. It is nothing sinful or nothing that would hinder our modern life in a united Europe,” expressed his dismay one MP for the Slovak National Party on his social media profile. Contra argument came from the head of the Department of Constitutional Law at the Comenius University in Bratislava:

“Neither does the current Act on Sport, nor any other applicable law contain a requirement that a national emblem or a national flag should be featured on a sports team's jerseys. The legal aspect of the question is thus resolved: the state emblem does not have to be on the jerseys of the Slovak athletes.”

Hockey fans express their stances by taking part in opinion polls on this matter, which are appearing on the social network profiles of various news sites. Some like the new logo, some do not.

Meanwhile, the Slovak Parliament votes on the amendment to the Act on State Symbols, which includes the prevention against dishonouring state symbols for sports purposes. Only after the Act passes, do the MPs from Hungarian minority party realise, that the Act included also a provision that the foreign national anthems should not be publicly sung in Slovakia if there is no official delegation of the particular nation present. One of such occasions, when a national anthem is sung without an official delegation being present, is the football matches of the “premier league” team from Dunajská Streda, which has a very

100 strong support base among ethnic Hungarians living in southern Slovakia. Slovak President is asked to veto the passed legislation and let the politicians in the parliament propose new changes to it.

Be it the practical financing measures, or the symbolic notion of state symbols, the national framing of sport seems to employ the Slovak politicians more than usual. Or maybe it is due to my skewed view on anything sports related. At the same time, I am left hoping that the popular motto among Slovak sports fans: “We are at home here!” will not make it to the Slovak constitution any time soon.

***

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Botiková, Z. (2015) “Odchod Žampu do Ruska nemôže prekážať. No a čo, že vyhral pre inú krajinu?” Denník N. Online: dennikn.sk/83611/z-kuzminovej-sa-stale-tesia-aj-rusi-my- by-sme-sa-tesili-z-rusa-zampu/ (Retrieved: 26th March 2015)

Burkert, M. (2012) “Fedcupové ohlédnutí: Štvanice v roce 1986 fandila emigrantce Navrátilové, Mandlíková zuřila.” Právo. Online: www.sport.cz/ostatni/tenis/clanek/437551-fedcupove-ohlednuti-stvanice-v-roce-1986- fandila-emigrantce-navratilove-mandlikova-zurila.html (Retrieved: 6th May 2015)

Halliday, J. (2016) “'Brutal but effective': why Team GB has won so many Olympic medals.” The Guardian. Online: www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/15/brutal-but- effective-why-team-gb-is-winning-so-many-olympic-medals (Retrieved: 19th March 2018)

ICFMEDIA (2017) Changes in this discipline are already being proposed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Online: www.canoeicf.com/es/node/55730 (Retrieved: 4th April 2018)

Lajčák, M. (2014) Prepáč nám to, Nasťa! Blog SME. Online: lajcak.blog.sme.sk/c/348897/Prepac-nam-to-Nasta.html (Retrieved: 3rd June 2018)

Merčiak, M. (2012) „Doba bronzová.“ Týždeň. Online: www.tyzden.sk/casopis/11740/doba-bronzova-2/ (Retrieved: 16th June 2018)

Sepeši, P. (2015) Verejný záujem v športe podľa návrhu nového zákona o športe. Online: www.ucps.sk/Verejny_zaujem_v_sporte (Retrieved: 11th November 2018)

Učená právnická spoločnosť (2019) Vzorec. Online: http://www.ucps.sk/VZOREC_Nahrada_subjektivneho_rozhodovania_politikov_a_priestor _na_neustale_zlepsovanie_vypoctu (Retrieved: 20th April 2019)

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List of Tables

Table 1: Orders of worth……………………………………………………………..22

Table 2: “Three Levels of the Six Worlds”…………………………………….…….24

List of Legal Acts referred to in the text

The Act No. 187/1949 Coll. on state care for physical education and sport The Act No. 71/1952 Coll. on the organization of physical education and sport The Act No. 15/1956 Coll. Regulation on honourable titles in physical education and sport The Act No. 226/1994 Coll. on the protection of Olympic symbolism and on the Slovak Olympic Committee The Act No. 288/1997 Coll. on physical culture The Act No. 300/2008 Coll. on organisation and promotion of sport The Act No. 440/2015 Coll. on sports The Act No. 354/2016 Coll. Amendment to the Sport Act

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List of Members of Parliament taking part in the discussions

Coalition: SMER-Social Democracy 1st reading: Laššáková Jana, Petrák Ľubomír, Galis Dušan, Brixi Otto, Číž Miroslav, 2nd reading: Pellegrini Peter, Petrák Ľubomír, Blanár Juraj, Kéry Marián, Martvoň Anton, Galis Dušan, Číž Miroslav, Baška Jaroslav, Želiezka Ľubomír, Goga Pavol

Opposition: Christian Democrats (KDH) 1st reading: Fronc Martin, Hlina Alojz 2nd reading: Figeľ Ján, Fronc Martin, Hlina Alojz

Most-Híd (Slovak-Hungarian party) 1st reading: Érsek Árpád 2nd reading: Gál Gábor, Érsek Árpád

Ordinary People (OĽANO – populist conservative party) 1st reading: Kuffa Štefan 2nd reading: Viskupič Jozef, Hraško Igor, Kuffa Štefan, Jurinová Erika, Huba Mikuláš

Freedom and Solidarity (SaS - liberals) 1st reading: Mihál Jozef, Osuský Peter, Jurzyca Eugen 2nd reading: Mihál Jozef, Droba Juraj, Nicholsonová Lucia, Kiššová Jana, Poliačik Martin, Jurzyca Eugen

Attendees in the TV discussion “Sport and money” Repka František (Slovak skiing federation), Čambal Ladislav (Ministry of Education, sports section), Maršáleková Monika (attorney), Mersich Marino (Slovak skiing federation), Zuzula Timotej (skiing coach), Žampa Tomáš (skiing coach), Bielik Peter (host)

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Appendix

Financial formula for calculating the state contribution to a recognized sport107

P = (A × KVVD + A × KVVM) × (B × ZD + C × ZZ) + (1 - 2 × A) × M23

Where P stans for share of the recognized sport in question - coefficient A is the percentage of weight of sports achievement (40%) B is the percentage of weight of domestic interest in sport (70%) C is a percentage of the weight of foreign interest in sport (30%) (1 – 2 x A) is the percentage of the weight of involved youth under 23 years of age (20%) KVVD is the coefficient of significance of the sports result in the adult category KVVM is the coefficient of significance of the sports result in the youth category ZD stands for domestic interest in the recognized sport ZZ stands for foreign interest in the recognized sport M23 is the average number of active athletes in recognized sports under the age of 23

107 Učená právnická spoločnosť (2019) http://www.ucps.sk/VZOREC_Nahrada_subjektivneho_rozhodovania_politikov_a_priestor_na_neustale_zle psovanie_vypoctu (retrieved 20.4.2019)

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Author Index Crossman, J. 71 A Adler, P.A. 31 D Adler, P. 31 Dóczi, T. 8, 12, 15, 39 Alexander, J.C. 12 Anderson, B. 4, 66 E Edwards, M. 25 B Emrich, E. 15 Bairner, A. 16, 20, 67, 70, 74, 79 Ericson, T. 8 Barrer, P. 19, 67 Billig, M. 78 F Becker, H. S. 31 Findlay, M. 8 Beňušková, Z. 84, 85, 87, 88, 90, 92 Feldstein, P. 64 Bénatouïl, T. 26 Binder, J. 8 G Bitušíková, A. 88 Geertz, C. 30, 69 Blok, A. 26 Giulianotti, R. 28, 29, 35, 54, 66, 67, 97 Boltanski, L. 9, 15, 23, 25-28, 34, 36, 38, Gowthorp, L. 14 39, 47, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59, 61, 74, Grexa, J. 67, 83, 84 75, 82, 83, 96, 97 Gruneau, R. 71 Botiková, Z. 8, 11, 14, 60, 67, 73, 76, 96

Bourdieu, P. 32, 33, 67, 68, 86 H Briguglio, L. 54, 72 Harvey, J. 15, 17 Brown, D. L. 7 Hedenborg, J. 32, 71 Bruce, T. 48 Haut, J. 15

Hilvoorde, van I. 14, 15, 70 C Hobsbawm, E. 66, 69 Carlsson, B. 32, 33, 43, 71, 99 Horak, R. 77-79 Černák, T. 67, 88 Howe, D. 48 Cocharan C. E. 13 Huizinga, J. 33, 34, 99 Coakley, J. 15

Crawford, D. 14, 15, 68

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J Roubal, P. 86, 89-92 Jackson, S. J. 14, 71-75 Rowe, D. 37, 78, 80

K S Kanemasu, Y. 74 Salinas, F. J. 26 Kerr, R. 30 Sam, M. P. 14, 15, 23, 54, 57, 59, 71-76, Kiviaho, P. 14, 23, 68, 78 96 Kotnik, V. 79, 80 Scherer, J. 71 Silber, I. F. 26 L Smith, A. D. 69 Smith, N.J. 105 Labudová, J. 80, 90 Souček, Ľ. 67, 83, 84 Langseth, T. 28, 29, 35, 54, 97 Spitaler, G. 77-79 Latour, B. 9, 15, 25, 26, 28-30, 34-36, 39, Stead, D. 21, 66 47, 52, 96 Stenling, C. 15 Lee, D. 75 Strachová, M. 91

Szto, C. 71 M

Machajdík, I. 67, 83-85 T Maguire, J. 38, 65, 66 Thévenot, L. 9, 15, 23, 25-28, 34, 36, 38, Mäkelä, P. 14, 23, 68, 78 39, 47, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59, 61, 74, Marada, R. 65 75, 82, 83, 96, 97 Martin, L. L. 7 Thibault, L. 15 Molnar, G. 74 Topič, M. D. 15

Uhlíř, J. B. 86 P

Piggin, J. 15, 16, 20, 53, 62, 76 W Poulton, E. 38, 65, 66 Waic, M. 64, 83, 84, 86, 88 Prohl, R. 15 Weiss, O. 77 Purdue, D. 48

R Z Zheng, J. 20, 73, 75 Riordan, J. 80-82, 92 Robertson, R. 40, 69

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“I have mostly noticed the road.”

― cyclist Peter Sagan answering the question, if he noticed the Slovak flag in the crowd

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