Presently, sport is not an EU competence, and there is no need for that, sport organisations and EU member states are responsible for sporting affairs as competition law as well as internal market rules are applicable to sport only in so far as it constitutes an economic activity. But the Lisbon Treaty introduces a new ‘legal base’ on sport. The Union would have competence to "carry out actions to support, coordinate or supplement the actions of the member states.” The EU is, therefore, set to interfere on the Member States policies on sport. Sport measures would be decided by the Council, acting by QMV, and the European Parliament through the ordinary legislative procedure (co-decision).

In July 2007 the Commission adopted a White Paper on Sport which was endorsed by the European Parliament. The Commission has said that “acknowledges the autonomy of sporting organisations and representative structures, such as leagues.” Moreover, the Commission “recognises that governance is mainly the responsibility of sports governing bodies and, to some extent, the Member States and social partners.” However, the Commission has not convinced the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee of its “good intentions.” It should be mentioned that the Commission when presented the White Paper has said that “the White Paper will allow the Commission to prepare in a coherent manner for the possible future introduction of an EU competence for sport.”

On 27 and 28 November took place an informal meeting of EU Sport Ministers to address policy and governance questions in sport. Ministers have discussed issues such as the sport's economic impact and its financing. The French Presidency wanted to achieve some progress in the debate on club management control, sport agents, and nationality issues in sport.

A joint declaration was adopted by the EU sport ministers. France's sports minister, Bernard Laporte has said that the Joint Declaration “constitutes a real success for the French presidency and its priorities.”

It should be mentioned that France wants to create an EU body to oversee the professional sports club financing. France would like to introduce at the EU level a body based on the Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion (DNCG) which supervises professional football in France. Such proposal has been considered as endeavouring to transfer control of sports from national to EU bodies.

Chris Heaton-Harris, MEP, has said that an "EU sports super-regulator would devastate British sport." Gerry Sutcliffe, Sports Minister, has not supported France's proposal. According to the Financial Times he said "(…) [The French licensing proposal] would be against the spirit of what we are trying to achieve."

The draft Declaration included a call for "European control of club management" but it was withdrawn. Nevertheless, Mr Laporte has proposed reviewing the existing licence system following the results of a Commission’s conference on the issue, scheduled to take place in 2009.

It should be mentioned that according to the EUobserver Bernard Laporte, “warned (…) that English football pre-eminence was getting out of hand and that Brussels needs to referee the situation.” Jan Figel, Commissioner responsible for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, has said that "Sport does not and cannot exist outside EU law. (…) We need to find legally sound solutions to confront problems. The commission stands ready [to step in]."

The EU sport ministers also debated the delicate issue of the composition of football teams – the ‘6 + 5’ rule. Laporte has explained that the ministers called upon the European Commission to “continue the compatibility study of a minimum proportion of players who could be selected for the national team under EU law.”

However, it should be recalled that last May the European Commission has published a study on the UEFA rule of ‘home-grown players’ under which clubs participating in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup are required to have a minimum number of ‘home-grown players’ in their squads. The European Commission has supported UEFA’s rule which does not impose nationality quotas and it took the opportunity to criticised FIFA’s plans. The European Commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities Vladimir Špidla, has stated that ‘Compared with the intentions announced by FIFA to impose the so-called ‘6+5’ rule, which is directly discriminatory and therefore incompatible with EU law, the ‘home-grown players’ rule proposed by UEFA seems to me to be proportionate and to comply with the principle of free movement of workers.” Moreover, he stressed “The professional footballers are workers, therefore the principles of non-discrimination and freedom of movement must be respected. The Bosman ruling was very clear on this." Since the Commission has deemed FIFA’s rule as incompatible with EC law it seems that it will bring infringements procedures against Member States if their national football leagues apply this rule.

Moreover, the European Parliament has already called on FIFA not to introduce rules which limit the number of foreign players in club competitions. According to the European Parliament the controversial rule of “6+5” whereby at least six players on the field at the beginning of each match have to be from the country of the club they are playing for creates discrimination on the basis of nationality breaching EC laws on the free movement of people within the EU.

The sport ministers called on the European Commission “to provide clearer legal guidelines on the application of EU law to sport organisations concerning the highest priority problems that they are facing.”