Municipal Technical Sport Officers: the missing implementation layer of EU sport policy

EU sport policy is delivered to a large extent in public sport facilities run by local authorities, yet the professionals who manage them have no name in EU policy, no seat in EU sport dialogue and no place in European sport employment statistics. This policy brief calls them Municipal Technical Sport Officers (MTSOs). It shows how EU texts, from the 2011 Committee of the Regions opinion to the 2025 European Parliament resolution on the European Sport Model, recognise municipalities as funders and owners but not the function inside them. It uses Portugal, where the role of technical director has a legal basis and minimum qualifications, as a case study, and shows that Eurostat's definition of sport employment does not capture municipal officers employed in public administration. With the Commission's strategic vision for sport, the successor to the EU Work Plan for Sport 2024–2027 and Erasmus+ 2028–2034 in preparation, it proposes five steps that need no new legislation: name the function, map the workforce, open consultation, fund skills and let the profession organise.

A Portuguese adapted version, with additional national recommendations, is included as a second file.