TES-D national report on sport diplomacy in Romania debated at UNEFS

Sport diplomacy in Romania was the topic of a workshop organised by UNEFS, on 16 May in Bucharest. With this occasion, Pompiliu-Nicolae Constantin, researcher in the TES-D project, presented the national report on sport diplomacy. The document was discussed together with Alina-Daniela Moanță (the dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport of UNEFS and vice-president of the Romanian Basketball Federation), Anita Sterea (member of the Romanian Olympic Academy), and Bogdan Popa(researcher at the Nicolae Iorga Institute of the Romanian Academy).

This event hosted by UNEFS has brought together over 20 researchers, officials, students and journalists in the field of sport, who were interested to find out the results of the national report on sport diplomacy in Romania.

Pompiliu-Nicolae Constantin underlined that ”Romania has not had a formalised national sport diplomacy strategy, but activities attributable to sport diplomacy could be identified, especially when it comes to organize sport events”. This comment generated discussions and engaged people from the audience.

The role of the athletes and of the officials involved at international level was discussed by Anita Sterea, who mentioned the name of Octavian Morariu and Mihai Covaliu, as important figures who apply sport diplomacy in their activities. Another name mentioned during the debate was that of Răzvan Burleanu, president of the Romanian Football Federation, who was member of the High-Level Group on Sport Diplomacy created by Tibor Navracsics in 2015-2016, and who uses sport diplomacy in football.

"Sport diplomacy was used since more than 100 years ago by Romanian actors”, said Bogdan Popa, who offered some historical examples about when Romania took advantage by sport to solve its diplomatic issues.

Alina-Daniela Moanță appreciated that the TES-D project offered for the first time in Romania the opportunity to discuss sport diplomacy in an academic environment. At the same time, she affirmed that UNEFS considers to create a sport diplomacy course, and as an official of the Romanian Basketball Federation she anticipates that people from national federations and Ministry of Sports could be interested to accumulate knowledge in this field.