Evaluation of Irrigation Systems and some Pitch Properties of Selected Football Fields in Istanbul

Football fields composed of natural grass must maintain a playable state throughout the season. Substructure problems such as inadequacies in drainage and irrigation systems may adversely affect a player's health and game quality in rainy and/or dry seasons. The scope of the study encompasses eight football fields, which have natural turf combined with semi- or fully automatic sprinkler systems, with permission given for study in Istanbul. Irrigation systems, infiltration rate, surface hardness, turf coverage and root penetration parameters were investigated on these playing fields. The results were evaluated according to FIFA, UEFA, TFF and other national and international standards. Our findings showed that none of the sprinkler systems of these football fields could meet the minimum Christiansen's coefficient of uniformity ratio (84%). Only one of the sprinkler systems of the stadiums had a fair rating according to a distribution uniformity ratio. All fields, except for one, had low (<100 mm h(-1)) infiltration rates for first-class grounds. Cover percentages of the lawns were at desirable levels except for one stadium, which had excessive weed problems. Generally, root depths (<15 cm) and plant densities (5-15) were poor in the fields. Surface hardness was high (107 G-max) in one stadium, normal in another stadium (72 G-max) and low (< 70 G-max) in the rest. (c) 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Global Sport Power Europe? The Efficacy of the European Union in Global Sport Regulation

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: GARCIA, B. and MEIER, H.-E., 2016. Global sport power Europe? The efficacy of the European Union in global sport regulation. Journal of Common Market Studies, 55 (4), pp. 850–870, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12512. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.The effectiveness of the European Union (EU) as global regulator is controversial. Some scholars characterize the EU as one of the most important shapers of global regulations; others argue that the EU’s effectiveness critically depends on its regulatory cohesion, the political opportunity structure and regulatory capacity of its interlocutors. Since global sport represents a regionally segmented industry and is governed by private actors of diverse regulatory capacity, global sport regulation represents an excellent domain to study these propositions systematically. Comparative case studies on global sport regulation support the idea that the EU can impose its regulatory ambitions on sport governing due to market size and regulatory capacity. However, the broader political opportunity structure is found to be relevant and the EU does not appear as a strong regulator of global sports