European Ethics Bowl 2023
The success of EEB 2022 was a perfect foundation for the new season. With the 2022 FIFA World Cup behind us and the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics, the overall theme “Ethics in Sport” was not a difficult choice. Especially when you consider that the sports industry’s revenue amounted to almost 487 billion US dollars in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.2%.
The live event, where the semi-final and final rounds of the competition were organised, took place on the third weekend of November in Ljubljana. National teams that had qualified for the semi-final round arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to compete against their peers from ten different countries. After two rounds of tough debates, the teams from Bulgaria, France, Portugal and Serbia reached the final4 and battled it out the next day for a place in the final round.
The teams from Portugal and Bulgaria won their respectful debates and after just two hours of preparation, presented their arguments in front of a panel of five judges, the other teams and the coordinators.
Team Bulgaria, representing the University “St Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia, won the final debate by just a few points and was crowned the winner of the European Ethics Bowl 2023.
The organisers would like to thank the fantastic teams who travelled from all over Europe to take part in this event, the esteemed judges for their time, thoughtful questions and fair judging, the moderators who ensured that all debates ran smoothly and on time, and all the coordinators and representatives who accompanied the students throughout these three days.
The organisers would also like to thank The Economist and the companies Atlantic Group, Spar Slovenija d.o.o., TBA d.o.o., Hofer trgovina d.o.o. and Henkel Slovenia for their support, donations and sponsorship of the event.
Institutional competitions
The Institutional competitions followed the lead of previous years and were organized by each institutional member. The case study titled “MORAL COST OF ENJOYING THE SPORT” was presented during the launch of EEB 2023.
This year participating students faced two dilemmas presented in the case study. First one was: “Where do we draw the line and with whom does moral responsibility lie for these cases?” and the second one was: “Do individuals have a moral responsibility towards such controversial sporting events? Should we watch, cheer, and ignore the obvious violations or abstain and protest the organisation of the event?”.
Semi-final & Final competition
On the weekend of 17 – 19 November 2023, the semi-finals and finals of the international competition European Ethics Bowl took place in Ljubljana. Ten teams from nine European universities and one team from the alumni programme of the European Investment Bank Institute Summer School took part in this year’s event.
On Saturday, during the semi-final round, teams from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, Portugal, Serbia and Slovenia competed in two rounds for the four places in the Final4 round. The students presented their views on given ethical topics related to ethical dilemmas in sport. After short presentations, they debated with the opposing teams, followed by questions from a panel of judges and assessment. The ethical issues were presented to the students in the form of specific case studies. The case studies were titled “Should the financial imbalances between football clubs be regulated and if so, how?” and “Exclusion of athletes from international competitions for non-sporting reasons”.
In the Final4 round, the teams discussed the topic of “Sponsorship in sport”. After exciting debates, Team Bulgaria and Team Portugal were announced as the two grand finalists.
The two final teams had just under two hours to prepare and research the topic of “Sports betting: A new economy built on vice”. They then competed in front a panel of five judges and the rest of the participants. The panel was made up of Slovenian and international experts covering the fields of economics, business, sports marketing and law. The final debate showed the outstanding debating performance of the finalists and led to a tough decision by the panel of judges.
Team Bulgaria, representing the University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia, won the final debate by just a few points and was crowned the winner of the European Ethics Bowl 2023.
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