The globalisation of sport has created wealth for many people and institutions in the sports and media world. It is also changing the role that sport plays in society.

Doping is the negation of the very essence of sport. The fight against doping is a question of survival of the Olympic movement and international top sport in general.

The international fight against doping, as headed by the IOC and the big federations, is at best hypocritical and at worst disastrous. Education and personal responsability must be a new key word in a national doping policy.

For the Olympic games at Atlanta in 1996 the total number of writing press and photographers was 5,000. Yes, 5,000... Plus no less than another 10,000 radio and television accredited representatives.

We journalists are acutely conscious of the challenges facing us by multimedia companies and the globalization of especially world television.

In April 1997, when commandos broke into the Japanese ambassador's residence in the city of Lima and carried out their spectacular lightning butchery of the occupying guerrillas, the rebels were playing football. The leader, Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, died wearing the colours of Alianza, the club he loved.

Boris Bergant, deputy director general for RTV in Slovenia, closely examines how prices have risen for the right to televise football, tennis, skiing and the Olympic Games over the past two decades. He outlines the profit potential of pay per view and worries about the future of sport in public broadcasting.

The first part of the paper is based on a research on the economic importance of sport in Europe. The second part dwells upon the restructuring of sport finance which can be observed in several European countries.