Scoring Green Goals : The European Unions Strategic Play for Environmental Sustainability Leadership

This research explores the European Unions (EU) diffusion of environmental sustainability norms to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), a process that reinforces the EUs aspiration to be a global leader in sustainability. Theoretically, this research adopts a constructivist institutionalist lens, complemented by Kingdons policy window, Manners five factors of norm diffusion, and the policy coherence framework developed by Nilsson et al,. Methodologically, it employs a qualitative content analysis of key EU and UEFA policy documents and 12 semi-structured interviews. The research makes two contributions at the intersection of international relations, sustainability, and sport governance.First, it becomes evident that the EU effectively engages with sport as a normative instrument to support its goal of becoming a global leader in sustainability. UEFA, and specifically the UEFA EURO 2024 represent the implementation level of the identified policy window. The findings suggest a high level of policy coherence between the EU and UEFA, implying sport functions as a powerful vehicle for norm diffusion, policy alignment, and cross-sectoral influence. Second, the research it introduces an integrated policy analysis framework of policy window, norm diffusion, and policy coherence, which addresses the methodological synthesis of policy analysis and constructivist institutionalism.