From Dystopia to Utopia: Designing for Sportsmanship and Respect in Sport

This article was written for Uncover magazine – From Global to Ground (10th edition). You can read the full magazine here. 

Authors: Bart Stadhouders is a lecturer and researcher in Sports and E-Sports at Breda University of Applied Sciences. Arun Swami Persaud is a board member at Orange Sports Forum.

Across Europe, sports facilities continue to be developed as centres of civic pride, serving their communities by promoting health, creating identity, and fostering a sense of belonging. They provide space for movement, meeting, enjoyment and competition. At the same time, these spaces must evolve — encouraging participation across all ages and backgrounds, contributing to climate resilience and biodiversity, and strengthening the social fabric of neighbourhoods through purposeful design. Equally important is the commitment to uphold core values such as integrity, sportsmanship, fraternity and inclusion.

This article explores one crucial dimension that determines whether a sports park truly becomes a meaningful place: sportsmanship and respect in the game. An important aspect for those who design, programme and shape these environments — professionals in leisure, sport and hospitality.

From playground to battleground
Across Europe, the same scene repeats itself. On a Saturday morning, sports parks come alive. Children gather on football pitches, hockey fields and tennis courts. At first, the atmosphere is light-hearted. There is laughter, movement, and the simple joy of play.

But as the game progresses, something shifts. 

Parents on the sidelines begin to shout. Instructions turn into criticism. Referees, often volunteers or teenagers, are questioned or openly challenged. A foul leads to frustration; frustration escalates into confrontation. What began as a children’s game starts to resemble a small battlefield, where emotions run high and boundaries blur. 

Unsporting behaviour takes many forms: aggressive tackles, insults exchanged beyond the referee’s view, and the refusal to shake hands after the match. On social media, players and teams continue the conflict by mocking opponents, spreading hostility, and sometimes engaging in discriminatory or racist behaviour.

The consequences are real. Children drop out of sport. Teams are disqualified. Distrust and hostility linger long after the match has ended. 

What was once incidental is, in many places, becoming the norm. This growing concern has not gone unnoticed. That is why in the Netherlands, for example, Mulier Institute developed a tool to monitor sportsmanship during amateur sport matches and the Dutch Olympic Committee NOC*NSF developed a vision on Sports & Integrity. 

These initiatives mark an important step forward: the issue is being recognised, measured and addressed at policy level. At the same time, there is as yet little evidence that this increased attention has led to a clear improvement in behaviour on the field. Unsporting conduct appears to be a persistent and complex challenge. One that proves difficult to resolve through policy and monitoring alone.

This raises more fundamental questions — not only about behaviour, but about how sport environments are designed and experienced. Why does a setting meant for play so often tip into conflict? Why do emotions override sportsmanship? And what does this reveal about deeper tensions within sport and society?

Sport has always balanced between rivalry and civilisation
To understand these tensions, we must look at the origins of sport itself. Sport has always carried a dual identity: it is both a substitute for conflict and a vehicle for civilisation.

On the one hand, sport has historically functioned as ritualised competition. The ancient Greeks staged athletic contests as displays of strength and skill, but also as symbolic proxies for battle. Medieval tournaments trained knights for combat while offering public spectacle. Even today, the language of sport echoes warfare: teams ’fight’, ’defend’ and ’attack’. Rivalries between clubs and regions can mirror deeper social and cultural divides.

On the other hand, sport has also been imagined as a civilising force. The Olympic ideal, promoted by Pierre de Coubertin, emphasised fair play, self-control and respect. In this vision, sport was not only about winning, but about character formation and mutual recognition. Rituals such as handshakes and shared ceremonies were designed to elevate competition into a shared human experience.

Both traditions remain present today. When aggression dominates, sport reinforces us versus them thinking. When respect prevails, sport becomes a school of humanity – teaching resilience, empathy and cooperation.

Sport is therefore not neutral. It is a mirror of society and a rehearsal space for it. The values we tolerate in sport shape behaviour beyond the field. When disrespect becomes normal, trust erodes. When fairness is upheld, it strengthens the foundations of democratic life.

The ethical dimension of sport is not optional. It is central. And how we design sport determines which side of this balance prevails.

Sportsmanship is not a rule, it is a design choice
At the heart of the NGSF project lies a fundamental belief: while the challenges we face are complex, they are not insurmountable. Strengthening sportsmanship requires more than rules or moral appeals. It calls for a reconsideration of how we organise sport and, crucially, how we design the environments in which it takes place - and how they are experienced.

We often assume that sportsmanship can be achieved simply by asking for respect. But what if it were designed? What if we created environments in which people experience each other as equals?

This shifts attention away from the field alone and towards what happens around it,  to all the spaces where interaction unfolds. The places that build sportsmanship are not only the arenas of competition, but the spaces in between – where opponents meet, stories are shared, and rivalry dissolves into recognition and respect.

These in-between spaces – car parks, entrances, clubhouses, canteens and shared terraces – are not secondary spaces, but essential components of sports design. It is here that culture is formed and behaviour is shaped. From this perspective, hospitality offers a powerful lens – one that leisure professionals understand intuitively.

In sport, the dominant logic is clear: playing at home provides an advantage, while the away team is positioned as the outsider. Hospitality challenges this logic. It places responsibility on the host to ensure a positive and respectful experience for the guest.

What if this became a guiding value in sport?

This implies a fundamental shift:

Not: How do we maximise our advantage at home?
But: How do we welcome those who come to play with us?

Such a shift invites us to rethink both design and culture. This is not abstract – it is a concrete design challenge. These choices are not merely aesthetic; they shape behaviour. Open layouts, shared facilities and visible norms of respect can reduce anonymity and hostility, while encouraging interaction.

This creates a clear responsibility and opportunity for leisure, hospitality and design professionals. They are not only responsible for creating functional spaces, but for shaping the social environments in which sport takes place.

By integrating principles of hospitality, openness, inclusivity and encounter into sports infrastructure, they can actively foster sportsmanship. By embedding rituals of welcome and shared experience, they can transform competition into connection.

We therefore invite you, not as observers, but as creators, to rethink, experiment and design environments that actively foster sportsmanship. Every sports facility you design today is more than a place to play. It is a statement of values and a blueprint for how we choose to live together.

More information
Rethinking the Future of Sport Facilities and Experiences in Europe. Published by Trichis Publishing B.V. ISBN: 9789493421271.

The NGSF Project: Designing the Future of Sport

The NGSF consortium was established to address this challenge. BUas, IP Beja, and Istanbul Technical University collaborated with Orange Sports Forum and a wider network of partners.

The project combined design research, design thinking and futures thinking to explore how sport might evolve towards 2040.

The outcomes include case studies, future scenarios and a practical playbook, supported by concise Focus Briefs. These are not prescriptive solutions, but tools for reflection and action. Ultimately, the project is an invitation to rethink the role of sport and the environments in which it takes place.

Photography
Sportbedrijf Arnhem