Switzerland: Autonomous Sports Clubs as Contributors to Public Welfare

About 20% of the Swiss population practise sports in a club and the nearly 19,000 sports clubs are a core element of the Swiss sports landscape and can contribute to public welfare. Sports clubs are accredited with various socio-political functions, although there are no far-reaching sports policy programmes – except Youth and Sport. The results of this chapter demonstrate that sports clubs can promote public health, social integration, and democratic decision-making, particularly through voluntary work by the members. Sports club members usually practise sports regularly. Thus, sports clubs can con-tribute to individual as well as to public health, even though sports clubs frequent-ly have no specific focus on health promotion. There is considerable evidence that sports clubs are able to contribute to social integration, since they usually promote goals such as openness and conviviality and most members identify with their club and have social networks and friendships. The principle of bottom-up democratic decision-making ensures that the sports programmes fit the interests of the mem-bers. Therefore, sports clubs can promote democratic involvement and active citi-zenship. Particularly volunteering in sports clubs gives people the opportunity to engage for society and therefore can contribute to social cohesion and trust in Swiss society.