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For a few decades now, philosophy of sport has been an acknowledged area of philosophy. Several journals exist, and organizations and conferences are organized to discuss the numerous topics. Philosophy of sport is a lively discipline that debates a wide range of topics, including practical ethical questions such as doping and enhancement and questions regarding sport practices in society, as well as more abstract questions regarding internal values of sport, and the nature of sport itself. Although internationally oriented, sport philosophical debates do sometimes differ from country to country, from region to region, depending on local embedding of issues and favorite sports. In the Low Countries-Belgium and the Netherlands- some specific themes have dominated the discussions, sometimes with far-reaching consequences for sport. It was, for instance, the arrest of the Belgian football player Bosman (in 1995), which set the world of football upside down. The Netherlands and Belgium have many commonalities. As good neighbors, both Belgians and the Dutch are fond of cycling and football ("soccer" for North Americans). The Dutch are an acclaimed football nation ever since the 70's and, being a "country of water," have a long, dominating, and culturally important, tradition in skating, as well as swimming and sailing. In this paper, we sketch the outlines of the development and debate in sport philosophy in the Low Countries over the last two decades: what is at stake, what are the main topics and publications and what is currently dominating the landscape of philosophy of sport? Since the Netherlands have a more active philosophy of sport community than Belgium, and since the former has more inspired the latter than the other way around, the recent history of philosophy of sport in the Netherlands makes up the bulk of this paper. The developments in Belgium will be described in general terms. We will conclude with an attempt to pin down the specific contribution of philosophy of sport in the Netherlands and Belgium to the international forum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confronted with numerous scandals, sports organizations are turning to the adoption of ethical codes to attain more ethical behavior. However, the effectiveness of an ethical code as a means to increase ethical behavior remains debated; furthermore, the particular characteristics of a sports context have not yet been taken into account, nor have the different stages of code establishment been considered in evaluation. This article studies the effectiveness, as measured by the Ethical Climate Index, of ethical codes in sports organizations. Moreover, it investigates the effects of the presence, creation, content, implementation, and enforcement of ethical codes on ethical behavior in sports organizations. Our results shed a light on the conditions that need to be in place to install an effective ethical code in sports organizations: a genuine motivation to improve ethical behavior, the involvement of coaches, and the explicit targeting of the management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]