ABSTRACT
In the Netherlands sports participation has experienced explosive growth since the Second World War. Sports provision has suffered further problems in terms of their management. Traditionally a lot of the work in sports facilities has been done by volunteers. Policy experiments in Rotterdam were introduced in 1980, when two advisors were added to the Rotterdam Service for Sport and Recreation. Rotterdam, like many other Western European cities, has lost almost a quarter of its population to surrounding suburban areas over the last two decades. By 1987 Rotterdam had about 78,000 inhabitants who belonged to one of the ethnic minority groups, most of them living in the inner city neighbourhoods. Difficult target groups are increasingly neglected in city policies, or in more appropriate sports terms, such groups have been relegated to the sidelines. At the national level very little remains in terms of support for a specific sports policy directed at marginal youth.
