This is the question that the Spanish Supreme Court had to answer after Miguel Angel Perera, a famous Spanish bullfighter, tried to protect his show from 2014, show that was classified as “perfect and outstanding” (go figure…). According to the Supreme Court, it is impossible to define precisely the “artistic creation”, as the bullfight is composed of unique elements that could never happen again and are, eventually, up to chance and to random and unpredictable factors. Hence, anyone is allowed to reproduce the images of the bullfighter doing his thing, without the need to require the previous authorisation of the bullfighter himself (in any case, the ownership of the footage belongs to the television in charge of broadcasting the event or the person who recorder the video).
Regardless of how you feel about bullfighting (is it really an art? Should we evolve from it?), according to previous EU case law, in the case of football games, these cannot be considered as protected by copyright. Indeed, for a work of art (can we consider a football game a work of art?) to exist, it must be the creation of its author, and a football game does not fit the criteria since it is limited by a set of rules that leave no leeway to creativity. The same doctrine applies to bullfighting.