The National Sports Agency (ANS) voted Thursday to create a support fund of 15 million euros for small sports associations that have seen their activities strongly impacted by the health crisis.
This fund will be directed primarily to those who do not employ any employee and have not benefited from partial unemployment, told AFP the Ministry of Sports, which will add the device to the tune of 7 million euros, the rest being financed by redeployments from the ANS budget, "on the basis of savings on canceled or postponed projects".
Aid from 1,000 euros
Founded a year ago, the ANS, financed by the credits of the Ministry of Sports, brings together the State, local authorities, the sports movement and representatives of companies. Associations can touch from 1,000 euros from this fund, either to cope with financial difficulties, or as assistance to enter the devices "Learning Holidays" or 2S2C (Sport-Health-Culture-Civic) put in place by the government.
End-of-year raffles, canceled tournaments and refreshments: small sports clubs, whose budgets do not exceed a few tens of thousands of euros, have seen their revenue melt due to the cessation of activities imposed by the crisis of coronavirus. According to a survey by La Centrale du Sport et de Sport et Citoyens, conducted among around 3,000 clubs, losses amounted on average to 9,700 euros, while 45% of the associations questioned had a budget of less than 20,000 euros.
The ministry identifies around 360,000 sports associations, of which 320,000 have no employees, based on figures from a study by the BPCE bank on the sports sector.
25% loss of turnover for the sports sector
In addition, Roxana Maracineanu's cabinet estimated state aid for the sports sector at 2.8 billion euros, including short-time working (312 million euros), guaranteed loans (1.31 billion ) and exemption from charges (1 billion). It adds 1.5 billion potential euros to increase the ceilings of subsidies to sports clubs by local authorities.
In April, the Sports Ministry estimated the loss of turnover for the sports business sector at around 25% in 2020, or 19.4 billion euros on an annual turnover estimated at 77.7 billion for the 112,000 companies in the country, according to the BPCE study.
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Roxana Maracineanu
- Sport
- Ministry of Sports