Paris (AFP)
The French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) and 95 sports federations deplore, in an open letter to Emmanuel Macron, not being among the "priorities" in the management of the coronavirus crisis, and denounce "a stigma as violent as it is unfounded ".
In this letter, the signatories say they are "distraught to note that the federated sport sector, with its unique social and economic model, bearer of values essential to the republican social fabric, does not clearly count in our country's priorities for action. in times of crisis".
"For several months, we have been doing everything possible to adapt to the vagaries and to the multiple divergent and sometimes contradictory applications of health doctrine in the field. (...) Despite these efforts, our competitions and scheduled or rescheduled events are canceled, often at the last minute and due to excessive and unjustified application of sanitary measures by local authorities, ”they denounce.
"We are already deploring more than a quarter of fewer memberships, to the point that many clubs are now wondering if they will be able to make it through the year because more than 80% of them, only run by volunteers, pillars of amateur sport, are still excluded today from the aid mechanisms provided for in the support plan piloted by the Ministry of the Economy, "continue the signatories.
"You will therefore understand the incomprehension which is ours to undergo a stigmatization as violent as unfounded, because not supported by objective elements. How to understand and explain why other activities remain permitted, including in the areas most affected by the epidemic, but not the practice of sport in areas yet more preserved? ".
The CNOSF and the signatory federations denounce "the failure to take into account the specificities of [their] sector by an appropriate support system".
"From a budgetary standpoint, we regret that the few euros promised here are taken back to us there, in unworthy and humiliating sleight of hand".
"We must therefore live with (the virus) as long as it has not been defeated but we do not want to disappear before it", conclude the signatories, recalling France's hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024.
Emmanuel Macron will convene a Defense Council on Tuesday before his Prime Minister Jean Castex receives at the end of the day "the political forces" then the social partners in Matignon, suggesting a tightening of measures to fight against Covid.
© 2020 AFP