French amateur sport at a standstill and in pain
Amateur sport is once again at a standstill in France.
Photo: RC Chilly
Text by: Farid Achache Follow
4 min
With the implementation of the second confinement, French amateur sport is once again at a standstill after a timid recovery in September.
A worrying situation according to some actors.
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Falling licensees, financial problems and discouraged volunteers.
With the coronavirus crisis, amateur sport is going through one of its most dramatic crises.
Some even see catastrophic repercussions.
However, the sports budget, established at 802 million euros, has been granted a little boost of 10 million additional euros managed by the National Sports Agency.
The amateur sports world has nearly 17 million licensees.
The decline in club registrations was estimated at the end of September between 20 and 30%, threatening the survival of some clubs.
With the second confinement, those who thought before taking or taking back a license were once again stopped.
Sports activities planned in the school framework maintained
With a quarter of fewer memberships at the start of the school year, the loss would be "
around a billion euros
", according to Denis Masseglia, boss of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).
A hole in the rack that no budget line is supposed to fill so far.
"
Depending on the duration of this new confinement, it will be very hard to recover,
" warns Denis Masseglia.
“
The question of the sustainability of certain clubs, even of certain federations, is clearly raised.
It's a real concern,
”commented Emmanuelle Bonnet Oulaldj, co-president of the FSGT (sports federation).
Only the sports activities planned in the school framework are maintained during the confinement.
But sports clubs have not obtained the right to accommodate at least minors.
“
It’s dramatic.
We risk losing all our bundle of clubs.
This decision is a disaster
, ”said Jean-Luc Rougé, president of the French Judo Federation, which brings together nearly 527,000 licensees in more than 5,600 clubs.
“
We had additional requests for children because cycling is practiced outdoors and that reassures parents.
But I know that basketball has lost links
”, testifies for RFI Fabien Bonfand, president of La Roue Libre Bièvroise in the Paris suburbs.
After the first confinement, the federations had worked on setting up protocols to restart activities.
Today, some licensees could ask to be reimbursed for all or part of their contribution.
It would be the coup de grace for clubs that did not refuel in September.
The Rueil-Malmaison Football Club (Paris region) has already received a dozen requests, according to information from the
Parisian
.
"
If we have to reimburse more than 1,300 licensees, we put the key under the door
", assures the club which had decided to lower the contribution by 30 euros (230 euros on average) at the start of the school year, after the first confinement.
Small sponsors in difficulty
Often, amateur clubs live on the proceeds of events but also on local sponsors such as small shops, bars and restaurants which are unable to know today whether they will be able to cope with the crisis.
Losing the few local partners who help amateur clubs can be a real tragedy in some small towns that rely on amateur competitions to liven up social life.
“
How many of our 160,000 clubs will have to go out of business
?
The damage will not only be economic.
It is education, living together, the social bond that are threatened by the decline in sports practice.
The State, with the help of local authorities and federations, must come to the aid of the clubs to help them survive until the next life
”, writes in
Le Point
Frédéric Thiriez, lawyer at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation and former president of the Professional Football League.
Today, many players are pleading for emergency state aid, in addition to the 120 million euros released as part of the recovery plan, including 30 million for clubs and federations.
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