Representatives of indoor sports federations met Thursday to call on the state for help.

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© CNOSF / KSMP

  • Representatives of indoor sports federations met Thursday at the headquarters of the Maison du Sport Français to appeal for help to the government.

  • One year after the almost total cessation of competitions, all federations without exception find themselves in a very complicated financial and moral situation.

  • Because at the end of the sports chain, and without state aid, thousands of small clubs are threatened with disappearance.

A distress flare, a cry for help, call it what you want.

Thursday, the CNOSF and its president Denis Masseglia had made an appointment with the media at the Maison du Sport Français, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, to discuss, in the presence of a dozen presidents of indoor sports federations, the dramatic situation in which they find themselves, one year after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the end of competitions.

And to urgently demand a recovery plan, under penalty of seeing the clubs fall one by one in the field of honor. 

To summarize, all the federations whose sport is practiced with a roof over the head had their reserved chair on the platform.

From hand to basketball through combat and ice sports, bowling and bowling, yes, the family was complete.

"It's not every day that we have a dozen federal presidents and representatives together," notes Denis Masseglia in the introduction.

Sacred union atmosphere.

“We're here to sound the alarm.

We can hope that the Tokyo Games will show the light at the end of the tunnel but for the moment, he explains, for French indoor sports, there is a tunnel but there is no light ” .

The stage is set.

Leak of licensees, holes in budgets

One by one, each representative will take the floor to explain, PowerPoint from Jacques-Henri Eyraud in support, the distress in which his federation has been plunged since the start of the health crisis.

“Some sports have not seen the shadow of a competition for nearly a year, hallucinates Jean-Pierre Siutat, the president of the French basketball federation.

But we represent, all together, more than two million licensees and more than 27,000 clubs in arrears.

"It is a question of the survival of the federations, but it is above all a question of the survival of our clubs and our sports", engages Eric Tanguy, his volleyball counterpart.

First some figures, just to understand what we are talking about.

Between March 2020, date of the first national confinement, and February of this year, the federates in question lost:

  • Between 15% and 57% of their licensees

  • Between 18% and 40% of their financial income

At the microphone, Nadir Allouache, the president of the kick boxing federation, wants to challenge the state services.

“I hope this conference can bear fruit, because it's kind of our last resort.

We can no longer count the dozens of letters sent to the ministry, to the government, open letters, videoconferences, and on arrival what did we get?

Nothing.

Apart from a little partial unemployment but it is not enough.

What do we tell them to our children when they ask us when they can come back?

Since December, the ministry and the government have totally forgotten us, ”he blurted out with tremolos in his voice.

"Come back kid

, 

you're not going to stay alone in this wood!"

"

Answers, a plan, a vision, that's what they all came to call for on Thursday.

Because during this time the kids are packing their bags to the open air while dad asks for the reimbursement of the license of the youngest.

“We understand their complaints, their anger, their questions, but it will be an economic disaster if we have to reimburse everything,” warns Gilles Erb, the president of the Table Tennis Federation.

Some have already started to get their hands dirty, such as the ice hockey federation which has already given up 20% of its budget to support its most struggling clubs.

The hand also had to try in the war chest to provide oxygen at the bottom of the scale.

This does not prevent Philippe Bana from regretting "the absence of support from the State" and warning: all federated together, "it is almost 50% of volunteers who will disappear, it is dramatic ".

And without volunteers, more clubs.

“If we lose all these associations, what are we going to do ?, Gille Erb worries.

With their disappearance, a whole ideal of society flies away ”.

"What is the small neighborhood sports club if it is not a vector of socialization", recalls for his part the president of the federation of savate, who is worried to see "the kids left to them- even in the streets ”.

"The most important game of our lives" 

Without any short or medium term vision and without a more or less precise timetable as to a possible date of resumption of activities, all now fear a weariness of their licensees.

"Maybe even a lack of love ...", reflects Céline Mothes.

To prevent this from happening, the presidents therefore called on the sports ministry to provide it with rapid responses for "the return of practitioners to the clubs as soon as possible (especially young people) according to appropriate health protocols and significant support to equip them. sports mask clubs ”. 

Indoor sports are also calling for the creation of a direct support fund for their federations, "much more affected than outdoor sports", and the creation of assisted jobs to support clubs with a view to a revival from the start. summer 2021. "We will play in the next six months the most important game of our lives," warns Bana.

And if possible with the titular French state at the forefront. 

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