A windfall of money pours over the sport, but Parliament also sends the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the Ministry of the Interior to detention.

Half a billion, more precisely a little more than 500 million euros, was made available by the budget committee of the German Bundestag in its adjustment session on Thursday evening for sports facilities and the revival of mass and club sports.

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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The 25 million euros, with which the consequences of the corona pandemic and the restrictions associated with it are to be combated this year, are subject to a qualified ban.

This is to be lifted as soon as the Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for promoting sports, and the DOSB convince the householders with a concept for the restart.

Hurry is required.

The money is only available until the end of the year.

"Good news for sport that will be talked about for a long time to come," commented Martin Gerster, MP for the SPD and rapporteur for sport in the Budget Committee.

The committee increased the existing commitment authorization for the renovation of municipal facilities in the areas of sport, youth and culture by 2027 from one billion euros by a further 449 million euros from the special energy and climate fund.

For this year, the funding amount will be increased by 27 million to 162 million euros.

An additional 136 million euros are planned for the 2025 budget year and 69 million for 2027.

Last week, the Freiburger Kreis, the association of large clubs, appealed to allow the renovation of sports facilities owned by clubs, as promised in the coalition agreement.

Renovation needs probably more than 30 billion

The federal program for the renovation of municipal facilities in the areas of sport, youth and culture, which has been running since 2015, benefited around 900 sports facilities in the past legislative period;

federal funding in the legislative period from 2017 to 2021 amounted to 1.8 billion euros.

The programs were oversubscribed year after year.

The need for renovation of sports facilities is estimated at more than thirty billion euros.

Last year alone there were 1,100 applications.

The Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction, which is separate from the Ministry of the Interior, is responsible.

The householders state: “It is in the national interest to eliminate the structural damage that has occurred in popular sport.

With a nationwide campaign and a package of targeted aid measures, we want to help the sport to restart vigorously.

For this purpose, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland will be provided with a one-time total of 25 million euros. ”That is less than half of the rest of the Corona aid for professional clubs that expired at the end of March, and the money does not go directly to the sports organizations.

Rather, the DOSB and the federal states should be involved in the program, conceptually and in implementation.

"Sport Development Plan"

The program should represent the diversity of sport, the committee of the Ministry of the Interior and DOSB are on the way.

In particular, the swimming ability of children and young people (which was insufficiently trained during the pandemic) should be taken into account.

This is probably not aimed solely at the DOSB, which should have been preparing for weeks to set up a campaign and spend 25 million euros.

The request is also aimed at the government, whose coalition agreement promises a “sports development plan” and a restart after Corona.

The idea of ​​sending members to the clubs by means of vouchers, following the example of Hamburg, is not mentioned;

it has evidently not convinced the parliamentarians.

"There's still homework to be done," commented Gerster.

The Integration through Sport program, in which the Ministry of the Interior, DOSB and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees cooperate, is to be strengthened, particularly with a view to the 600,000 refugees from Ukraine.

The supplementary budget already provides an additional seven million euros for this;

With a stipulation decision, it now makes it clear that the federal government should assume membership fees for the sports club as well as costs for sports equipment and the rental of sports facilities.

Trainers from the Ukraine should be used as trainers in the clubs and their training and further education should be promoted.

The householders are calling for this budget item to be made permanent in the coming years.

The householders propose 1.1 million euros to the institutes IAT Leipzig and FES Berlin.

With a travel allowance of 500,000 euros, they are cushioning the increased costs of participating in the World Games in Alabama (United States).