The Budget Committee of the Bundestag has made around 500 million euros available, mostly for the renovation of sports facilities.

25 million will be made available to restart mass sport after the pandemic.

At the same time, the parliamentarians, the Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and organized sport should do their homework, that is, submit a concept.

Did you do that with the key points that the DOSB published last Tuesday?

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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I am pleased and grateful to the Bundestag that it has been possible to anchor the absolutely necessary federal funds for the promotion of physical activity and popular sport in the federal budget.

This represents important support for our 90,000 sports clubs. For the first time, the parliamentarians are investing significantly in the very important goal of getting Germany moving again after two years of the pandemic.

But the key points are not the concept for the restart after Corona.

Rather?

We have to distinguish between the short-term and the long-term perspective.

In the short term, the restart after Corona is about supporting the clubs in order to get out of the pandemic safely.

With our key issues paper, we describe challenges to be tackled and set impulses so that our country becomes more active and healthier in the medium and long term.

This requires a change of perspective on the part of politics, for example with the establishment of a Minister of State for Sport in the Federal Chancellery.

Sport is a cross-cutting issue and must find its way into political action across all ministries.

Sport wants the federal government to take full responsibility, and not just for promoting top-level sport.

Why?

During the pandemic, we all saw through a magnifying glass how important sport and exercise are for society, but were still not heard and considered.

That should change.

Politicians extend their hand with the invitation to jointly draw up a development plan for sport, as stipulated in the coalition agreement.

We grab them with the vertices.

Does the federal government create something like a small golden plan with 476 million euros for municipal sports facilities, which it adds to commitment authorizations of one billion euros for the next five years?

The DOSB and all experts have been observing a large investment backlog in sports facilities for years.

It is urgently necessary that we make progress, because sport and exercise need space, functioning space.

I welcome any investment in this area.

Linking it to energy-efficient renovation, as is the case here, is a step into the future.

This is a good start and will not be the end of the road.

However, it would not be enough if funding were to continue to be limited to municipal facilities and therefore no federal funding could be applied for for club-owned sports facilities – which meanwhile make up a third of the total stock in Germany.

Why are the householders blocking the 25 million euros until a concept is available and suggesting that you haven't done your homework?

Investments in mass sport of this magnitude are a novelty.

There are many open questions.

Government, Parliament and we worked well together.

That was the prerequisite for this money to be made available at all.

In partnership with the BMI, we will develop a coherent and efficient implementation concept so that we can make an effective contribution to getting this country moving again after the past two years.

What should happen?