Sports politics
“Not acceptable”: DOSB attacks new sports funding law
The DOSB is partly critical of the federal government’s draft sports funding law. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
The federal government is presenting a draft for a sports funding law. The core is the establishment of an independent sports agency. The DOSB reacts with sharp rejection.
In the struggle for a reform of sports funding, the German Olympic Sports Confederation is entering into open conflict with the federal government. The umbrella organization reacted with an unusually sharp rejection of the draft of the new sports funding law and threatened to block further negotiations.
The plans of the Federal Ministry of the Interior are “organized for the entire Sport is not acceptable in Germany,” DOSB President Thomas Weikert was quoted as saying. From the DOSB’s point of view, the 52-page draft bill, which is available to the German Press Agency, endangers the goals of the competitive sports reform and jeopardizes “the previously trusting cooperation with organized sport question”. Accordingly, the project would “even be a deterioration in the status quo” and would endanger the future successes of German athletes, the association complained in its statement.
DOSB boss: Federal government puts shackles on sports agency
Above all, the planned sports agency for distributing the millions in funding is becoming more than ever a bone of contention between the DOSB and the federal government. In the draft bill, the federal government has the final say at a crucial point on fundamental questions regarding the allocation of funds. “One can no longer speak of the agency’s independence given the shackles placed on it by the federal government in this draft,” criticized Weikert.
With the regulation now presented, the Ministry of the Interior responded to the intervention of the Bundestag’s budget. Last autumn, they stopped the elite sports reform negotiated with organized sports and called for parliamentary control over the allocation of funding amounting to around 300 million euros.
The sports agency is the heart of the reform and will take on the tasks of control and promotion in the future. The agency’s guidelines should be determined by an 18-member foundation board with representatives from the federal, state and DOSB, in which the federal government takes the chairmanship and can decide in the event of a tie. The Federal Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for sport, and the DOSB had originally negotiated to act on an equal footing in the sports agency.
Umbrella organization announces massive resistance
The umbrella organization now sees both the independence of the agency and the hoped-for reduction in bureaucracy in sports funding as no longer guaranteed. “This is a bitter disappointment just a few months before the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris,” said DOSB boss Weikert.
The agency outlined in the draft law was designed to be weak in action, the association ruled and announced massive resistance in the further legislative process. According to the Interior Ministry’s plans, the new sports funding law will be discussed in the cabinet by the summer break. It should then be passed in the Bundestag and come into force by winter at the latest.
The federal government does not expect quick reform successes
The sports agency could then start working at the beginning of 2025. In day-to-day business, two equal board members will run the sports agency, who are still being sought. The federal government expects costs of five to six million euros to set up and operate the agency in the first year.
However, politicians are reportedly not expecting quick successes from the new structures. It will not be until after the 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane at the earliest that the Sports Promotion Act and the Sports Agency will be able to have its full effect on the medal tally, according to government circles.