The executive wants good results at the next Olympic Games which will take place in Paris in 2024. To go in this direction, the deputies voted Monday evening an additional envelope of 10 million euros for the high level French.
The amendment presented by the government was adopted within the framework of the 2022 budget. These 10 million come to complete the allocation, stable compared to 2021, paid to the National Sports Agency (ANS), in charge of high level and practice for all.
296 million for the Olympics
These are means intended to support the ANS plan at the high level while the objective stated in particular by the President of the Republic is now to integrate the World Top 5, i.e. around 70 medals according to the ranking of Tokyo Olympics where France finished 8th with 33 medals. Some sports players believe that the preparation for the Paris Olympics started too late and that it is too little financially endowed with regard to the objectives. “It is progressive, it is not decided at a moment’s notice,” assured Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu on the occasion of the examination of the sports budget, up to 987 million euros (including 296 million for the Olympics).
In addition, the deputies also adopted an LREM amendment – after the withdrawal of an identical amendment from the government – to finance 100 of the 200 million euros of the plan for 5,000 local sports facilities by 2024 announced by the president of the Republic.
“It’s not the business of the century”
“Communities are 2 billion euros of investment, you tell us 100 million, it’s not the business of the century”, however tackled the deputy Bertrand Pancher (Liberties and territories). “Very late announcements and surprisingly close to the electoral deadlines of 2022”, also lambasted the LFI deputy Michel Larive for whom the bulk of the sports budget is “captured by the Olympics”.
In addition, the Minister in charge of sports reiterated that the shortfall in the tax on rights related to television broadcasts (Buffet tax) due to the Mediapro scandal, estimated at 25 million euros according to the latest figures, would be compensated for. .