In the 2025 budget, sport remains on the bench – Libération

2024-10-10 18:25:00

Despite the success of this summer’s Olympic Games, the allocation allocated to the “sport, youth and community life mission” for next year is down 22% compared to 2024. An incomprehensible blow for operators in the sector, who represent less than 1% of the total state budget.

It was January, on the occasion of Emmanuel Macron’s greetings to the sports movement. In front of an audience of federation presidents, athletes and coaches, the President of the Republic reiterated his “engagement” concerning the financing of sport in France. That was a promise “beyond the 2024 Games, resources will be maintained until the end of this five-year period, with the Games in perspective [d’hiver] from 2030″. Ten months later, just two years after the popular jubilation of the Games, the sport still got back on its feet “great national cause 2024”, it is one of the sectors that suffers most from government cuts, in the budget austerity plan presented by Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s team on Thursday 10 October.

The allocation dedicated to the entire “sport, youth and community life mission” increases from 1.77 billion euros this year to 1.54 billion next year. And if we limit ourselves to the credits allocated for the sports component alone, we go from 889 to 715 million euros, excluding the consequences of the Olympic Games (minus 259 million including these Olympic credits). This is a drop of 22%. Sport is “the great sacrifice” of this 2025 budget, summarizes for Free Régis Juanico, former Génération deputy, former special rapporteur for the sports budget during Hollande’s five-year term.

Regulation variable

The new Sports Minister, Gil Avérous, aware of the threat to his portfolio since his inauguration, had perfected his argument, arguing that “the day after the end of the Olympic Games, there is a certain logic” this decline in credits, presented as “mechanical”.

“It’s not a logical decision”complains Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj, former president of the Fédération Sportive et Gymnique du Travail, who sits in the CNOSF, the “house of French sport”. “The 2025 Budget could have been an opportunity to support and transform the resources committed for the Olympic Games into the development of associative and sporting life. Sport as an adjustment variable in a similar moment, “it’s very surprising”says Régis Juanico. This is not what would have burdened the nation’s overall public finances. sector which represents less than 1% of the overall state budget. “This is devastating to all those who have rallied together to make these Games a success.”

All the more so since these restrictions are compounded by the effort required from local authorities, which will see 5 billion euros of subsidies cut in 2025. It’s a shame that, out of the 20 billion in public funds that finance sport in 2024, local authorities support an equal amount to 12.5 billion.

“There is reason to worry”

However, the help of these decentralized bodies is essential to realize the government’s ambitions, starting with the plan to create 5,000 new camps launched in 2021. And this, even if 40% of the equipment today is more than forty years old , and for the most part they have never been renovated. As in 2024, support for local sports facilities will certainly be expanded (100 million) with priority for national education institutions, rural areas and the thermal renovation of sports infrastructure. “But the two driving elements in creating the legacy of Paris 2024 are support for community life and sports facilities, for which local authorities have a primary role. If resources decrease, there is reason to worry.”underlines Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj.

One big question remains: “What will they cut? Will they reach the high level? [300 millions en 2024, ndlr] and high performance at the National Agency for Sport [100 millions] ?” asks Régis Juanico. On the amateur side, the Pass’Sport, the 50 euro increase for youth registrations, one of Macron’s flagship measures, is already paying the price for Barnier’s austerity: 10 million less for this device born in 2021 but still little known.

In the more or less short term, these cuts present another”risqué”, warns Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj: “The Increasing Cost of Practice.” According to CNOSF board member, “Operational aid and equipment cost less when there are local subsidies. When there are no more, very soon we will find ourselves with subscription prices of 400-500 euros per year. We are quite far from the question of the right to sport for all. Only families who can will continue to do so.”