The states are calling on the federal government to stipulate its responsibility for financing elite sport in the planned sports funding law. On the basis of this law, the control and financing of top Olympic sports should be transferred to an independent agency.
The acquisition of third-party funds as set out in the draft law should not call this fundamental determination into question, but should only be seen as a supplement, the states wrote in a statement from the Sports Ministers’ Conference on Thursday in Saarbrücken.
In doing so, you are taking on board the concerns and criticism of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). This also applies to the states’ point out that they do not consider the federal government’s previously provided right of veto in the agency’s board of trustees to be expedient. They demand a strengthening of the advisory board, which is dominated by sport.
The DOSB had protested violently against the draft bill for the law from the Federal Ministry of the Interior that was announced on March 1st and accused the ministry of denying sport a position on an equal footing. In response to the Bundestag’s budget committee’s demand that the states be granted the planned three seats on the board of trustees only on the condition that they participate in financing the agency, the sports ministers responded by pointing out that states and municipalities provide more than 60 percent of the funding for the agency Top sports are deceptive.
An active role for the states in promoting top-class sport through representation on the board of trustees is essential. The states are also calling for funding for the institutes for sports equipment construction and training science, FES in Berlin and IAT in Leipzig, to be anchored in law. What comes as a surprise is the state’s demand for a pilot project to promote individual support for outstanding athletes, outside the structures of Sporthilfe and the Bundeswehr.
