Kristīne Briša, the mother of the students of the “Rīga” basketball school, has encountered cash flow when paying for the participation of her children in sports tournaments and camps. She asks why there is a tolerant attitude towards the shadow economy, while the management of the sports school admits that it is not acceptable and calls on parents to report it.
Kristine’s two sons are training in the municipal institution of the capital city – basketball school “Riga”. A family with many children is exempted from the monthly co-payment of 20 euros to the municipality, but there is no shortage of costs for the sports school.
“In principle, from the first day, there were WhatsApp correspondences, and in these correspondences, the account of the association was specified, where a donation must be made every month, indicating the coach, the child, the month for which this donation is made, and this voluntary donation was in the minimum amount – in our case, it was 15 euros,” Briša said.
Those were not the only payments –
Kristine admits that coaches were also paid in cash for participating in tournaments.
“For what tournament it is 160 euros. For what tournament it is 140 euros, 130 euros,” Briša said. “If the child participated in the camp, then we had to make two payments. One payment was, according to the contract, to the Riga municipality, and the other part had to be paid either in cash or in the association’s account. The first year I paid everything in cash, and in the second year I paid in the association’s account.”
Parents are aware that participation in tournaments costs money, emphasized Kristīne.
“The exact use of what the costs consist of, no, we are not given that. We are sent how much is to be paid, whether you agree or not,” Briša explained. “We can disagree, those kids aren’t going anywhere, but of course we want that child to have a game experience!”
This type of payment was not acceptable to the family, and mom asked the management of the basketball school about it.
She also applied to the Education, Culture and Sports Department of the municipality, but was not heard back.
“After raising this issue, I personally no longer had to pay the fee for the tournament in cash, I made the payment to their association’s account,” said Briša.
The association mentioned by Kristine is “DSN Basketbols”. DSN, or “Daugava” sports house, is one of the divisions of the “Riga” basketball school, where Kristine’s sons also trained. The association was founded in 2021 by three coaches of the “Riga” basketball school, Raivo Ottersons, Mārtiņš Fomin and Kristīne Zuntner-Fomina.
The 2024 annual report of the association “DSN Basketbols” shows that the total amount of donations and gifts received in the mentioned period exceeded 30,000 euros. The amount of donations from private individuals is different – someone donated 15 euros, another even more than 500 euros.
In 2024, about 30,000 euros were spent, more than 16,000 euros – for membership fees. Almost a thousand was spent on organizing the camps. Almost 11,000 euros went to sports equipment. On the other hand, a total of 2,000 euros was spent on the rent of the arena and other expenses.
The Municipal Department of Education, Culture and Sports knows that some sports schools have support societies that cover various student expenses.
“Of course, this association should not issue invoices to parents, which would necessarily be payments for the child’s participation in some tournaments,” said Dmitrijs Zverevs, Head of the Youth Department of the Sports and Youth Department of the Riga City Council. “Speaking of this particular precedent, we have not had any written document from the parents as a complaint or submission, which would indicate that there was such a precedent and where it would be possible to identify either the particular camp or the particular coach.”
The head of the Department’s Youth Department emphasizes that no cash payments are allowed. He calls on parents to report such cases. The director of the basketball school also says that she did not know about cash circulation and donations in a certain minimum amount.
“Circulation of cash in the sports school is definitely not allowed. All coaches are informed about it,” said Sandra Vārpiņa, director of the “Rīga” basketball school. “Why is additional funding from parents needed at all? The sports school can finance the minimum requirements from the school budget, which is the participation of any group in the Youth League competitions within Latvia. On the other hand, parents, coaches and a little bit the sports school, of course, want to train higher-class players, and the prices for these commercial tournaments go up every year. Then the involvement of parents is needed so that these children can go to these commercial tournaments.”
In order to prevent such cases, the principal calls on parents to report it.
“If there is a desire to do something more, then you have to look at what other options there are for attracting additional funding, but none of this extra, first of all, can be mandatory for the students. Secondly, you have to see how proportionate it is. Is everything that the specific coach wants really necessary for specific students,” Dmitry Zverev said. “You can always suspend a pedagogue, fire an pedagogue if there are actions, but it depends on the importance of the violation and, accordingly, there are also more severe consequences provided for in the regulatory acts.”
A few years ago, former long-time sports school director Guntis Šēnhofs admitted to Latvian Television’s “Sporta studija” that in order to achieve results, coaches’ financial relations with parents border on the Criminal Law. In the interview, Schönhoff revealed that he has also fired coaches for such actions.
The current director of the sports school worked as a deputy director at the basketball school for several years. Almost two and a half thousand children train at the “Riga” basketball school.
