The president of the CSD presents in Congress a record figure of 375 million to move towards the “sports model of the future”
MADRID, 18 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Franco, has highlighted the record figure of 375 million euros, almost 20 percent (19.5) more than in 2022, of the budget allocated by the Government in 2023 for Sport, and the increase of 82 percent since Pedro Sánchez is the head of the Executive.
In his appearance at the Culture and Sports Commission of the Congress of Deputies to present the CSD’s budgets and challenges for next year, José Manuel Franco indicated that these accounts mark the transition to the “sports model of the future”, a “digitalization structure” of the sector, the “progressive ecological transition” of the facilities and the “unavoidable challenge” of achieving real and effective equality between men and women in access to and development of sports practice.
The 375 million for Spanish sport in 2023 are the sum of the ordinary budget of the CSD, 235 million and the 140 million from the European Funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which constitutes, according to Franco, a “clear commitment” for the sector by the government.
He also recalled that Spain is the only country in the European Union that included sport as a lever in the State Recovery Plan in the face of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and announced that in 2023 the focus will be on the process of digitization of the sports ecosystem, with an allocation of 55.2 million euros.
Thus, last May 2022, at the Sports Sector Conference, it was approved to distribute 9 million euros among the autonomous communities and cities to promote the use of digital tools to promote physical activity, combat sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity and implement technologies that ensure access to safe, healthy and inclusive sport.
In addition, next year 69 million will be invested to improve the sustainability and energy efficiency of sports facilities, which together with the funds already distributed to communities and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, will add 146 million to renew regional sport ” Definitively”.
The president of the CSD reported that 27 million euros of European funds will be dedicated to the “profound transformation” of the High Performance Sports Centers (CARD) in Madrid, Sant Cugat, León and Granada. “Never have these sports centers received such an economic injection,” he pointed out.
As for the third axis, the Social Plan for Sport, in 2023 it will be endowed with 16 million euros for the development of equality, training and visibility plans for women’s sport.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, promised that in the four years of the legislature, 1,000 million euros would be invested in Spanish sport, but with the Budget Bill for 2023, this forecast will reach 1,149 million.
“I humbly believe that these accounts are eloquent enough and do nothing but ratify this government’s commitment to the sports sector, at all levels and in all its manifestations,” Franco said.
To the 235 million ordinary budget of the CSD for 2023 will be added the 9 million from the Spanish Commission for the Fight against Doping in Sport (CELAD) and the 140 from European funds, which gives a figure for sport of 384 million. euros.
The causes of this “outstanding increase” in the budget for 2023 are due to the professionalization of women’s football, the modernization reforms of the CARDs, and the launch of the Team Spain programs, with 14 million, to promote the preparation of athletes Olympic and Paralympic for the 2024 Paris Games.
The objective of this initiative is “ambitious”: equal or surpass the medal table obtained by Spain in the Barcelona’92 Games.
The ordinary subsidy for national federations in 2023 will amount to 57.8 million euros, 24 percent more than in 2019; and those who have sports activities at school age will share 1.8 million.
In addition, there is an increase in the amount of aid for travel to international competitions organized by the International Federation of School Sports and the International Federation of University Sports.
To promote the practice of sports by people with disabilities, the new call for subsidies for federations that develop inclusive sports projects is consolidated, which was introduced in 2021 and endowed with 750,000 euros for next year.
In this sense, Franco highlighted the “definitive boost” of inclusive sport contemplated by the new Sports Law, which he hopes will “soon” form part of the new Spanish sports legal system, and the consolidation, with 3 million, of the allocation to federations for the production of sports broadcasts in audiovisual formats.
The PROAD Program, which promotes the integration of high-level athletes, active or already retired, into social and work life and which in 2022 tutored 681 athletes, increased by 34.7%; and for the promotion of Women’s Sports and Inclusive Sports, 26 million will be dedicated to the support and consolidation of the women’s league and the Women and Sports program of the Council.
The budget allocated to sports federations for women and sports projects in 2023 will be 1.8 million. In addition, the amount of social aid for female athletes is maintained to facilitate the reconciliation of sports and personal life due to maternity, foster care or adoption, children under three years of age and regulated academic training.
In addition, the training days, awards and prizes, carrying out studies on women’s sports, organization of congresses and forums and the preparation of the Women and Sport Newsletter will have an allocation of 184,000 euros.
The Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) will receive an allocation of 875,000 euros and the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE), of 400,000 euros, with which they maintain the levels of 2019 and 2020, the last two non-Olympic or Paralympic years.
For 2023, a new item of 10 million is contemplated for local entities to support sports activity in the development of international competitions, and 260,000 euros for universities and public and private entities for aid for research networks in certain strategic topics.
The budget for the Fundación Deporte Joven in 2023 will be 200,000 euros and there will be a single nominal grant of 350,000, to the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, for adaptation works of the Adapted Sports Center of Toledo, linked to the National Hospital for Paraplegics of Toledo.
Likewise, Franco stressed that the budgets maintain 15 events of exceptional public interest in force, with “considerable tax exemptions” to stimulate sponsorships, and that they meet the new needs of sport after the pandemic crisis.
“In this legislature we contemplate an investment in sport that we have never seen before in Spain: more than 1,000 million in this legislature. With this budget proposal for 2023 we can say that Spanish sport is in luck. This is the Government of Sport”, concluded.
