The federal government’s controversial reform package for top-class sport has failed. The SPD parliamentary group announced that the Union and the FDP had confirmed in writing that they would no longer be available to cooperate on the sports funding law until the federal election. This means that the project developed by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) no longer has a chance of being implemented.
The core of the current draft for the first sports funding law is the establishment of an independent sports agency to distribute the millions in funding. The law is intended to provide greater planning security, reduce bureaucracy and ultimately improve the performance of athletes. However, both the Union and athlete representatives expressed criticism of the federal government’s plans and called for significant improvements. CSU sports politician Stephan Mayer said that the draft bill was “not suitable for approval in its current form” and had major deficiencies in its content. The planned sports agency lacks real independence.
A new attempt should follow – but not before a year at the earliest
The federal cabinet approved the draft law on November 6th. A few hours later, however, the traffic light coalition collapsed. The SPD and the Greens recently tried to save the sports funding law and had hoped that the Bundestag would pass it in January. That’s off the table now. A new start after the election and with a new federal government could mean a postponement of the sports reforms by at least a year.
Sabine Poschmann, sports policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, criticized the Union and FDP’s lack of willingness to negotiate. “The blockade is irresponsible and a bitter setback for German sport,” said Poschmann and warned: “The victims are the athletes and the trainers, who have to continue to wait for fundamental improvements.”
Union representative Mayer replied that the athletes “wouldn’t be helped with a quick legislative fix, they deserve a serious law – and they will get that in the next electoral period.” The German Olympic Sports Confederation is also counting on this, and expresses its regret in view of the long preparatory work expressed the temporary failure of the plans. “Based on the results of our work, we will make a new attempt with the next federal government to legally support the promotion of top-class sport in Germany and implement the necessary reforms,” said DOSB competitive sports director Olaf Tabor.
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