News
The State Should Purposefully Support Talented Youth as well as Sports Associations and Clubs
Money from the state to support youth and talented athletes is insufficient. In many cases, financial assistance covers only what is necessary to organize sports camps, training camps or competitions.
The situation is described by the audit carried out by the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic (SAO) in four sports associations from 2018 to 2020. For example, an extremely low amount of 600 to 700 euros per youth team had been allocated for the Slovak Basketball Association. National auditors point out that sports clubs would have trouble keeping youth teams in competition without private support.
Talents development with the current rules in Slovakia is stagnating, which results in a decline in the success of young athletes in international competitions. The state through the Ministry of Education, with representatives of the sports community, should establish consistent rules and measurable criteria how earmarked funds will be provided for sports projects. At the same time, it should determine the mechanism for the transparent allocation of financial contributions, including the introduction of a Central Register of Sports Subsidies from all sources.
The full text of the press release about this issue in Slovak language is available here. Use the Google icon in the top bar for automatic translation.