The CSD will have 315 million, 25 percent more than this 2021
The professionalization of women’s sports, social inclusion and the promotion of sports practice among young people, among the priorities
MADRID, 18 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government will allocate 1,589 million euros to Culture and Sports policies in 2022, 38.4% more than in 2021, as announced on Monday by the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, together with the president of the Higher Sports Council ( CSD), José Manuel Franco, at the headquarters of said ministry in Madrid.
Iceta has advanced in a press conference the accounts of the draft Law of General State Budgets together with Franco and has stressed that “it is the largest investment in history in Culture and Sports”. Of this global figure, the Ministry of Culture and Sports will have a budget of 1,496 million euros, 42% more than in 2021, when it had 1,054 million euros.
This item includes 364 million of the European funds included in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and which involve “ambitious budgets” that aim to contribute to social reconstruction, social structuring and cohesion and the promotion of the cultural and sports industry .
The objectives of these accounts are, according to the minister, “to support the industrial fabric and contribute to its recovery after the pandemic”, and to promote cultural and sports habits and create new audiences, especially among the youngest.
THE LARGEST INVESTMENT IN 30 YEARS
For his part, José Manuel Franco highlighted that the amount allocated to the CSD amounts to 315 million euros, 25% more than in 2021, the sum of the ordinary budget of the CSD (208 million) and the funds from the Recovery Plan, Transformation and Resilience (107 million).
“We are facing the largest investment in sports in the last thirty years, facing a historic milestone to face the challenge of the renewal and transformation of our sports model,” Franco said. In addition, he stressed that these budgets are the result of “the Government’s firm commitment to sport as an economic and social engine.”
Regarding the ordinary item, the budget for Sport reaches 208 million euros, an increase of 7 million with respect to 2021, which will be entirely allocated to women’s sport. Of these, 5 million will be allocated “to the definitive impulse of the professional women’s football league” since, as Franco recalled, “equality in sport is and will be a priority objective of the legislature and the Government.”
On the other hand, the item from recovery funds also increased, amounting to 107 million euros. Of this figure, according to Franco, 31.8 million will be allocated entirely to the Social Plan for Sports and the development of sports policies of inclusion and equality.
BOOST TO THE FEDERATIONS: 55.8 MILLION
The Council’s budgets for 2022 also include an increase in subsidies to sports federations, which amount to 55,886,750 euros, almost 3 million more (+ 5.38%) than in 2021. Of this amount, the CSD leader explained 1,500,000 will go to Sports Technification programs, “betting on a strong and innovative model for the preparation of high-performance athletes, with their sights on the horizon of the Paris Olympic Games”.
The items created in 2021 for the support of Sports and Women, of 2,550,000 euros, and of social aid to women of athletes, of 450,000 euros, are maintained and consolidated in these budgets. As well as the allocation of 750,000 euros for federations to develop inclusive sport projects.
On the other hand, to strengthen “the basis of sports associations and early sports practice”, this year aid to federations for sports activities at school age increased by 50%.
Likewise, the Autonomous Communities will have a new item of 1 million euros for equipment in their modernization centers, with which the CSD hopes to contribute to the progressive modernization and ecological transformation of publicly owned sports centers.
José Manuel Franco has declared himself “proud” that the Government has allocated almost 1,000 million euros since 2019 to the promotion of Spanish sport and highlighted the “immeasurable strength of the sports phenomenon to reactivate the country and the entire citizenry.”