Sports policy: Out of the sports funding law: No reform until new elections

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 Act 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 had expressed criticism of the federal government’s plans and called for significant improvements. CSU sports politician Stephan Mayer recently warned that the time remaining until the federal election in February was too short for an appropriate debate.

A new attempt should take at least a year

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.”