Covid-19 : funding for sports associations in the Loire valley

Like a lot of sectors, sport is suffering from the consequences of the health crisis. To help the people involved, in the middle of November the Pays de la Loire Region adopted several schemes to support sports associations.

There is increasing anxiety in the sport sector. According to a survey carried out by the French National Olympic and Sporting Committee (CNOSF), the fall in club membership numbers for 2020/2021 has led to a loss of about 260 million euros in membership fees for sport clubs and associations. Added to this is the cancellation of most of the side events (tombolas and raffles, bingo, social events, bars and so on) which help clubs to balance their budgets, plus justified anxiety about state and local authority help (grants) and private funding (sponsoring) in the short and medium term in view of the very bad general economic situation.

Public sector bodies are gearing up to help, like the Pays de la Loire Region – the first region for sport in France. Following its efforts at the end of the first lockdown, the Region stepped up its support for those involved in sport by revising the terms of access to several support funds in the middle of November.

• The Sport solidarity fund. Dedicated to sports associations with employees that are facing difficulties because of the health crisis, this funding should allow associations to continue their work and save jobs. The maximum subsidy is fixed at 7,000 €.
• The Emergency events fund has three components. The first concerns associations organising loss-making events (partial compensation for the loss registered by the association in organising the event). The second concerns support for structures working in the sport events sector which have lost a significant amount of work. The third concerns support for change and innovation for structures that maintain some cultural and sporting activity during this period.

“A solidarity fund and an emergency events fund”

In parallel, the Region set up a free-phone number (0800 042222) dedicated to offering help to club and association managers in taking steps and ensuring that they have access to funds from regional recovery plans. In September 2020, the Region launched the communications campaign “Join a Club”, aimed at encouraging people to do sport in a club and pay a membership fee for the 2020/2021 season.