Many sponsors finance the path from the latitudes in top-class sport in Germany. The splitting of the responsibilities between municipalities, the states and the federal government is difficult for the sports practitioner. This is shown by examples from ski jumping.
It is easy to start with a sport in Germany. None of any other nation have mass sports clubs so many members. However, the state sports well -being warn that fewer and fewer clubs are accompanying athletes in competitive sports in Germany.
It is too time -consuming or simply not possible for you to collect the money for the coaching positions, competitive operation and the training infrastructure from the various sponsors.
An example: the new one Ski jumping ski jump in Willingen
As is time-consuming, for example, the ski jumpers in Willingen in Hessen shows that the ski club and municipality want to enable more children to transfers to young talent performance-and finance the operation of a medium-sized all-weather ski jump.
However, it still has to be built and that costs at least 13.5 million euros. The state of Hesse alone does not want or cannot bear these costs, although the federal states are actually responsible for the infrastructure in young talent. This is how it wants the federal system.
Because the young jumpers in Willingen will always be top jumpers in Willingen, the country sees the location as a federal base in the long term and wants the federal government to participate in the construction costs. Because he is responsible for top sport.
It was struggled for years, only under the Hessian Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser came the promise: the construction could now begin – as soon as the municipality, the state and the federal government agree on the exact distribution of costs.
Should the federal government get even more responsibility in sports funding?
The Hessian young ski jumper still commute or switch to ski jump locations in other federal states. Or you stop. The German Ski Association (DSV) cannot afford that.
Fewer than 800 young jumpers are active throughout Germany. Children’s sports, young performance and top sport are closely related here in practice, even if there are different funding levels in the administration.
That is why Sepp Buchner is happy that the federal government was able to get through to support for Willingen. He is responsible for the ski jumpers and Nordic combiners as a sporting director at DSV.
Because he has the impression that municipalities and countries can no longer guarantee the infrastructural requirements, says Buchner: “I would like to be able to keep our width in ski jumping and that the federal government should also feel responsible for young performance up to down to the club.”
At the same time – this is what the sports associations organized in the DOSB repeatedly emphasize – but the federal states and the municipalities should also feel no less responsible. After all, they hope that the total volume of funding in sport will increase.
Unclear level of public sports funding
Nobody can say how big the sum of all public funds is in sports. Antje Hoffmann, an expert in young talent at the Institute for Applied Training Science (IAT) in Leipzig, believes that the countries put at least as much money together as the federal government.
It comes across all ministries to a total volume of approx. 500 million euros. The municipalities also have good arguments to describe themselves as the largest public donor for sport because they widely ensure most of the infrastructure.
Inventory German sports promotion
Hoffmann and her team at the IAT are currently trying to present what funding structures are available at the state and federal level. Support points, coaching positions, pots for infrastructure and much more – even for the experts it was difficult to reach for all positions. But in the end a factsheet was created for each federal state. And federal funding will also be presented soon.
This inventory is a service for the many different players who are responsible for sports funding and those who should benefit from it. The IAT project is not about improving the funding structures. It also remains open how much money which state spends where.
What Hoffmann can say about the funding structures is, however, “That the differences between the federal states are relatively large. Greater than our experts expected.”
Standards in Young talent performance: A new approach
It is the national coaches who manage the difficulties that arise from the different funding structures, training opportunities and concepts at the state level. At the latest when the young athletes of the various federal states fight for the places in the national cadres.
In ski jumping, the German Ski Association is now taking a new way: at the IAT nationwide standards for the inclusion of athletes to the elite schools of sport. Of these important support centers, there are seven in ski jumping – with nine locations in six federal states.
Problems through federal structure of sports funding
The processes in the admission procedures and the requirements for the athletes are very different here and the German Ski Association is actually not responsible: Because the municipalities and the federal states finance the squares, the state ki associations can occupy them from their offspring as they consider it right. It does not make sense for them or for the elite school of sport that a place remains free.
At the same time, however, the German Ski Association would only like the athletes to come to the elite schools if they have already experienced the most important training bases and have certain conditions. In his view, it is important that the training groups are homogeneous so that you can train sophisticated there.
The DSV cannot and does not want to make any concrete guidelines as to what requirements an athlete has to meet for the admission to an elite school. However, he wishes that the level of performance in the individual areas such as athletics or technology will be queried standardized in the future. So that athletes and clubs then get information for their training program and continue to establish the training standards in the youth area.
“In order to be able to build our content on this foundation, as you always say so beautifully,”says DSV sports director Buchner with a view of the national squad and emphasized, emphasized “That we want to give the countries, the associations and the state articles a recommendation – no guidelines, but a certain recommendation.” The overall level in ski jumping should rise again and carry the top athletes to even better performances.
Funding system should be derived from the targets in top sport
The struggle for the ski jump in Willingen and the desire for cross -border standards for recording at the elite schools show: It leads to problems that sports promotion in Germany takes place at various levels. And always when the levels do not interlock in terms of content. The practitioners also complain about this at the Olympic Seats.
The fact that Germany now has a Minister of State for Sport and Voluntary will not solve these problems. And not the planned sports agency either. Because both are not responsible below the level of top sport.
It would be best to look at the needs of sports practitioners regardless of the system. This is currently not possible in Germany in many places. Nevertheless, sports scientist Antje Hoffmann emphasizes: “The goals of young performance should be broken down from the goals of top sport. And then all players should committee themselves in young talent performance. And also know what role you have in the overall system.”
In the field of training science, this means, for example, to develop performance requirements for young athletes. Because it is documented across sports: In order for the athletes to create the best possible long -term development, they should not train too specifically too early. Otherwise there is a risk that, despite short -term successes, you will remain behind your potential in the long term.
It is therefore important to keep an eye on the big picture, especially in the Federal Republic’s Federal Republic, where the youth performance sport is in the sovereignty of 16 federal states and the state special associations.
Sports funding in Germany – the ARD research
The ARD Radio Research Sport has researched and analyzed sports promotion in Germany in a four -part series. “Transfer? School sport before collapse” was the start that the other parts deal with “too few coaches, too little volunteer – sports clubs at the limit”, “Young talent -performance sports – the elite schools of sport are not enough” and “top athletes – because of professionals, athletes in Olympic sports even have to be” added ‘”.