Germany’s performance at the Summer Olympics last year has once again fueled the discussion about sports funding. The concept adopted in 2016 does not bring the desired success. The association Athleten Deutschland is now presenting ideas for a new approach.
Maximilian Klein made it clear to the sports committee of the Bundestag that the athletes want to have a say in the design of the top-class sports reform. “These are not Christmas wishes,” emphasized the spokesman for Athletes Germany. The interest group not only wants to participate, but also to help shape it. How they imagine the reform of the reform, the club presented in the 54-page position paper “So that Germany wins. 30 suggestions for a holistic development of the athletes”.
The reform project initiated by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) is seen as an opportunity to get closer to the vision of athletes in Germany: “A sports system that offers athletes optimal conditions for the holistic development of their sporting and personal potential and they as people pay attention.” So far, the BMI and DOSB have only presented a rough concept, in which an agency for competitive sports for control and promotion and a sports promotion law should be the central building blocks. Torsten Burmester, CEO of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, also believes that a “profound change process” is necessary.
The 30 suggestions point out that the athletes should be “the fixed point and purpose of sports promotion” and “not the structures,” says the paper. “In contrast to this ideal, however, structural funding is currently dominating. Associations and bases have dominant monopoly positions.” The athletes want “equal opportunities for different paths,” explained former national basketball player Johannes Herber, now Managing Director of Athletes Germany.
The competitive sports and base system is also characterized by a lack of transparency. And: The centralization of sport and training at bases should not make it possible for athletes to have a say in what is on offer there. These and other suggestions could have added value for everyone involved and bring more efficiency into the sports system. “We are convinced that everyone will win,” said Klein.
An innovation pot could award funding to “promising initiatives”. Athleten Deutschland also suggests increasing purchasing power, for example in the form of an athlete’s allowance, for example for services. The athletes’ representatives advocate a “new sports policy that strengthens the self-determination of athletes, allows more competition, compensates for information asymmetries, promotes innovation, eliminates dysfunctional incentive control and makes its decisions based on evidence”.
Athleten Deutschland endorses the planned independent agency for competitive sports, but warned not to reproduce the current system error when setting it up. “The sole control of such an organization by the state and sport should be avoided,” emphasize the athletes’ representatives. Instead, athletes should also be involved in exercising control and strategic design functions.
The DOSB believes that the rough concept is a good basis for setting up a successful reform in the coming year and thus stopping the downward trend in the Olympic Games. According to DOSB CEO Torsten Burmester, “smaller repairs” to the competitive sports reform that was launched only six years ago will not be enough. “First of all, a clear statement: we are convinced that the trend reversal can be achieved.”
The last reform of elite sport six years ago could not stop the steady decline in the number of medals at the Olympic Games. In Barcelona 1992 there were 82 medals, in Tokyo 2021 there were only 37. The discussion about a revision of the elite sports reform decided in 2016 with the potential analysis system (PotAS) as a central distribution assessment element for funding had gained momentum not least because of this.
The BMI, together with the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), “set the course” six years ago, they “climbed on a train together,” said DOSB CEO Burmester in the sports committee. This is now, however, in a “dead end”. Burmester advocated recognizable changes, but he doesn’t think a total departure from the current system is necessary. From his point of view, it is about “optimizing PotAS” and “minimizing bureaucracy”.
