As Le Monde announced on July 17, the government will continue, in a slightly different form, the plan to create and co-finance 5,000 so-called local sports facilities, which was set up in 2021 and which has largely popular with local communities. Emmanuel Macron confirmed it on Tuesday, July 4: this new plan will aim to create 5,000 additional sports fields by the end of 2026, with the objective that these are located in or near schools. It will benefit from an envelope of 300 million euros over three years.
The first plan, for which 200 million euros had been released, has already led to the financing of 4,500 pieces of equipment according to the Elysée. “It will be 10,000 by the end of 2026, that’s the legacy of the Olympics. You are the 2024 generation, ”launched the president during a trip to the Daniel-Argote college in Orthez (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). “All this will give more space to sport in and outside of school. We learn better by doing sports at school, “said Mr. Macron, who met the teachers and students in the company of the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, and d former top athletes like handball player Jackson Richardson.
Deployment from January 2024
In July, the Ministry of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games explained that the new plan will aim to respond to some of the priorities announced by the government in terms of sports policy: thermal renovation, the development of the practice of sport in the schools and the continued provision of equipment to disadvantaged areas, whether these are priority neighborhoods for city policy or rural revitalization areas.
In this case, it will be a question of creating 1,500 projects in playgrounds, 3,000 light sports equipment and 500 more structuring equipment, such as gymnasiums or swimming pools. A third of this equipment will be built in the priority neighborhoods of the city’s policy. The plan will be deployed from the beginning of January 2024, with the State financing between 20% and 80% of the projects.
With this extension of the first “Macron plan”, as it was baptized, the government is partly responding to the expectations expressed by local actors: having largely subscribed to this program, many of them considered that efforts should not be stopped. , while noting that this often only filled small gaps and did not fundamentally transform sports practice through heavier infrastructures.
The National Association of Elected Officials in Charge of Sport (Andes) considers, for example, that to carry out a real catch-up in this area of ??sports equipment, it would be necessary to adopt a multi-annual programming law establishing an effort of 500 million euros per year over five years.
These announcements “are encouraging but insufficient”, reacted on Tuesday, the Andes. “This envelope partially meets the expectations of our network: organize multi-annual funding, catch up on the delay in terms of construction of sports facilities in certain deprived areas, ensure the promise of equal access to sport and prioritize their access to schoolchildren in order to fight the ticking time bomb of obesity,” the association explained in a press release. While adding that “the renovation of structuring equipment (gymnasiums, swimming pools, ice rinks) must be a priority”, while “the average age of this equipment will soon exceed 50 years”.
