Comment on the Sports Promotion Act: Athletes suffer from procrastination

ZTime and timing are important terms in top-class sport. Nothing illustrates the failure of the years-long efforts to pass a sports funding law in this country better than the point at which failure was foreseeable. On November 6th, Chancellor Scholz’s federal cabinet approved the draft law – a few hours later, Scholz’s traffic light coalition fell apart. A miserable timing: like a goal conceded by a relegation candidate in the last seconds of stoppage time.

The reform will no longer be initiated in this legislative period. A final attempt to incorporate improvements into the draft and find a consensus was no longer valid after the first reading in the Bundestag, the SPD parliamentary group admitted on Tuesday. And she also immediately named the culprits: The Union parties and the FDP had taken a blocking stance, it was said, which was irresponsible and a setback for sport.

However, the irresponsibility initially lay in letting the government collapse; The coalition parties did this all on their own. It is undisputed that the Sport Promotion Act in its last version was not yet the final solution; that it remained below its potential; that the independent athlete representatives and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) demanded some fundamental changes. However, in an orderly, non-shortened parliamentary procedure there would have been room for this – that’s what the legislation provides.

Union representatives who did not want to support a “quick fix” are now pointing to the next electoral period, which could sound less like consolation than mockery to those who were partly involved in the reform consultations on a voluntary basis for two years. Because sports careers are short compared to professional political careers. The demolitionist of the traffic light coalition, Christian Lindner (FDP), entered the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament for the first time in 2000, the year of the Sydney Olympic Games. Nobody who jumped into the pool back then is still competing with the world elite today. The association of athletes, Athletes Germany, has called for appropriate maternity protection for female squad athletes to be anchored in the draft law. This proposal to secure livelihoods could theoretically have been negotiated in the Bundestag soon. A pregnant sprinter is not helped by the prospect that such insurance may come in one, two or four years.

The results from Paris confirm the state of German sport

The law, with the core idea of ​​a newly founded top sports agency that sets structures and distributes tax money, arose from a situation of deficiency: the existing framework conditions in German top sports no longer provide a sufficient basis for future top successes. A working group made up of federal, state and sports authorities came to this unfortunate conclusion, which was only confirmed in the summer by the results of the Paris Games.

The postponement of the reform will now prolong the misery, and the next generation of athletes will suffer. Because even if a new law comes, it will still take some time before it is actually implemented. In sport, unlike sometimes in politics, the following maxim applies. Plans and concepts are not the decisive factor. What matters is on the pitch.