Nymburk, Central Bohemia, April 23 (CTK) – Czech sport may get six billion crowns from the state in 2017, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Education Minister Katerina Valachova (both Social Democrats, CSSD) confirmed at a general assembly of the Czech Union of Sport (CUS) Saturday.
This year, sport is subsidised with 3.7 billion crowns from the state budget.
The CUS will continue pushing for the establishment of a separate ministry of sport, which the Chamber of Deputies did not support on Friday, however.
Sobotka is the first prime minister to attend a general assembly in the history of the Czech Republic, which was established in 1993.
He praised the fact that the CUS, formerly the Czechoslovak Union of Physical Training and Sport (CSTV), has managed to repay its debts.
Sobotka said sport is not in an easy situation since state support for it has dramatically decreased since 2007 and that this must be redressed and stability and predictable fianncing in the long-term sought.
The Chamber of Deputies passed on Friday an amendment on support for sport which is to ensure a juster distribution of state subsidies among sports organisations.
The resolution on establishing a seprate ministry of sports did not make it through by a mere three votes.
CUS chairman Miroslav Jansta said the ministry is needed because the sport section at the Education Ministry is insufficient and that no minister has been dismissed because of a failure to fulfil their duties in sports.
“We want the public to know who is responsible for sport. We are interested in sport having authority and a decent position,” he said.
The CUS associates 74 national sport unions and 8240 sport clubs with a total of 1.2 million athletes in the country with a population of 10.5 million.
(ß1=24.014 crowns)
