Study on the funding of grassroots sports in the EU
1 Introduction
This volume presents the economic and regulatory framework for grassroots sport in each EU Member State, along with the general information on the resources allocated to sport. Unless otherwise stated, all the revenue figures presented refer to the sport system in general: it was, indeed, not possible to systematically single out the revenue allocated to grassroots sport within the total amounts allocated to sport in general.
The information presented is based on a number of sources, the primary one being the responses made to the questionnaires sent by Eurostrategies and Amnyos to the Ministries in charge of sport, as well as the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the national sport organisations members of ENGSO. These questionnaires, sent in the first phase of the study and complemented with further requests later on, requested information on the regulatory and fiscal framework applying to sport in each country, as well as detailed data on the revenue flows that are allocated to sport, and the channels through which these funds are allocated to sport.
Where no answer was received, or when the responses provided were incomplete, the study team sought to fill in the missing information by identifying other sources, including research on official internet web-sites (for the regulatory environment and the revenue data) and academic or other studies on sport in those countries. In general, the data presented in these country reports do not systematically refer to 2008, the year selected as a reference for the analysis in Volume I1 . The data presented in this Volume is that which was collected (or estimated by the study team) for the year for which most data was available in each country (often, 2007, and in some cases 2005).
Each country report starts with background information on the demographic and economic situation of the country: as indicated in Volume I, the level of development of the country and the past and future trends in the economic situation, in particular in the state of public finances, influence the amount of funding that goes into the sport sector in each country. Information on population density is also relevant due to its influence on the average size of clubs which, as explained in Volume I, also influences the revenue structure: large clubs can more easily generate economies of scale than smaller clubs, and the role of local authorities, crucial everywhere, is even more important for clubs located in rural areas, than for clubs located in urban or densely populated areas. The information on the relative weight of the public sector debt sets the context for future trends in public sector policies in all areas, hence also in the area of sport. It does not provide any signal on the future priorities of public policies, but gives an idea of the relative importance of the future budgetary constraint.
The monetary equivalent of the contribution of the work done by volunteers in sport was calculated on the basis of the estimated number of volunteers involved in the sector and the average number of hours worked per volunteer, multiplied by 70% of the average gross hourly wage rate in the country, using data from Eurostat. The 70% figure was applied to take into account the fact that the volunteer hours are not always as productive as paid salaried work, therefore the replacement of voluntary workers by salaried personnel would likely lead to the recruitment of fewer people than are presently working as volunteers in the clubs. It also reflects the fact that the required skill mix is highly variable, and that the average effective salary is likely to be less than the national gross average hourly wage rate.
Study on the funding of grassroots sports in the EU

