THIS MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2020, THE FRENCH SPORTS MOVEMENT SENT AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, ENTITLED “SOS: SPORT IN DISTRESS”, CO-SIGNED BY 95 SPORTS FEDERATIONS AND OF WHICH WE DELIVER THE FULL CONTENT BELOW.
Monsieur le Président de la République,
Associative actors, volunteers, sports educators, club and federation leaders are not among the fans of brilliant stunts. They prefer to get involved so that on a daily basis there is respect for the rule, for others and for themselves. It is therefore with a heavy but weary heart that, as representatives of the French sports movement in its diversity, we openly address you today because we are at a loss.
Distraught to see that the federated sports sector, with its unique social and economic model, bearer of values essential to the republican social fabric, clearly does not count in our country's priorities for action in times of crisis. However, it guarantees access to sports practice for the greatest number of people at the same time as it allows the detection and development of talents from all backgrounds.
For several months, we have been doing everything possible to adapt to the vagaries and multiple divergent and sometimes contradictory applications of health doctrine on the ground. We have established the most demanding health protocols, validated by the Ministries of both Sports and Health as well as the High Council of Public Health and the Interministerial Crisis Unit. We have constantly improved them to take into account the increased circulation of the virus. We have scrupulously implemented them with the strength of commitment that characterizes our 3 million volunteers and the professionals who support them, first and foremost our “Covid-managers” present in each federation and in most clubs.
Despite these efforts, our scheduled or rescheduled competitions and events are canceled, often at the last minute and due to excessive and unjustified application of health measures by local authorities. Our activities are at a standstill in many territories, including green zones not subject to curfew. The very disparate decisions of the Prefectures and the ARS, in similar situations, are slowly killing sport. We are already deploring more than a quarter of fewer memberships, to the point that many clubs are now wondering if they will be able to get through the year because more than 80% of them, only run by volunteers, pillars amateur sport, still remain today excluded from the aid measures provided for in the support plan managed by the Ministry of the Economy.
We are also distraught because, it must be remembered again, practicing sport is good for your health and allows you to better resist the epidemic! The increase in inactivity obviously hits already fragile populations even harder; we can only helplessly fear its even more disastrous consequences for tomorrow's public health. You will therefore understand our incomprehension of suffering a stigmatization that is as violent as it is unfounded, because it is not supported by objective elements. How can we understand and explain why other activities remain permitted, including in the areas most affected by the epidemic, but not the practice of sport in areas that are more preserved?
We fully appreciate the extent of the crisis our country is going through and do not wish to pit sectors of activity against each other. However, we note, with bitterness, the absence of taking into account the specificities of our sector through an appropriate support system. Budgetarily, we deplore the fact that the few euros promised here are taken back from us there, in unworthy and humiliating sleight of hand.
We are sending you this SOS today, Mr. President, so that we can find the consideration that we can hope for and the support that we think we deserve.
As the organization of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games prepares, it seems to us that the priority must be to preserve our abilities to look collectively towards the future. As you indicated, our society will have to live with the virus. We must therefore live with him until he is defeated, but we do not want to disappear before him.
Counting on your understanding and support, we ask you to accept, Mr. President of the Republic, the expression of our highest consideration.
The French sports movement
