Engineer Petar Kanev discussed with the sports elite of Burgas the models for development and financing – 2024-10-23 11:38:00

A drastic increase in state and municipal funds for sports, construction of adequate infrastructure and a new policy for its development are needed, said the leader of the Burgas list of “BSP – United Left“

Numerous representatives of Bulgarian federations, clubs and distinguished masters of sports were gathered by the leader of the list of coalition “BSP – United Left” – engineer Petar Kanev. The topic of the meeting, initiated by the First Vice-President of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, was the challenges facing professional, semi-professional, amateur and mass sports in the country and the development of local schools and clubs.

Figures, legends of Bulgarian sportsmanship and managers, among them one of the most successful and popular football presidents in Bulgaria – Hristo Portochanov, expressed their categorical support and agreement for a change in the amount of funding and the development model of the clubs in the federations at the national level , proposed by engineer Kanev.

“For the last 30 years, the state’s policy regarding Bulgarian sports has taken on the role of a stepmother, and this must change,” said Engineer Kanev.

As chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Policies in the National Assembly, he set an example with the funds that are allocated at the central level for Bulgarian sports and the budget of the department involved, which is nearly BGN 150 million.

“From these funds, when administrative costs for financing sports are deducted, there are actually about BGN 80 million or less than EUR 40 million left. If we draw a parallel with the funds allocated in Poland for their Volleyball Federation – they are 60 million euros, in Italy they are 80 million euros, for the Turkish Federation they are 40 million euros. In our country, even when we raise the budget by 10-15% on average, the result will be the same. The truth is that if a future government and a future minister of sports do not think about what to do from here on – it cannot be done. The GDP of Bulgaria in 2023 amounts to nearly BGN 200 billion, and the budget according to the Law must be up to 40% of it. That is, we can comfortably spend up to BGN 80 billion, and it is quite normal for 1% of this budget to be for sports or BGN 800 million. Therefore, a completely different program for funding, investments and development of sports needs to be made,” said the leader of the list of socialists in Burgas, with whose efforts and development policy in the last four years, women’s volleyball in Bulgaria managed to achieve high results.

“I will give an example with volleyball, which undoubtedly applies to other sports as well. There is a serious interest in volleyball among students and a base is needed. It doesn’t work with sports grounds. Today, women’s volleyball is played by all those girls who became champions this year. The truth is that it is necessary to have a policy for adequate investments and construction of sports infrastructure“, said engineer Petar Kanev.

Examples of decisions in local politics regarding infrastructure were given by the former chairman of the Committee on Sports in the local parliament – Yordan Georgiev.

“We need new project proposals for investments in sports facilities at the local level. There is no need for Olympic-sized facilities in small settlements, while in municipal centers children and adolescents have nowhere to train. The financing of sports clubs should be categorically increased, both for high sportsmanship and for mass sports”, he commented and compared the policy of Hungary, where in the last five years more than 500,000,000 euros have been allocated for sports. “The budget of the Municipality of Bucharest under this heading is EUR 35 million. In most EU countries, municipalities are required to allocate between 3 and 5% of their budget for sports,” said Yordan Georgiev.

Anton Kodjabashev, president of the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation, and tourism specialist Zhivko Tabakov, a candidate for MP from “BSP – United Left”, who occupies the third position in the list of the coalition, also spoke on the discussed topics.

All those present unanimously supported the program and proposals of “BSP – United Left”. The candidates for people’s representatives, for their part, called on them for activity and support on election day.