While the Rugby World Cup has just started in France, our program Dimanche en Politique looks this week at the links between sport and politics. Financial interests, reputation issue, why do communities invest in clubs and equipment? Decryption.
This is one of the big events this fall: the Rugby World Cup has started in France. And the coming year will be sporting, with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Events where we measure ourselves on the ground, but not only… because behind the performance, there is another issue, this one political.
A city that has a team that does well, it’s an image of the city, it sets the pace
Patrick Bourgoin
deputy mayor of Angoulême
Communities are also the main financier of sport in France, with 12.5 billion euros per year invested in clubs, associations or equipment such as stadiums and gymnasiums. In Poitou-Charentes, if the names of Soyaux, Niort, La Rochelle, or Celles-sur-Belle resonate, it is also thanks to their sports clubs.
Overall, public money represents 30 to 32% of our budget
Sébastien Guerin
president of Poitiers Basket 86
Issue of notoriety, of social cohesion too… a clever calculation to make for the departments, municipalities or urban communities which decide to invest in sport.
The community will also choose to direct a subsidy towards a discipline or a club depending on how the club fits into territorial development.
Christophe Lepetit
head of economic studies at the Center for Sports Economics and Law
But when money enters the competition, the relationship sometimes turns into a storm between clubs and communities, as is the case in Niort, with the Chamois Niortais team, or in Soyaux, whose The women’s pro football team has just been disbanded.
We are accountable, not just to elected officials but to all our partners, it is normal that we work as an open book, that we say what we do
Gilbert Nasarre
president of the Niort rugby Club
So do clubs have an interest in freeing themselves from elected officials? To find new models less dependent on public money? Answer in our show.
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