After the football clubs, climbing and tennis halls must also tremble: the federal government wants more Covid aid money back

Football clubs vibrate…

Last fall, Baspo announced it would recover “an estimated four million Swiss francs” paid to the Super League and Challenge League football clubs.

During the pandemic, the clubs had used two different pots of aid. This resulted in illegal cross-subsidies. The football clubs must now repay the excess money received before the end of the year. While the football clubs are complaining – FC Thun even speaks to CH Media of existential anxieties – it is clear that there are other problems.

… and also the climbing and tennis halls

Other sports-related organizations, such as individual climbing or tennis halls, had also used the Corona support to increase their equity or pay dividends. Financial losses were reported in many cases, some of which were not directly related to the pandemic.

The Federal Bureau is also likely to demand money back if organizations have made disproportionately high annual profits during the pandemic. “About 180 organizations from different sports, each of which has received more than CHF 100,000 in corona aid, are being rechecked for this,” says Baspo spokesperson Tobias Fankhauser.

De Baspo does not assume bad intentions – but wants to demand the money back from the Swiss Olympic trade association. “It is not yet possible to say how much money will be recovered in total. This will now become apparent from the detailed research of Swiss Olympic,” said Fankhauser.

It is unclear which organizations are involved

Swiss Olympics also does not want to say which organizations are involved. The investigation has been going on for a while, says Roger Schnegg (55), director of Swiss Olympic. “For this purpose, an external accountant requests the documents from the organizations involved and then draws up a report.”

Commercial climbing and tennis halls are mentioned in the test report. “The aid was paid to cover damage, not to finance profit,” says Schnegg. But he also suspects no malicious intent. He emphasizes that the tennis halls in particular suffered damage because they had to close in the winter, i.e. during the high season.

“We assume that very few cases — that is, a low-single-digit percentage of all disbursed cases — will actually have to repay the aid,” says Schnegg.

Reprimand to the Federal Office

The research also rejects the Baspo. “The test results show that the current supervision system is reaching its limits in the context of the Corona crisis.” It should even be examined whether the system of indirect sports promotion via Swiss Olympic needs to be adjusted.

However, De Baspo sees no alternative. It is believed that fundamental changes in sports finance financing should now be decided “not just on the basis of findings from a crisis situation”. (brother)