The Federal Office for Sport (Baspo) has been paying subsidies from “Jugend+Sport”, the largest federal sports funding program for children and young people, to clubs in the village of Büsingen for years. What the Baspo in Magglingen BE missed: Büsingen doesn’t even belong to Switzerland. It is a German exclave completely surrounded by Swiss territory.
The local sports clubs would therefore never have been entitled to the funds. At the Baspo, however, no one noticed this for years. Head of Communications Christoph Lauener defended himself against the “Schaffhauser Nachrichten”, who made the matter public: “It was not clear to the employees that Büsingen is not a Swiss municipality.” The applications for funding were sent to the Baspo by the cantonal sports department of the canton of Schaffhausen.
Lauener confirms that the Bundesamt assumed that Büsingen is a municipality in the canton of Schaffhausen. But apparently it’s not just a lack of knowledge of geography that led to the error: The “SonntagsZeitung” reported in 2011 that there were 25 to 30 cases of fraud in the years 2008 to 2010, as the newspaper confirmed at the time.
According to the article, two major cases of fraud were discovered in 2008 for a total amount of CHF 97,318. In 2009, the Baspo had to register five cases involving a total of nearly 170,000 francs. And a year later it was still 29,032 francs that the Bureau of Associations reclaimed.
Refund not necessary
De Baspo only noticed in November that Büsingen belongs to Germany. The Federal Bureau then sent a letter to the sports clubs involved. They were stationed on German territory and were therefore never entitled to support, it said. However, the clubs do not have to repay the funds already collected.
According to Baspo, the tennis club of Büsingen has received support since 2009, the gymnastics club since 2011 and FC Büsingen since 2015. The football club was paid between 9,000 and 15,000 francs annually between 2018 and 2021. He got by far the most money. In total, about 60,000 Swiss francs poured into the German community.
Applications were possible thanks to the Swiss postal code
But how could that happen? When applying for funding, the zip code of Büsingen had to be specified. Those responsible took advantage of the fact that Büsingen has both a German and a Swiss postal code. According to the “Schaffhauser Nachrichten”, those responsible used a trick: they simply entered the Swiss postal code. “We were told to do it this way so that the subsidies can be paid out,” admits Daniel Spitz, 47, head of the sports, family and youth department in the canton of Schaffhausen in the article.
Apparently, the people of Schaffhausen knew very well that they were, in any case, trading in a gray area. Still, Lauener Blick says: “We will not report anything. There is discretion under the Subsidy Act.”
The generous use of tax money by the Baspo is all the more astonishing, because the agency may have noticed that Daniel Spitz not only works for the canton, but also manages the juniors of FC Büsingen at the same time.
Spitz explains that they acted in the belief that the clubs were entitled to the money, “since many Schaffhausen children and young people are at home in the Büsinger sports clubs”.
Integrated into the Swiss sports system
And the FC Büsingen chairman Heinz Wipf (66) twice, most of the young players in his club are Swiss. “At least 85 percent live in Switzerland,” says Wipf to Blick. “We are clearly orienting ourselves towards Switzerland.” This is also the case at the tennis club in Büsingen. Vice-President Christian Risch (64) explains: “The Büsinger associations are part of the Swiss umbrella organizations and not of the German ones. We are members of Swiss Tennis. We are fully integrated into the Swiss sports system.”
The Büsingen tennis club even has its origins in Switzerland: “We moved from Schaffhausen to Büsingen in 2007,” says Risch. “I’m from Schaffhausen myself.” The tennis club was “disturbed and surprised” by the change of course by the Federal Bureau. According to Risch, financing contributions for the tennis club before Corona amounted to a maximum of 3,000 to 4,000 francs per year.
At FC Büsingen the amounts were higher, as described above. “We already have this five-figure amount in our budget,” says Wipf. “We are very sensitive that the financing is now lacking. We were already badly affected by Corona because the much stricter German regulations applied to us. » While training was resumed throughout Switzerland, the German ban was still in effect in Büsingen.
With Hannes Germann (66), FC Büsingen even has a representative in Bundesbern. The Council of States of Schaffhausen SVP, who plays in the club’s senior team, underlines the economic and social ties between Büsingen and Switzerland. “According to the letter of the law, the Baspo’s decision was certainly correct,” he says. “But everything now speaks for a pragmatic solution.”
It requires a state treaty
And the Baspo also understands the disappointment of the clubs. “Certainly because the funds of the four clubs have been used in the right way,” spokesperson Lauener told Blick. “But the legal basis does not allow for any other procedure.” This requires a state treaty such as the one with Liechtenstein.