Knowledge of geography: insufficient. The fact that the Federal Office for Sports (Baspo) has been wrongly paying youth and sports funds to clubs in the village of Büsingen for years has caused contempt and ridicule in the country. Because the officials simply hadn’t understood it: Even though Büsingen is located in the middle of the canton of Schaffhausen, the community is part of Germany. The clubs were never entitled to the money – they received a total of some 60,000 francs.
As if that weren’t enough: Büsingen in Germany is not the only foreign community where sports clubs have been receiving Swiss subsidies for years. The municipality of Campione d’Italia is also in Switzerland. The Italian municipality is completely surrounded by the canton of Ticino. And here, too, the Baspo has failed to acknowledge that the 2,000-strong community is not Swiss territory.
The Italians do not have to pay anything back either
“The Associazione Polisportiva Campionese (APC) was previously also supported through J+S,” confirms Baspo communications manager Christoph Lauener. From 2016 to 2020, the Italian sports club raised a total of 14,222 francs. Only then did federal officials discover their mistake. “In August 2020, APC was excluded from J+S,” says Lauener. Like the Büsinger clubs, the APC did not have to repay anything.
The problem was the same in both communities: Büsingen and Campione have German and Italian zip codes as well as Swiss zip codes, which fooled federal officials.
“We Don’t Want to Complain”
But now the end of the tax money bonus. And so you can see in Büsingen how things will continue for the FC, the tennis club and the gymnastics club. You don’t hate the federal government – if you’re not entitled to subsidies, so be it. “As a municipality, we don’t want to complain,” says mayor Vera Schraner to Blick. Bilateral relations with Switzerland went smoothly and that is not being jeopardized.
In the canton it sounds a bit different. “Many residents of Schaffhausen are members of the Büsinger sports clubs,” he writes on request. “For these reasons, the decision of the Baspo for the canton of Schaffhausen is only partially understandable,” it says.
Canton campaigns for Büsingen
After all, it was the canton itself that told the clubs how to get Baspo funds thanks to their Swiss zip code, as the State Chancellery confirms: the clubs concerned belong to the Swiss clubs, are active in the Swiss leagues and have numerous members Switzerland, that’s the reason for the zip code trick.
“For years, both the sports department and the clubs assumed in good faith that the funds were paid out correctly. The Büsinger clubs never wanted to cheat the system. » The canton will approach the federal office with a request to find a new solution find.
The community intervenes
FC Büsingen, the Büsingen tennis club and the gymnastics club can breathe a sigh of relief. “As a municipality, we take over the financing of the clubs,” promises Schraner.
As a bi-national municipality, Büsingen receives a VAT refund every year, which benefits the entire population. “We will also support the clubs from this pot.”
Y+S courses are missing
However, the municipality cannot just jump in on another subject: the training of the trainers. “For us it is especially important that our junior coaches can follow Baspo’s Y+S courses,” explains the mayor. The courses are very valuable.
And here Büsingen can count on the canton of Schaffhausen, as Schraner says: “We are very pleased that the canton is committed to ensuring that this is still possible.”
Even though the case is not yet completely settled, the devil would have to deal with it if there was no solution between the municipalities, cantons and federal government.
Meanwhile, the officials in the Baspo have one consolation: Büsingen and Campione d’Italia are the only enclaves in Switzerland. Such an embarrassing geography glitch can’t happen to them again.