CDP welcomes more money, but inflation concerns sports development

A Confederação do Desporte de Portugal (CDP) today welcomed the increase in the budget for the sector in the proposed State Budget (OE) for 2027, but warned that it may not mean more funding for sports development.

“ We welcome the political signal, but we cannot confuse signal with real impact. What matters is whether there are better conditions for federations to develop modalities, support clubs, organise competitions and ensure opportunities for sports practice. Without adequate and predictable funding, the announced growth may not translate into an effective improvement of conditions on the ground,” said Daniel Monteiro, quoted in a statement.

In the note, the CDP is concerned with “the numbers available”, evidencing that current transfers, “which include, among others, the main support of the IPDJ [Portuguese Sports and Youth Institute] to the activity of sports federations, go from 93.8 to 94.1 million euros (ME)”.

This increase of about 0.3% “is well below the inflation of 2.9% predicted by the government”, which may translate into “a loss of purchasing power of direct support to the federations”, notes the body, which considers this scenario to be “particularly worrying given the difficulties of the sports system in retaining athletes throughout their training”.

Sport will receive 76 ME from the OE for 2027, plus 29.5% from the money allocated in 2026, according to the proposal delivered on Thursday by the Government in the Assembly of the Republic.

“ We're losing too many young people along the way. We must go beyond the successive reinforcement of support for the Olympic and Paralympic preparation, in which resources are concentrated in a restricted universe, in the order of 150 to 200 athletes, which already benefits from differentiated preparation conditions ", defended the president of the CDP.

For Daniel Monteiro, high performance begins long before national selections, particularly in clubs, federations and conditions provided to athletes throughout the sports course.

“ We prefer to make this warning now, before the idea is consolidated that increasing funding alone solves the problems of Portuguese Sport. It is not enough to announce more money: we need to ensure that they arrive on the ground and sustain a regular and structured development of the modalities”, he added.

According to the president of the CDP, this requires “strengthening the capacity of federations to extend and diversify competitive frameworks – national, regional and local – in the different age groups, to ensure that there is a competitive space for all athletes from training to seniors, regardless of the sports level, and to give national selections the conditions to compete internationally”.

In the statement, the body recalls that it has been making concrete proposals to this end, the most relevant being the creation of a Sports Development Fund, financed by a portion of the revenue from the Special Online Gambling Tax, without increasing the tax or requiring an additional allocation of the State Budget.

The CDP reiterates that this fund would allow direct channeling to the federations about 12 to 15 ME per year, “whose distribution would meet clear, transparent and demanding criteria defined by the IPDJ”.

“ We call on the Government and the parliamentary groups to evaluate this proposal and make a concrete commitment to the sustainable development of Portuguese sport”, concludes Daniel Monteiro.