In Le Soir, Sports Minister Jacqueline Galant presented the 4 priorities of her sports policy.
- Giving new energy to sport and amateur clubs, which struggle hard to find volunteers, sponsors and coaches, and towards which I want to redirect new resources, of around €2.5 million, so they can come back into the spotlight. If we don't support them, they will eventually disappear.
- Making better use of public funds: we can no longer allow petty localism in the allocation of sports subsidies, and that's coming from a mayor of a town of 10,000 inhabitants. We must stop the scattergun approach and invest massively where it is truly useful.
- Stepping up the development of disability sport in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation: there are many areas to tackle: creating a single federation for disability sport, integrating disability sport into sports federations, developing adequate infrastructure, and promoting disability sport in schools. To carry these through, I can count on former world number 1 wheelchair tennis player Joachim Gérard, who is joining my cabinet.
- Moving from prevention to sanctions regarding lack of respect on and around the pitches: sanctions must be issued and, above all, enforced. A lack of ethics can no longer be tolerated.
Jacqueline Galant: “My sports policy will be for the general public, or it won't be at all. It's the amateur clubs that create the vocations and great champions of tomorrow. Moreover, top athletes under contract with the FWB must remember that they also have duties: to be ambassadors in our schools, in our small clubs, in our associations,… More broadly, we need to simplify and streamline structures, regulations and procedures. I will work on a single, agile and more effective Sports Code for everyone”