Minister for sports Dan Kersch on Thursday announced a series of financial incentives to try and boost sports in the grand duchy. A total of €5 million is being made available under the “Restart sports” programme.

For starters, all clubs affiliated to one of the grand duchy’s 54 recognised sports federation will receive €20 per licensed player, with a minimum grant of €250 being awarded. In addition, clubs or federations that have had to cancel money-making events will be able to apply for a grant of up to €3,000 to compensate for lost revenue--the only catch being that the event must have been regularly scheduled for at least five years previously. Applications for both these types of grant can be made via guichet.lu before the end of the year.

Further grants, capped at €5,000, for the acquisition of sports equipment are also being made available.
The ministry will also continue to contribute to the cost of new construction, the modernisation and renovation of outdoor sports infrastructure (skatepark, bike park, outdoor fitness, pump tracks, dirt tracks) that are made accessible, in principle, to everyone. This subsidy to communes will increase from 20 to 35% and will be capped at €50,000.

In the autumn, the ministry is also launching a “Lëtzebuerg lieft Sport” (Luxembourg loves sport) awareness campaign, aimed at promoting sports activity from an early age.
Kersch said the strategy was devised because Luxembourg’s sports sector relies for the most part on non-professional structures and on volunteers, and most sports associations do not fall into one of the categories that can currently apply for state financial aid.