2023-08-12 04:57:00
Next to the start of the school year, families are preparing for another start with the resumption of sports activities for young people. Between football, hockey, basketball or swimming, this is still the big dilemma for many parents. A return to sport which is also marked by significant expenses for the Belgians with costs which sometimes vary from simple to double depending on the discipline.
Good to know before enrolling your child in a sports club
And after the pandemic, the energy crisis and rampant inflation, the financial health of amateur sport has taken a hit. As a result, many clubs have increased the price of subscriptions in order to bail out the coffers. This is the case with football.
Cost of dues by sport ©IPM Graphics
By contacting different clubs in Wallonia and Brussels, we quickly realize that the registration fees vary enormously, between 80 euros and 600 euros per season. While there are no rules governing the price of annual dues charged by clubs, the ACFF has implemented a quality label system ranging from one to three stars. And to have this label, you have to meet a whole series of criteria.
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Today, it is very difficult to find contributions for less than 400 euros in football”
“It is clear that when you are labeled three stars, there are requirements inherent in your label, particularly in terms of educators, the quality of reception, training and infrastructure, explains Gaston Schreurs, treasurer of the French-speaking wing within the ACFF. We must also take into account the travel costs which can quickly be considerable. It is true that the final amount can be quite substantial for families. But when we look at the actual total cost for a child playing in a three-star club, we arrive at 1,000 euros and this is obviously an amount that we cannot pass on to the families”.
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“Very complicated to find contributions for less than 400 euros”
With the cost of school supplies and high inflation, for some families, enrolling their child in a sports club forces them to make sacrifices. Long considered a popular sport, even football is starting to become less accessible.
“Compared to others, including hockey, it remains quite reasonable in my opinion, defends Schreurs. During this new school year, the crisis is not yet behind us, there are for example the additional costs related to energy (lighting the grounds, heating the locker rooms, etc.) which impact the finances of the clubs and the inflation which has also its consequences. So yes, the contributions have increased and we are not used to seeing that in amateur football, but you can also find more accessible clubs, with contributions at 100 euros and a lower level of requirement. On the other hand, if you are looking for performance, it is now very difficult to find contributions for less than 400 euros and it also depends on the region in which you live”.
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In the ranking of the most expensive disciplines in the country, hockey and tennis are indeed more expensive, they occupy the first two places on the podium and have seen their prices increase for the coming season. This is the case of this well-known hockey team in the capital. “The cost of living is increasing and therefore all our costs are also increasing, observes this club president. If we want to offer the same quality of reception and training as well as the same services, we don’t really have a choice. However, we offer staggered payments to families and formulas that can be adapted according to needs, the objective is to remain accessible to all social classes”.
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Faced with this upward trend, the Youth Forum has been wondering for several years about access to sports activities.
According to their recent survey of 1123 young people, we see that 7 out of 10 young people think that the cost of practicing a sport is too high. A worrying observation when we know that 8 out of 10 young people practicing a sport believe that it is beneficial for mental health. “Between the financial aspect, the lack of accessible sports infrastructure, the lack of inclusion and tolerance, the inequalities between young people in the face of sport are multiplying and must be fought, recalls the association. Financial support from public authorities for clubs and young people could, for example, make sport more accessible in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
”Today, sports practices have greatly diversified”
Among the solutions proposed, young people highlight in particular the fact of offering more sports vouchers, subsidizing sports clubs and associations more in order to increase their offers and promote soft mobility at the end of the day and structurally perpetuate the promotion of sport. in schools by organizing sports activities.
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Thierry Zintz, expert in sports practices within the Faculty of Motricity Sciences of UCLouvain (UCL) and former vice-president of the COIB, the Belgian Interfederal Olympic Committee, even observes a change in the practice of sport among children. .
“I believe that sports practices have greatly diversified since the covid crisis and today more and more people practice sport outside of clubs and competition, he explains. Many European surveys show that sports practice in a club compared to outdoor sports practice represents an increasingly small share. We see a lot of families practicing activities together, which has been generalized during the various confinements. We think of cycling, hiking, outdoor sports, etc. This is done more and more and given the cost of certain disciplines, some families are falling back on this kind of sporting activity”.
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