Paris, Madrid and London are all in the running, alongside Moscow and New York, to host the Olympic Games in 2012. The International Olympic Committee will be inspecting the cities in February and March 2005. With much of the media focus on the bidding process and elite sport, sometimes the grassroots can be lost from sight. In an attempt to redress the balance, EurActiv has looked into sports participation in France, Spain and the UK.
Around a quarter of French people are registered with sports clubs, with an upward trend from 2000 (around 14.6m licences in total, of which 45,100 disabled) to 2002 (14.8m, of which 47,500 disabled). The figure fell in 2003 to 14.2m (of which 42,900 disabled). Female participation has dropped marginally between 2000-02 (average of 33.40%) and 2003 (33.9%). There has been a progressive decline in the number of schools/universities registered from 2000 onwards (2000 - 2.65m and 2003 - 2.53m). The budget for sport for 2004 was 647m euros, around a third of which is distributed by the Fonds National du Developpement du Sport.
Grassroots sport in Spain is a competence of the 'autonomous communities' [regions such as Catalonia and Andalucia] and town councils so data for this is collated at local and regional level. The Consejo Superior de Deportes [Spanish sports ministry] deals primarily with elite sport, with around 2.3m men (80%) and 469,000 women signed up (16%) in 2003 for a top level sport category in approximately 69,500 clubs. Two censuses of sports facilities conducted in 1985 and 1997 indicate a marked increase in the number of 'instalaciones deportivas' [smaller sports facilities - 48,700 to 66,670 respectively] and of 'espacios deportivos' [larger sports areas 99,775 to 154,820 respectively].
Spain is preparing for the upcoming Mediterranean Games in Almeria in 2005. Budgetwise, Spain's sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky announced 159m euros as available from central government in 2005 (up 3.23% on 2004), of which 1.8m euros has been tentatively earmarked for sports infrastructure in schools and 5.3m euro to create a state-level infrastructure plan alongside local authorities and the autonomous communities.
In the UK, the organisation UK Sport deals with elite sport while grassroots sport is mainly dealt with by national sports authorities for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Results from the 2002 General Household Survey showed that, since the last survey in 1996, overall participation in sport and physical activities had declined. A UK government spokesperson told EurActiv that the sports budget for the UK has amounted to around 3bn pounds (around 4.3bn euro) in public and lottery money over a six-year period from 1997.
A Eurobarometer on EU citizens and sport in 2003 showed that 46% of Europeans say they practice a sport or take some form of exercise at least once a week. A new Eurobarometer is due in early December. In July 2004, the then EU Health Commissioner David Byrne stressed that "the threat of obesity now requires urgent action. Obviously neither the EU nor the member states can force people to eat healthier food or practice sport. But there is a responsibility to provide valuable information to the public". The European Year of Education through Sport can be seen as part of the EU's efforts to combat this growing problem.
