Struggling Irish sporting bodies must be funded now to prevent the need for an avalanche of cash to re-boot them after the Covid-19 crisis.
That’s the plea delivered by Federation of Irish Sport CEO Mary O’Connor as it was claimed that the ‘devastating’ financial effects of the coronavirus could finish off many sporting clubs and organisations.
“Sport is, by it’s very nature, is very resilient,” said O’Connor. “Sport funding was flat during recession and organisations kept going.
“But no sports body could have planned for this.
“A lot would have worst case planning scenario of one or two months, but it could be six to 12 months now in terms of normality returning – and we actually don’t know what normality will look like.
“But for the government to support the sporting clubs and organisations now would cost an awful lot less than to reboot them post-Covid-19.
“There’s a big demand on the public purse now but we must recognise that when you invest in sport it stimulates the economy and you get a return on that investment.
“Given all the benefits of sport for those who play and participate, we want to make sure we don’t go backwards.”
Representing 110 organisations, the FIS wants the Irish government to establish a Sport resilience fund – similar to the small businesses fund worth €250m – plus a task force to focus on the survival and ‘re-ignition’ of sport bodies nationwide.
Swim Ireland’s CEO Sarah Keane spelt out what the situation from her organisation’s standpoint.
“Many (swimming pools) are facing a scenario of retaining 80-100% of the running costs whilst operating at only 30-40% of capacity,” said Keane.
“The impact of this on swimming, leisure centres and hotels, and therefore our sport and physical activity, is potentially catastrophic.”
Athletics Ireland are forecasting a loss of 30% of their turnover – a €1.5m deficit.
And Basketball Ireland CEO Bernard O’Byrne admitted: “We’ve surveyed our 48 National League clubs and almost universally, the feedback is that clubs will struggle to re-start financially.
“It’s highly likely that some will cease to operate. This will cause great disappointment in local communities.
“Urgent meaningful government financial assistance for sport is crucial.”
FIS point out that the Irish sport industry employs 40,000 people – who are supported by 500,000 volunteers – and accounts for €2.7 billion in consumer spending. It is worth €500m to the tourism industry.
But the Federation warns that ‘many’ of its 13,000 clubs and organisations won’t survive unless funding is forthcoming – a massive blow to a country that has 46% participation in sport on a weekly basis.
O’Connor told MirrorSport: “We’re actively engaging with Minister Brendan Griffin.
“Clubs would only receive funding if they can show why it needed. Some clubs might small amounts, others might need more.
“But it’s important that the general public are aware that sport can’t be taken for granted.
“There cannot be an expectation that sport will simply exist as it did pre-Covid 19. There’s a huge challenge for Irish sport”.
STATEMENT FROM THE FEDERATION OF IRISH SPORT IN RELATION TO THE CURRENT STATE OF SPORT IN IRELAND
Federation calls for a Resilience Fund for Sport and a task force to specifically focus on the survival and reignition of sport organisations nationwide
Issued on behalf of our members the 81 National Governing Bodies and 29 Local Sports Partnerships that organise Sport and Physical Activity in Ireland
There has been no organised sport in Ireland for 10 weeks. The stark reality is that the knock-on effects of Covid-19 financially for all sports organisations in the country are devastating. Within the last week, we have seen a number of our major team sports talk publicly of losses up to 70% of their turnover. Unfortunately, we are also seeing these types of percentages in revenue losses right across the sporting landscape in Ireland. All sports have been impacted.
While we welcome the setting up of the Return to Sport Expert Group, its remit is very specific which is to assess the consistency of the various protocols being prepared by NGBs to return to sport in Ireland. The Federation believes however that in addition to this Group, that sport needs a separate Task Force similar to the one Government has set up for the Tourism Industry. We need innovative thinking, swift action, and investment at local and national level providing business and administrative supports to Irish Sport to help sustain it through this unprecedented emergency and the recovery.
The fact is that many of our 13,000 clubs and sporting organisations may not survive the financial impact of Covid-19 without financial assistance now. We are calling on the Government to introduce a Resilience Fund for sport immediately.
While the government are to be commended not alone on their support for the charitable sector but also for the €250 million fund set up for small business, the reality is that sport needs similar support. Sports clubs across all sports are in most cases small businesses as well as social enterprises – in some cases not that small either! It is all too easy to forget that sport in Ireland is today an industry that employs some 40,000 people (supported by some 500,000 volunteers) and which also accounts for €2.7 billion in consumer spending. It also is worth €500 million to our tourism industry.
The Covid-19 Irish Sport Resilience Fund needs to be established by Government as a matter of urgency. Similar funds were introduced by Sport England and Sport New Zealand a number of weeks ago. As is the case in both those countries, support will be needed for club and community sports organisations as well as sports organisations funded through Sport Ireland. This financial assistance must help sports organisations facing particular financial difficulty and support organisations in getting back to business and adapting to the new reality as restrictions lift.
There has been a significant fall off in income, as the normal revenue sources such as subscriptions, gate receipts, sponsorship, summer camp and coach education income have dried up. At the same time, running costs including insurance and facilities maintenance all continue to be incurred. Most sports clubs are not-for-profit organisations with minimal reserves, and they are now also facing substantial costs to be able to implement return to sport protocols in accordance with public health guidelines.
This at a time when physical activity and exercise has never been as important to maintain both physical and mental wellbeing. Irish Sport is supporting the Government call in this regard with sports organisations of all types being innovative in their use of digital channels to encourage activity and maintain a sense of community.
At what moment did you realise this was a challenge on an entirely different scale?
Professionally, we had got (FAI) Council approval for refinancing, which was significant for us. Effectively, we were looking to borrow 52 and a half million. And that was all approved on the same day the Taoiseach announced the lockdown. I had just signed off on a business plan that was virtually out of date instantly.
Personally, my two kids are grown up, so I couldn’t see them. I haven’t seen them since. I lost a good friend through the virus. And when you’re literally locked in at home, you say, God, this is very different. Back in 2007-2008, I had to let 300 people go in the financial services industry. It was a painful process. But this is radically different. It’s like the whole world stops.
Have you drawn on that experience in 2007?
Yes. Our business just collapsed overnight. You had to take significant measures. You learn a lot from that. There’s leadership required in terms of your own team. You need to be calm. You need to engage and communicate as much as you possibly can, and keep people informed. I learned a lot about what it was like for people to go through a traumatic experience.
What kind of financial implication do you anticipate for the FAI?
We’ve made projections that assume we don’t play any matches this year. The hit would be about €10 million. We’ve done a whole range of scenario testing. What happens if we get back on July 20 to what happens if we don’t play the matches in September. We’ve a lot riding on the last three months of the year. We’ve a lot of international matches, between the Nations League and the qualifier in Slovakia. So a lot of our projected income stream is coming from the last quarter. We still haven’t given up on that.
How have Government supports and direction helped in the crisis?
They have been excellent. Our doctor Alan Byrne is on a team that’s working with the HSE. I’m sitting on two steering groups with Sport Ireland and the Department. They’re very helpful, very valuable, very supportive.
We’ve been trying to understand what’s coming out of the HSE and how do we interpret it. How to get social distancing and contact sport to reconcile. What does that actually mean on July 20? And how do we make sure that we can come back playing with confidence. The big question is around how do we reduce the risk to acceptable levels for all the volunteers.
We’ve divided this between professional sport and amateur sport. On the professional side a lot is down to the cost. You’re putting in protocols around testing and making sure all the stakeholders — from players and managers, referees, anyone who’s looking after facilities — are all using the right protocols.
But it’s much more difficult to do that on the amateur side. We’ve been putting in a range of questions to the HSE through Sport Ireland, to see how we can get an acceptable level of risk so we can play football on an amateur basis.
It’s a very difficult question. At one extreme, you wait until the vaccine. There’s a lot of unknowns. We really welcomed the government’s five phases, because we didn’t have a roadmap. Once we got that it raised more questions. And I think we’re getting the answers.
Ultimately, we need to protect the sporting infrastructures that are there. You can’t let them collapse, because if you do it’s going to be a long journey back. It will come down to: 1, what’s an acceptable level of risk from a medical perspective, 2, how do we cope financially?
What’s the doomsday scenario?
I think if we have to wait for a vaccine. And there’s no certainty we will ever get there. If we conclude that’s the only way the sport can be played here, I think that is a bit of a doomsday because all the sporting infrastructure will just collapse.
Just talking about the three big sports; soccer, Gaelic and rugby. If we can’t operate, the implications for society are huge. The number of people who play every week, the number of volunteers involved, the benefits to society. The implications mentally and physically if we can’t do that. That needs to be taken into account in the risk assessment.
For me, no football until we find a vaccine which could be years away means both our professional and amateur football collapse.
GAA president John Horan has said he can’t see Gaelic games being played while social distancing is required. But are there nuances within that?
If you read all the different reports coming out, there is less evidence that anything is being transmitted outdoors. And that most of the transmissions are happening indoors.
We’ve been slow to make conclusions. We’re sitting behind the HSE and Uefa. They are the experts that will guide us in terms of what we have to do. And we’ll keep asking the questions as to how we get to a level of risk that’s acceptable to everybody. We have kept drilling that and trying to understand what the answer to that is.
But if you can’t reconcile social distancing from contact, and there’s no way we can manage it financially in terms of the protocols we have to put in place, then you’re back to doomsday. And I think we need to start thinking about what that means for society and for other health issues, mental health and all the associated illnesses.
Are there overseas models worth applying in Ireland?
Dr Alan Byrne has sat in all the overseas research. We’ve been watching Germany, Denmark, there is some stuff coming from Spain as well. As soon as they go back you will learn an awful lot about what the implications and protocols are. Unlike the GAA, we have international research. Even rugby is arguably only in eight or nine countries, realistically. While we are in every country in the world. All the research will be helpful.
How damaging would a ‘lost season’ be for the League of Ireland?
It would be damaging. The whole infrastructure is fragile enough. It doesn’t have a huge income stream already. It would be a long road to recovery. And if you compare it with other European leagues it would be a sad day if we’re the only ones who can’t finish their league.
We’re at the start of our season while lots of the others are determining if they can finish theirs. So if we have to give up after five matches it would be a sad day for us.
The two great unknowns are what is the cost of running matches behind closed doors and putting in place the medical protocols required. Our views are that restricting to two or three stadiums makes a lot more sense.
We can specialise around getting those stadiums fit and proper. That reduces the cost and takes away the risk from the clubs. You’re down to the cost of that and working out how we compensate for the lack of attendances. And then you’re looking to see if you can get support to keep the infrastructure together.
We’re reluctant to give up on it until we conclude that we just can’t do it.
How is morale across the organisation? Any message for members, officials, players?
I think the FAI, and sport generally, has done a great job over the last 10 weeks. Our grassroots teams and employees have been working on the Homeskills programme. We’ve had a venture with Spar to deliver to people that are vulnerable and cocooning. We had a joint venture with Down Syndrome Ireland, because charities are getting hit pretty hard.
The team has rallied very well. They are thinking outside the box to make sure they are active on the ground. They are all dying to get back but morale is as good as we can have given what’s going on. They are all looking for answers in relation to when can we get back and what do we say to our clubs and leagues and players.
We’ve been using Microsoft Teams to communicate and we’ll come back with a different attitude to flexibility in terms of working from home.
We’re in the organisation the best part of 12 weeks. We’ve been trying to put in place an exciting new strategy and communicate that. We’ve appointed a new international team, putting Keith (Andrews) and Damien (Duff) in with Stephen Kenny. There are nine matches in the autumn, the World Cup next March.
If we qualify, the Euros in Dublin next June. The Nations League in September. Never before in the history of the sport will we have so many international matches in a 12-month window. So if you have your optimistic side up you’re saying we have a lot to look forward to. Which reverses the doomsday scenario.
So the League of Ireland player nearing the end of his career, who has been laid off, who has been sending out CVs, shouldn’t give up hope?
No. We’re not giving up yet. It’s progressing as we go. A few weeks ago, if you asked me (about this season) I’d say it’s one or two out of 10. I’d say now it’s six out of 10. We’ve got a chance of keeping the league infrastructure right this year.
And if we are able to protect the League of Ireland and run the matches and get them streamed internationally, it might be a big first-mover advantage. People may watch League of Ireland matches that have never watched them. There’s an opportunity there and we’ll be slow to let that go.
I would say to everyone, stay calm, hang in there, and let’s keep trying to challenge ourselves to make sure we keep doing the right things.
What was the moment you realised this was a challenge on an entirely different scale?
We had a growing sense of it as we monitored the international situation right through February. Then the first case in Ireland happened on the 29th of February so we were thinking then about the type of measures that needed to be in place in golf to ensure that it could continue safely.
On the 11th of March we sent out advice to our clubs to change the way it was run at club level to ensure public safety and put in appropriate health measures. Then on the 24th of March, before the full lockdown was implemented in Ireland, we advised our clubs to close. So we had been preparing for severe restrictions at least through February and into March when it became obvious that this was turning into a pandemic.
Has anything in your past professional experience been a help in dealing with this?
Nothing can compare to a pandemic. It is a hundred years since we have had anything on this scale in the world. I am relatively new to sport. I just started here at the end of last year. Previous to that I worked in government and I would have worked in crisis management for a number of years, including the economic and banking crisis of a decade ago. I don’t think anybody could say they have experienced anything on the scale that the world is experiencing now.”
How severe do you think the financial losses will be for your organisation and your sport?
It is too early to say. A lot depends on the trajectory of the disease in the coming weeks. If the current government roadmap can be adhered to then we have a good idea as to when the various sectors can get back to normal, or something approaching it. We did a survey of all our clubs in the month of April to try and get an estimate of the financial impact on them. When we put all of that together it indicated a loss of about €65m, which is very substantial and probably quite conservative.
We had estimated that on the basis of a ten-week lockdown but it looks like the revenue-generating activities of clubs will be locked down for a bit more than ten weeks. So even though golf will come back on the 18th of May, the revenue-generating elements of it will be a bit later. For example, visitor income, society fees, bar and restaurant revenue, that is all a while away.
It’s not unique to golf but it is very pronounced in golf in that the lockdown came at the worst possible time because it was the start of the playing season and the time of year when clubs begin to generate revenue through societies, members subscriptions and the like. So all of that stopped.
Golf visitors from abroad generate green fee income of well over €20m for golf clubs so the prudent approach is to assume that that is not going to happen this year. If we are being realistic, the prospect of international golf happening this year is very remote. We are looking at an overall decline in green fee revenue of about €30m alone and golf tourism has a huge multiplier effect on the tourism sector as well. All of that is effectively gone too.
How have Government supports and direction helped in the crisis?
The government has kept in very close touch with the sporting bodies. Minister Brendan Griffin and his department, and Sport Ireland, have liaised weekly, if not more frequently, in assessing the impact and supporting us. Public funding for sport though Sport Ireland has continued, that hasn’t been cut back. That’s all very welcome. I know when the time is right the Minister and Sport Ireland will make a submission to government to rebuild sport when this is all over and we would hope golf will be part of that. We very much welcome the roadmap published last week, not just with what it means for golf but for other sports that can start on an incremental basis. It’s a recognition of the mental health benefits of sport and we are very fortunate in golf to be among the first to come back.
How would you rate morale among your members?
We’ve got to be realistic. The figures I have given you tell the story of the enormous financial impact and that is very worrying for golf clubs. We keep in very close touch with them and the survey we did was quite detailed. Golf clubs are very resilient. The fact that golfers can get back to play on a restricted basis in their clubs so soon will help morale. Our members play because they love the game. That doesn’t conceal the wider impact that it has had on our sport and we are going to have to work to repair that.”
Some golf courses have already closed for good. Is it inevitable that more will follow suit?
I hope it’s not inevitable. It is a very small number of clubs that have announced their closure. I don’t think any of them are solely down to the COVID-19 pandemic, although that has made the situation worse for all clubs. Club support is a very important part of what we do as a national governing body. We will be working to help clubs navigate through the choppy waters in the next while and we hope there will be some support from government in rebuilding sport and society. I don’t think there is an inevitability that we will lose more clubs and we don’t want to.
Do you see any overseas models in your sport or elsewhere which might be applied here?
We are part of a lot of international golf networks. We work very closely with the Royal & Ancient, which is the global governing body. We work very closely with the National Governing Bodies in England, Scotland and Wales so we would be in almost daily contact with those bodies. We are also in close contact with the European Golf Association and we have already learned the types of procedures and measures that other bodies have put in place to facilitate the safe resumption of golf elsewhere. Given that golf here is likely to resume ahead of some other countries, we will be sharing that experience in return.
What is the outlook for the return of competitive golf domestically, both on an internal club basis and wider GUI events?
Even though we haven’t finalised our protocols for the return of golf on the 18th of May, we have indicated that we will be advising clubs not to organise internal competitions in the early stages. That is simply because we don’t want a big congregation of players at particular times in the clubs and that is what tends to happen. The Saturday and Sunday competitions tend to attract big numbers of people in that way. Part of our protocol will set out how restrictions in golf will be eased over time in tandem with the government roadmap.
We would see a return to internal club competitions happening quite quickly, not in Phase One, but very soon afterwards. In terms of inter-club it is going to be later in the summer. It may be a bit later than they would normally happen provided the easing of restrictions happens in the way that the government have laid it out. We would certainly see scope for inter-club competitions later in the summer and maybe running into the autumn. As things stand people won’t be able to travel over 20 kilometres until the 20th of July. After that we are quite optimistic.
How likely are we to see an Irish Open played this year?
We’re not involved directly in running the Irish Open but, from what I understand, the European Tour, because it is one of the Rolex Series events, hope to reschedule it for later in the year. As I understand it, that commitment remains. I haven’t heard any concrete proposal or time for that but it is very hard to see how it could happen on the basis that we all know and love with 20,000 people a day attending. I’m not sure if that is realistic in the autumn. Hopefully I will be proven wrong but maybe they hope to hold it on a more restrictive basis. When you get into autumn daylight becomes an issue and it becomes more challenging compared to the original date of the end of May.
What’s your message to your members/clubs/units right now?
Our overriding message to our members is to continue to put public health ahead of everything else but to also enjoy the opportunity that they have been given to resume golf at their own clubs and in a safe and responsible way. Having the privilege of being one of the first sports to resume also puts a big responsibility on golf to show how sport in general can be organised and run in a way that protects public health. We absolutely believe that that can and will be done.”
In general I feel very lucky. I’m working, I’m occupied and the kids are healthy and well and the family is all good.
I do feel a little bit of apprehension about how things will look as we move on. I do think this will change Irish life. Some of it will be for the better, but the change is coming. And while I’m pretty good with change, there’s a little bit of apprehension around that too.
Have you found out anything that you will stay with you once this is over?
I’m flat out between the Swim Ireland role and the OCI role and the family stuff. So I’m not one of those people listening to podcasts or learning a new skill or anything like that. It might come over time but I’m not in that place.
Swim Ireland had invested heavily in online learning so we’ve been able to do a huge amount in relation to that. The good thing is this has forced everyone to sign up and get online in a way they wouldn’’t have before. I see that as a really positive thing.
We’ve had incredible engagement. Swim Ireland put 1,700 people through some form of online learning in April and we put over 2,000 people through in May.
The other thing, from a staffing perspective, Swim Ireland has over 40 members of staff, a mix of part-time and full-time. And some are based in different parts of the country. Some commute, some come up every couple of weeks. And while we’ll want to continue face to face engagement, now that everyone can work online, we’ll look again at how to support people to maybe not travel as much. To support people to have a better quality of life.
How are you keeping in touch with your members?
The online systems have allowed great engagement with the membership. For example, some of the courses we did on a regional basis, now we’re doing them online. And we’re finding you’ve got people in Ulster talking to people in Munster when before you didn’t have that to the same degree.
Our athletes have been amazing. We had a plan for after the Olympics to engage our Olympians to go out to our clubs and squads and meet the younger people.
We’re doing that online instead. Our top 10, 15 performance athletes, swimming and diving, are doing all that free of charge with clubs. It could be the 14-year-olds in a club and they’re getting a chance to ask questions in a club setting. So it also helps the clubs keep athletes engaged when they are not in the water. So we’ve found that exciting and motivating as a team.
What kind of 2020 had you been looking forward to before this struck?
The Olympics and Paralympics were obviously big for us. But aside from the event itself, we were running in April our first Olympic and Paralympic trials. We’ve never had one in the country. Normally people would have qualified off an international event.
RTÉ were going to come out and stream it, but it will move to next year.
Another big thing was introducing a leisure membership category. The clubs are the heartbeat of our organisation, but we’re always trying to reach into the wider swimming community. We’ll probably launch that online now during the summer.
How severe are the financial losses you anticipate for your organisation?
We had projected to run to a deficit anyway this year, because we’re making significant investment in things like the national competition structure and the Olympic trials and other initiatives around participation. For instance, working on a Get Ireland Swimming plan.
But now that deficit is going to be significantly higher and that is a challenge. It will impact on 2021.
The big assumption is that our clubs will be back in September. We’re actually hoping some of them sooner. But that’s also assuming they will come back with the same number of members they left with, which is really going to be a challenge.
A priority will be recruitment and reminding people why they got involved in swimming. And ensuring there is a consumer confidence around getting back in the water.
At the moment we’re projecting a drop in income of around €400,000, which is a lot. But we have less expenditure on certain things.
We are lucky in that Tesco, our title sponsor, has remained loyal. And we do believe we can do some activation on various things with them. But we have to see how that plays out next year.
What kind of Government supports and direction will help in the crisis?
In the National Sports Policy, launched in 2018, swimming is recognised as a priority sport, because it’’s for all ages, both genders, all backgrounds. Swimming is a life skill and it’’s the sport people engage with most over their life cycle.
But we will have serious concerns about what investment will be possible in sport over the next few years. I just really hope there is a recognition of the value of sport.
A lot of what we are doing now as a nation is around our values. We are saying we value human life and our people more than our money. And if we’re going to be true to that value system we have to recognise how important sport and physical activity is to Irish people.
And at the moment there hasn’t been any real support around that — obviously our government has been dealing with a very difficult situation — but, I’’d like to think that will start to come on the agenda sooner rather than later.
Because sport is part of our DNA, part of who we are. We’ll have to support sport so it doesn’t go under, because we can’t return to sport if we don’t have the structures in place.
Was there a moment you realised this was a challenge on an entirely different scale?
It’s actually not that long ago because I’m relatively used to dealing with crisis. You’re learning all the time, but experience of leading in a crisis helps. Some decisions around the Games were made very quickly.
But I think the big moment came with the understanding that social distancing is going to stay with us for some time to come. And how we move forward now as a society for the next 18 months or two years is going to be quite different.
In terms of our sport, how we get back into pools is a challenge. It’s definitely doable, but we’re going to have to rewrite the rules.
The HSE has advised you don’t get Covid in chlorinated water. So that’s a very positive thing. But if you stand up afterwards and breathe heavily or maybe cough, obviously it can be passed through the air.
We might have had 30 people in a squad swimming up and down together. So it will change how many people you can have in a lane, and what’s going to happen with swimming lessons.
The biggest driver to the swimming pool economy is swimming lessons. You’re probably not going to have the same number in.
We have a Return to Aquatics group set up and we’re working with Ireland Active, who support the leisure industry. We’re looking together on guidelines for swimming pools and how people might get back.
But what’s different from other sports is that swimming is an industry. And Swim Ireland doesn’t run or own any facilities. We’re dependent on those that do. And we have more private pools across north and south than public. And a lot of the private operators may be questioning, with heating and staff costs and extra cleaning, will we open. Can we make enough money off reduced numbers? That’s unique to our sport.
What’s the doomsday scenario?
Pools could shut. That’s a massive issue. Some children may not go back to swimming clubs. Some parents may not be able to afford it, though our clubs are very good at supporting people with financial difficulties. We’’re supporting programmes in underprivileged areas and schools and I’’d be really worried we’d go backwards in that regard.
Do you see any overseas solutions worth applying in Ireland?
I don’t think solutions is the word. But our Return to Aquatics group is collating information worldwide. Five or six nations already have their performance athletes back in the water. And another five or six will go back in the next couple of weeks. We’re talking to them and talking to the Sport Ireland institute around protocols that we will put in place. We’’ve been in touch with the HSE about open water and putting protocols in place around social distancing in and out of the water.
Is there a bigger challenge for a contact sport like water polo?
Yes, we have to look at when that can go back. I play myself, we’ve a very good community in water polo and I would be concerned about that. It’s contact, they will be breathing on top of each other, pushing into each other. The fact they are in chlorinated water will help but it doesn’t solve the problem either.
How is morale among members?
I think there is a certain amount of stress and worry. Clubs are primarily run by volunteers who are dealing with their own personal circumstances. I do think we’ve done everything we can to support them. But I really admire them, and am very proud to be part of an organisation where people have really stood up in that regard.
A lot of the work we’re doing is keeping people connected. We’re living in a society where not everyone knows who their next-door neighbour is because life has changed.
That’s something huge sport is doing to support the wider community effort. So I think morale is good, despite the stress and worry.
And one of the things I love about what I do is being surrounded by people who are trying to be the best they can be. The characteristics people develop out of sport, like resilience, adaptability, dealing with things that don’t always go your way, those are the characteristics we need as a nation now.
So it’s important the government and the wider community recognises what sport has to offer and that we can’t let sport go under.
Sport is central to the Irish story; we revel in it so much so that for many it’s essential to our very existence, part of our DNA. We want to enjoy it, be excited by it, entertained by it, educated by it, and simply just to be part of it, writes Mary O’Connor
Like every sector right now, sport is navigating uncharted waters. When we think of sport we seldom think about what it does for us all.
Yes, it is good for health, is inclusive, is a great source of national pride and identity and is good for our tourism industry.
It is however all too easy to forget that modern sport is a business and a big business at that.
For many people sport remains a diversion — something that just happens no matter what. What the current situation has shown is that we cannot take sport for granted and in fact it is perhaps more important than ever — and will be a vital pillar as we come out of the current pandemic.
Covid-19 has brought into sharp focus the value we place on sport and physical activity and it is true to say that the pandemic is wreaking havoc on the sport sector in Ireland and Europe and the collateral damage will be widespread.
Sports volunteerism in this country is valued at €1.1bn, sport supports €2.7 bn in consumer spending and directly employs 39,500 people.
At the time of writing there have been no specific supports announced by government for sport despite the fact that for every €100 invested in sport by government there is a return of €195 in associated taxes.
Our counterparts in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have all benefited from significant government measures to support grassroots sport clubs and organisations but that is not the case here.
Time is rapidly running out for our sports organisations, our clubs and their volunteers.
We need definite action now from the Government.
So why has finance for sport dried up? The simple answer is that the very activities that makes sport and physical activity happen are now on hold and these are our members’ main sources of income.
They have lost gate receipts from major events, sponsorship revenues, membership/affiliations fees, coaching programmes, educational workshops; camps; closure of facilities and on an on.
The list is a long one. Without support it will be difficult for sport to get back up at its current levels.
Earlier this week a position paper on the impact of Covid-19 crisis on the sport sector in Europe was published.
Its findings were stark.
Every 47th euro generated in the EU is by the sport sector, sport has a related employment in the EU of 5.56m persons and sport related GDP of €279.7bn.
However, Covid-19 presents an unprecedented challenge, the very sector trusted with the responsibility of promoting wellbeing, health, and social interaction is in the real world itself under pressure to survive.
It goes on to state that European sport largely relies on a fabric of small clubs and associations which play a key role in allowing so many citizens to take part in affordable sport activities and to enjoy sport and physical activity on a daily basis.
These small clubs and associations are the backbone of European sport.
However, being non-profit by nature and thus without any reserves, they work in precarious conditions often, driven by the support of passionate volunteers and employees.
In sport, especially at grassroots level, this economic crisis will result in the bankruptcy of associations and clubs which promote physical activity and offer affordable sport activities to citizens across Europe.
Consequently, the sport sector is also set to face an unemployment emergency. These smaller European grassroots associations are at the greatest risk of shutting down due to the crisis, which could have a number of long-lasting impacts on the economy and society.
This will endanger the future of all grassroots sport in Europe. This is Ireland in a nutshell: 81 national governing bodies of Sport (NGB) are members of the Federation of Irish sport and they account for approximately 13,000 clubs.
A recent piece of work by the Federation of Irish Sport with our NGB’s tells a compelling story, our sports clubs who for the most part are run by volunteers currently have a loss in revenue of between 60 and 100% but they still have expenditure of 85% on costs such as insurance, rates, utilities, maintenance loan/mortgages.
These clubs are all affiliated to their NGB and if the clubs are at risk so is the NGB.
The federation have been actively advocating on behalf of our membership to government and we have had number of productive meetings with Minister of State with responsibility for Sport and Tourism Brendan Griffin along with DTTAS officials.
However, we now need outputs it will be infinitely harder to reboot sport post pandemic than it will be to support it through the crisis.
Our key asks have been as follows:
The establishment of a sport, physical activity, and recreation sector working group for an immediate and long-term response to Covid-19.
Provision of a government led funding injection package through Sport Ireland for NGB’S to stimulate activity post the Covid-19 emergency.
Sport specific direct financial supports for clubs similar to the hardship/resilience funds available in the UK.
Potential repurposing of a proportion of the 2020 Sports Capital Grant to current funding.
Construction of a plan in relation as to how to sport will come back as restrictions are lifted, this could be endorsed by government and/or Sport Ireland. (Being mindful that is of course health led).
A framework such as Protect, Prepare, Prevail.
VAT rebate available to all sports bodies for six months to help towards sport as a business remaining operational.
Sport and physical activity have always added value to people’s lives and right now Irish Sport finds itself in a unique circumstance.
We are eager to play a significant role in the revival of normal Irish life and deliver health enhancing activity as well as contribute robustly to the Irish economy in a myriad of ways but we need innovative thinking, swift action, and investment at local and national level.
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