budget, legacy of the Games, Alps 2030… The issues awaiting Gil Avérous, the new Minister of Sports

Appointed as head of the Ministry of Sports on Saturday by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, Gil Avérous will have to deal with several burning issues at the end of a summer marked by the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The pile of files on the desk of the new Minister of Sports, Gil Avérous, is impressive. Appointed on Saturday 21 September by the new head of government, Michel Barnier, Gil Avérous will have to quickly address several important issues. A bit like Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who had to deal with the fiasco of the Liverpool-Real Madrid Champions League final at the Stade de France a week after her appointment on May 20, 2022, The new Minister of Sports must manage several burning issues. An overview of the projects that await him.

Maintaining a budget that risks freefall

“You have my commitment that beyond the 2024 Games, the resources will be maintained until the end of this five-year term, with the Games in perspective [d’hiver] from 2030″assured Emmanuel Macron during his New Year’s greetings to the sporting world in January. After having benefited from a budget of 1.022 billion euros in 2024, the Ministry of Sports still risks having to go on a forced diet. Gil Avérous will have to defend a budget that will be smaller than in previous years, when it was necessary to prepare and host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In 2024, for example, 18.6 million euros were allocated to the bonuses of Olympians and Paralympians.

Excluding Olympic funding, the sports budget in 2024 was 889 million euros. How high will it be in 2025? At a time when the State must make big savings, the sports world could be a victim of belt-tightening. To Gil Avérous to fight not to send the message that once the Games are over, sport will be of minor interest to the country’s leaders.

Managing the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

The project is huge and will depend on the budget allocated to sports for 2025. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has always proclaimed his desire to make France a sporting nation. To do this, it was necessary to take care of the infrastructure, which was not present enough or was dilapidated, to develop women’s sport, to allow greater accessibility for people with disabilities and to emphasize health sport. The sums allocated to these different themes will allow us to see if the legacy of the Games becomes a concrete concept.

In 2024, a boost was made by the ministry, by granting 10 million euros for social policies and integration through sport, 3 million for health sport, 1.5 million for women’s sport (media coverage and parenting support system) and 1.5 million for parasport (development of the practice and accessibility). It remains to be seen whether this continues next year.

Preparing for the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps

The Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games have barely ended, and France must prepare for another event, this time in winter. On July 24, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to award the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games to the French Alps. The contract has been initialed on the French side, but the IOC is still waiting for the financial guarantee from the State, which must be signed by the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, former co-director of the organizing committee for the 1992 Albertville Games with Jean-Claude Killy.

The dissolution of the National Assembly and the time taken to form a new government have not helped the progress of the issue. The International Olympic Committee has given France until September 30 to provide the financial guarantee for the 2030 Winter Games. The new Minister of Sports will inevitably have a close eye on the subject of Alps 2030, which is starting to be prepared now.

Monitoring the French football economy

The president of the Professional Football League (LFP), Vincent Labrune, recently re-elected, was aiming for a billion euros for TV rights over the period 2024-2029. The result was far from his hopes, with a winning DAZN-beIN Sports ticket for 500 million euros per season. Enough to cause concern among several club presidents, who denounced “results that are not at the level of the investments made”in a press release.

Add to that the prices charged by the English platform that do not encourage the French to subscribe, the explosion of piracy, and you have the recipe for French football in full crisis. The new Minister of Sports will have to follow the evolution of the Ligue 1 file, hoping not to relive a Mediapro-style end.

Continue the fight against sexist and sexual violence

This was Roxana Maracineanu’s hobby horse, before Amélie Oudéa-Castéra took over the reins on the subject. The Signal Sports platform, launched by the ministry, has allowed people to speak out about sexist and sexual violence in sport. Between 2020 and the end of 2023, 1,284 people were implicated, leading to 624 administrative measures (186 people were reported to public prosecutors). Gil Avérous will also be judged on his ability to continue the fight against all forms of violence in sport.

Promoting youth practice

If France is still far from the most sporty nations, it must put practice back at the center of children’s activities. This began with the Know How to Swim and Know How to Ride a Bike plans, implemented by Roxana Maracineanu. Thirty minutes of physical activity per day then became widespread in schools, in an attempt to reverse a worrying trend: children are reading less and doing less sport, while screen consumption is exploding.

Providing teachers with the means to have their students practice in good conditions, encouraging parents to register their children in a club, which is done in particular thanks to the Pass Sport (a 50 euro grant to help a family pay for a license)… Efforts will have to continue to stop this alarming phenomenon.

Monitor the various elections

If the Ministry of Sports should not intervene in sports bodies, there is no doubt that Gil Avérous will follow the next election for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee, scheduled for June 2025. Thomas Bach is leaving next year and a Frenchman, David Lappartient, is one of the seven candidates to succeed him. The 51-year-old Breton is already president (various right) of the Morbihan departmental council, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee and the International Cycling Union and his election would reshuffle the cards at the highest level of French Olympic bodies.

The new Minister of Sports will also keep an eye on the upcoming federal elections, numerous in the coming months, particularly in the rugby and tennis federations.