The Secretary of State for Sport, João Paulo Correia, guarantees that there is no dependency relationship between the sector and the support provided by the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Lisboa, stressing that this financing is the face of the institution’s mission.
“Santa Casa has been supporting the sports sector for many years, because supporting sports fully complies with the mission of Santa Casa and supporting sports represents a 100% return to society from the sports sector in relation to the support of Santa Casa. Casa being one of the many pillars of financing of the sports sector”, assures the Secretary of State to TSFhighlighting the social role of sport that “represents inclusion, integration, equality, fight against social inequalities”.
For João Paulo Correia, Santa Casa has “a double responsibility in supporting sports,” since “part of Santa Casa’s social games are sports betting, that is, bets that fall on sports competitions.”
This Wednesday morning, João Paulo Correia requested an “urgent meeting” with the provider of Santa Casa da Misericordia, Ana Jorge.
“The meeting will also serve to complete the information that has not been made available, at least publicly, by the provider and Santa Casa. The meeting will also serve to obtain clarifications and even to provide information from the sports sector about the importance of Santa Casa continuing to support the sports sector, as it has been doing for many years”, explains the minister.
João Paulo Correia admits that, with the available data, he does not understand the decision: “We are in a trend of strengthening and growing support for sport. It was like that in 2022 and 2023, without questioning preparation and participation.” It is a contrary sign, given this trend of growth and reinforcement of support for sport, we request an urgent meeting with the provider.
Precisely for this reason, João Paulo Correia does not want to anticipate pessimistic scenarios, especially because he does not know the value at stake.
“In the last hours we have had more precise information. We are talking about more than one hundred thousand euros a year in some federations, such as support for wheelchair handball, support for the Paralympic Committee, support for school scholarships -a project of the Olympic Committee-, as well as other federations in the area of sport. adapted and in the area of national and international sporting events, for example, where it was possible to add women’s competitions, all the history of support provided to the sports sector over these years. I don’t think you should anticipate pain before the meeting either. We have a problem on the table. I think we have to wait for the meeting to then take stock,” argues the Secretary of State. for Sport, referring to the fact that “the Santa Casa does not ask to consult the Government to decide the support that federation gives to federation and committee to committee, since the federations also negotiate directly with Santa Casa”, since this is “a condition that Santa Casa puts on the table”.
The Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML) warned several sports federations of the need to review the sponsorship plan, less than a year before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The sports federations were notified through letters signed by the provider Ana Jorge, who assumed her duties in the SCML on May 2.
Source: TSF
