22 percent of the population is active in a sports club
Published: Tuesday, Nov 14th 2023, 17:00
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Even after the Covid-19 pandemic, sports clubs in Switzerland are well positioned and have stable finances. 22% of the population played sport in a club in 2022. Their number has remained constant for years and corresponds to 2.2 million active members in over 18,000 clubs.
However, clubs have only benefited to a limited extent from population growth and the sports boom since the turn of the millennium, as the Sports Observatory revealed on Tuesday. It has been collecting the data every six years since 1996 on behalf of the sports umbrella organization Swiss Olympic in collaboration with the Federal Office of Sport. The clubs affiliated to the member associations of Swiss Olympic are surveyed.
78% of them were under voluntary management in 2022. If the corresponding number of hours had to be paid, this would amount to 2.1 billion francs. Volunteering is therefore the foundation of club sport.
At the same time, volunteering poses challenges for associations: Keeping volunteers in line and recruiting them is often a headache. However, this is not a new phenomenon. Although the clubs usually have solid finances, the number has increased with at least one problem that threatens their existence.
According to the press release, Swiss Olympic intends to analyze the findings in greater depth and see how the umbrella organization can better support clubs in recruiting and retaining members, especially young people. The association has already launched a course for the management of sports clubs.
©Keystone/SDA
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