On March 18, 2022, the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, signed an executive decree declaring national sports “state policy”. The president said: “With this decree, we want to make sports a priority in order to turn the country into a sports power, by developing training sports and guaranteeing the allocation of resources for high performance.”

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In addition, on January 14, the Minister of Sports, Sebastián Palacios, publicly stated in the opening program of the Beach Games in General Villamillo, organized by the Sports Federation of Guayas, that “the budgets will increase every year”.

‘Sport as state policy’, but the budget for this activity has been reduced

These two announcements created great excitement and made us believe that better mornings are coming and that a bright future awaits us. The joy didn’t last long because a few days ago it became known that the organization of the entire sports structure will undergo a new cut for the second year in a row.

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What happened to all the announcements? There is no synchronization of the executive decree and what the minister announced with reality; there are things that do not add up or someone made a decision contrary to the wishes or dreams of the president. This reduction will bring a greater reduction of activities, reduction of personnel, changes of coaches, deletion of plans, cancellation of competitions, concentration, tours, and the stages will be in bad condition because there will be no money for maintenance.

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These are times of socioeconomic difficulties, with a high percentage of children and young people who cannot even attend school and college; and others who attend educational centers do so even without breakfast. In such circumstances, it is naive to expect that minors can finance their entry into sports. It is likely that many who have natural abilities and talent for sports will be left out of its pursuit, and better physical and mental development will be limited.

I suspect that the cuts planned by the Ministry of Sports will be used to finance other plans directly managed by this state portfolio, such as the so-called Hincha de mi Barrio, which is recreational. If so, these tasks correspond to legally established neighborhood organizations. In addition, if they want to undertake other projects from the Ministry of Sports, they must do so without diminishing, reducing or taking away funds from others.

It is true that recreational and social activities are useful, but they must be carried out by sports organizations that have the most knowledge and experience in this regard. Ecuador needs to optimize and increase the resources that allow equalizing and improving the levels of access to the discipline of training so that later, from that area, high performance is fed and increased.

We are very happy when athletes receive medals, but they are the result of funds provided by the state. In neighboring countries, in our region, athletes receive more support because there is a better structure. If only we could match them, we would have better results with our athletes, which is why the Ministry of Sports’ explanation of what comes in the money is urgent.

It is necessary to make an official correction or a correction on the reduction of the budget foreseen by the Ministry of Sports. (OR)