While the French Athletics Federation (FFA) presented this Tuesday morning its device for the 2020 season - with in particular the arrival of the triple Olympic cycling champion Florian Rousseau as director of high performance - its president André Giraud has take the opportunity to tackle the Paris City Hall. Object of his wrath: the aid granted for the European Championships, which France organizes at the Charléty stadium from August 25 to 30, after the Tokyo Games.
"The aid from the Paris City Hall is scandalous," says André Giraud. It allocates us a grant of € 200,000. The town hall of Liévin allocates € 350,000 to its international meeting for an evening of athletics. We are a week. "
The assistant to sport at the City of Paris, Jean-François Martins, whom we joined, corrected by specifying that the city actually allocated € 400,000. "A subsidy proportional to the general budget of the event and which corresponds to a grid", specifies the elected official. This sum is also that negotiated at the start which appears in the agreement signed between the parties, even if, on the return of the Worlds to Doha in the fall, the organizers of the event had started negotiations with the City of Paris to make it to evolve.
A budget of 17 million euros
"The grid is the same whether it is a day or a week event," regrets Jean Gracia, president of the organizing committee. And aid from communities is not up to what is done outside of France. Berlin (Editor's note: for Euro 2018) had more help, even if the event was a little larger since it was not in the Olympic year. "
For the first time, the European Championships will be organized after the Olympic Games, which does not facilitate the task of France, which must balance a budget of 17 million euros (M €). Negotiations are underway with the city to obtain aid (in the form of cash or services) as well as with the European federation concerning television rights. Any deficit would be attributed to the FFA, hence perhaps the exit of its president.
The City of Paris specifies that it has for the occasion "renovated the track of the Charléty stadium for € 1.2 million", that an "effort has been made on the cost of renting the stadium" (€ 100,000 according to organizers) and that it "graciously makes the Trocadéro available", where certain events and the medals will take place. "An important event," agrees Jean Gracia, who recalls that the European Championships "will open the Olympiad in Paris 2024". What deserve a little extra help?