The Ministry of Sport proposed to create a fund for the distribution of deductions from bookmakers

The Ministry of Sport has proposed the creation of a subordinate Russian Sports Fund (RSF) in order to more competently distribute target allocations from betting companies for the activities of sports federations and professional leagues in the Russian Federation. The corresponding draft law was published on November 20 on the federal portal of draft regulatory legal acts.

As Russian presidential aide Alexei Dyumin said through his representative, "the commercialization of sports for children should become a thing of the past."

"We must provide our children with all opportunities for physical training and sports. This is a question of the nation's health and the country's future. <...> The amount of support for federations from all sources will depend, among other things, on the contribution they make to the development of mass and youth sports," Vedomosti quoted him as saying.

Dyumin emphasized that the activities of sports federations should not be limited only to the issues of high-performance sports. In the present conditions, it is especially important to take care of the development of adaptive sports aimed at the rehabilitation of participants and veterans of the special military operation (SVO). The Russian Paralympic Committee should also take part in solving this task, the aide to the head of state said.

According to the bill, the fund will receive funds through targeted deductions from gambling, as well as voluntary donations and property contributions. The supreme governing body of the fund will be the supervisory board, and its chairman will be the Minister of Sports of Russia. The board may also include 10 more people, who are appointed by the head of the ministry.

It is assumed that the RSF will allocate contributions to finance sports in the country by competitive selection. The target areas include activities for children's and youth sports, construction and reconstruction of sports facilities, as well as the creation of domestic sports equipment and goods. Individuals will also be able to receive money from the fund for the creation of such infrastructure facilities.

All-Russian sports federations "practically do not transfer" money from earmarked deductions to regional federations, the explanatory note says. The new bill was proposed because the current funding mechanism is considered inefficient by the Ministry of Sport.

Before that, on October 2, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev reported that the bill on the creation of RSFs will be adopted by the end of the year. Speaking during the plenary session at the forum "Gambling: deductions for sports", he said that the bill has already been prepared - the document will be considered in an accelerated mode without the regulatory impact assessment procedure. The new fund will accumulate bookmakers' deductions from bets, including on events held outside Russia and in the organization of which Russian federations and leagues are not involved.