The Montenegrin Olympic Committee (MOC) and the Sports and Youth Promotion Centre (CAMS) organised an international conference related to the field of sport, titled “Financing sport: challenges, opportunities and possibilities”. This is the largest conference of this kind ever organised in Montenegro, which gathered local and foreign experts, representatives of the umbrella sports organisations, competent state bodies in the field of sport, representatives of state companies, and representatives of successful private companies. At the beginning of the conference, the guests were addressed, on behalf of the organisers, by Dusan Simonovic, President of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee. "Sports in Montenegro, normatively and functionally, has not been properly organised since the beginning, and has not been considered as a useful platform for the development of our society, necessary for the overall health of the nation.” The president of the MOC pointed out that the form was over function and that sports were not considered as an area that should be protected and organised, but rather as something that needed to be limited. Sports were an important component of socio-economic development, which, through their involvement and integration into the spheres of economy, public health and politics, directly or indirectly affected every individual, the President said. “Pursuant to the Law on Sports, sports entities may generate proceeds and acquire revenues for the purpose of financing sporting activities, from membership fees-registration fees, donations and gifts, contributions, subsidies, inheritance, interest, rent, dividends, funds, services, sponsorships and other marketing activities, TV rights, revenues from games of chance and funds allocated by the state of Montenegro and the municipality as support to performing sporting activities, in accordance with the Law," said Simonovic. He reminded that, according to the Law, sports organisations were co-financed from the budget of Montenegro based on the public call, in accordance with the Regulation on more detailed conditions, manner, procedure and criteria for the allocation of funds to sports entities and control over the implementation of the program. “The public and private sectors should both be involved in financing sport. By creating conditions that encourage more investment in sports, we are creating conditions that improve the level of sports performance. This makes it possible to increase the quantities in all forms of sports engagement (ratings, audience, sports activities, etc.), the use of sports products, the development of the sports industry, trade, tourism and other activities related to sports. This will result in job creation, and the world will better recognise our state and its resources”. The budget proposal for 2022 decreased the amount of money allocated to sports entities by almost €600.000 compared to the previous year. “Based on the public call, as I have said, sports organisations receive a certain amount of money from the budget, however, this is not enough to cover basic costs, so all the funds allocated from the budget are spent on sports competitions, and very few sports organisations can allocate any resources for development and promotion. Our country allocates about 4 million euros for sports, while it is estimated that for the adequate functioning of sports organisations we need about 20 million euros”, said the President of the MOC. Simonovic pointed out that sports organisations needed financial resources to prepare, participate or organise events and competitions, promote and develop, but also for sports infrastructure, construction and maintenance, daily running costs, training centres, sports scholarships for promising and top athletes, salaries and employee training, etc. “Sports organisations provide money from internal and external sources. Thus, it is of great importance that we hear today what experiences our colleagues and esteemed experts from the country and the region have," Simonovic said. The President emphasised that in Montenegro the MOC was not treated properly and that we missed the opportunity to give the MOC, through the Law on Sports, more authority as the umbrella sports organisation. “I consider particularly important the work on amending the Law or the adoption of a special law on the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, as well as the creation of our national Sports Development Strategy. Montenegrin Olympic Committee is already working intensively on its own strategy for the development of sports, which will be completed next year by the end of January and will be the basis of all MOC's activities, in relation to the development and promotion of Montenegrin sports and Olympism, and which can certainly be a good and useful document to develop our national Sports Development Strategy”. He added that it was necessary to understand and improve the position and role of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, to protect its autonomy and independence, in order to protect sports and put the MOC in a place it rightly deserved within the Montenegrin society. Only then could we expect even better results and overall benefits. After President Simonovic, Tone Jagodic, an adviser to the European Olympic Committees (EOC), spoke about financing sports activities, and DJordje Visacki, the secretary-general of the Olympic Committee of Serbia, Sinisa Krajac and Ranko Cetkovic, the secretary-general and marketing director of the Croatian Olympic Committee also shared their experiences. Following the introduction of the representatives of the European Olympic Committees, the Olympic Committee of Serbia and the Croatian Olympic Committee, there were four panels discussions about the following topics: Public funding for sport – strengths and weaknesses Panellists: - PhD Hrvoje Kacer – full-time professor at the University of Split, Faculty of Law - Stevo Popovic, PhD, associate professor, University of Montenegro, Faculty for Sport and Physical Education Alternative sources of funding for sports and financial auditing of sports entities Panellists: - Ivan Anastasovski, PhD, professor of sociology of sport and sport management, University of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, North Macedonia - Branislav Radulovic, PhD. member of the State Audit Institution Senate, Montenegro The position of natural and legal sports entities within the tax system Panellists: - Filip Patkovic, MEc, CAMS, Montenegro - Aleksandar Damjanovic, MEc, financial expert, Montenegro Sports tourism as a source of sports financing Panellists: - Ana Tripkovic-Markovic, PhD, director of the National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro - Aleksandar Gardasevic-Slavuljica, MEc, director of the directorate for tourism development policy, Ministry of Economic Development of Montenegro - Dragan Klaric, PhD, Faculty of Management in Herceg Novi This was the first in a series of conferences to be organised by the MOC and CAMS in the coming period.
