The President of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee (MOC), Dušan Simonović, held a press conference today, where he presented a proposal for amendments to the Law on the Budget for 2023, which he sent, on behalf of the MOC, to all parliamentary clubs in Montenegro. The sports year 2022 was extremely successful. The Montenegrin Olympic Committee is proud to highlight the silver medals of Marija Vuković in the high jump at the European Athletics Championships in Munich and Bojana Gojković at the European Boxing Championships for senior women in Budva. We were also particularly proud of the handball players, who won bronze at the European Championships this fall, as well as Tamara Radunović with the European bronze from Budva. Our team had a lot of success at the Mediterranean Games in Oran, from which they returned with seven medals. Many significant results were achieved by Montenegrin national team members in non-Olympic sports, such as karate, jiu-jitsu, and bocce. Great Olympic potential was shown by our male and female taekwondo competitors, as well as numerous of our representatives in younger categories in many sports. As always, this year the MOC had a great cooperation with the International and European Olympic Committees and the organizations under their auspices. We have participated in all the competitions from the Olympic calendar, and we are preparing for six major competitions that are ahead of us in 2023, as well as for the biggest event of this Olympic cycle, the Summer Olympic Games in Paris 2024. It is important to emphasize the good cooperation with the Ministry of Sports and Youth and Minister Vasilije Lalošević, whose department was very understanding to the needs of MOC. Nevertheless, the period behind us was more than challenging, first because of the surprisingly small financial support we have received from the state and the lack of support from state-owned enterprises in the last two years. We have identified and presented these problems at the international conference entitled "Financing of sports: challenges, opportunities and possibilities", which was organized in cooperation with the Centre for Affirmation of Sports and Youth in December last year. It was attended by the highest authorities from Montenegro and the region, and guidelines were given in the work and strategy of the development of sports, as well as proposals of the acts and necessary changes to the Law on Sports. The Montenegrin Olympic Committee, as well as everyone who works in the sports field, are wondering why the funds for sports were reduced by one million euros. Precisely because of this, the umbrella sports organization in the country, i.e., Montenegrin Olympic Committee, sent the amendment to the parliamentary clubs and expects full support for increasing the budget for sports from the budget reserves. We hope for a more favourable treatment of the National Olympic Committee and the creation of the conditions for the construction of an Olympic house, museum, academy, Olympic hub, and offices for the administration of the NOC and institutions supported by the NOC. With greater support from the state, the conditions would be created to improve the status of the national Olympic federations, which have been achieving significant results for years, and to create the conditions for the athletes to get well deserved prizes for the achieved results. The Montenegrin Olympic Committee appeals to socially responsible companies to build criteria and help Montenegrin sports, which annually spend around 24 million euros, struggling to find the funds in various ways. The state distributed three million and 600 thousand euros, and sport directly or indirectly brings in about 100 million euros and contributes to the budget to a significant extent. We believe that it is necessary to improve the status of sports through changes to the Law on Lotteries, changes to Tax Laws, which would create positive business environment, and encourage companies to invest in sports. The future is something to be especially concerned about, therefore we emphasize that it is necessary to provide scholarships for the young athletes, while sports in schools should receive special treatment, so that Montenegrin athletes could achieve even greater successes and be Montenegro’s best ambassadors in the world.
