Paolo Barelli, President of the Italian Swimming Federation and LEN, spoke this week about the financial crisis of the Italian sports facilities.
In a speech at Radio Cusano Tv Italia, Barelli said:
“We live in a very difficult situation. Our 1500 organizations have enormous problems. To date there is no relief from this point of view. I am more than worried. There are 5 million Italians who go with a certain consistency to the pool. There are 1.2 million thousand participants in the activities of our affiliated facilities. The number who participate in competitive activity is more than 200 thousand members. We are therefore talking about important numbers. I predict that during this year there will be 40% less income for those organizations. This will mean that many companies will go deep red and many facilities will close”. (Federnuoto)
On April 26th the Italian Swimming Federation has launched a plan to support clubs seriously affected by the crisis following the coronavirus pandemic. The plan is worth 4 million Euros, or approximately 4.380 million U.S. Dollars.
The measures are the result of a complete review of activities and cost containment.
The problem of finances of pools, just as it is many other organizations, is becoming of global concern. In the US, athletics facilities, including pools, have begun closing for good as well.
From May 4th, all athletes recognized as being of national interest by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) or Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP) can begin training. This applies to both professionals and amateurs. In either case, the training sessions must comply with the requirements regarding social distancing and other measures to contain the contagion.
According to Italian Civil Protection, the country has 237,290 confirmed coronavirus infections and 34,371 deaths caused by COVID-19. As the country begins to reopen, however, those numbers have reduced dramatically over the last two weeks, with an average of around 300 new cases nationally during the prior 7 days. That’s down from a peak of around 6,000 new daily cases in late March.