Background information

As sport events have been prohibited, the financial position of people employed in the sport industry is dire, and they demand some form of aid from the government. According to the Croatian Bureau of Statistic, about 6,400 people are employed in the sector, approximately 3.4% of the total population. There are two major problems: the inability to conclude the competition in the 2019-2020 season and the existence of a large number of sports associations and clubs which, because of the loss of revenue, have difficulties to continue the payment of wages to workers.

Content of measure

This Decision establishes measures to assist the sports system in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic. For the duration of the special circumstances, the support for preserving jobs in the sports sector affected by coronavirus will be disbursed. The amount of the support is to HRK 3,250 (€433) per employees for March 2020, and HRK 4,000 (€533) for April and May 2020. The measure is intended to preserve the system of competition and sport during the special circumstances. The Government submitted to the parliamentary procedure amendments to the Act on Sport which enables the Office to allow grants to clubs.

The responsible authority for the implementation of measure is the Central State Office for Sport. The redistribution within the budget of the State Office for Sport provided HRK 40 million (€5.33 million) to help sports clubs to mitigate the consequences caused by the coronavirus epidemic. These measures do not require additional resources or special funds, but they are secured by a redistribution within the adopted budget of the Office. Amendments to the Act on Sport ensure the regularity of the competition by enabling a shorter period of one year for the adoption of regulations and competition systems.

Use of measure

The usage is still unknown but it can be assessed that it will be significant.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Due to the nature of the measure, social partners were not involved.

Views and reactions

They always underline the need to support those which are mostly hit by the pandemic. They are also fully aware about the importance of the sport in the Croatian society.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 09 April 2020: 4. a) Prijedlog zaključka u vezi s mjerama pomoći u sustavu športa uslijed epidemije koronavirusa (vlada.gov.hr)
• 04 February 2021: Program dodjele državnih potpora sektoru turizma i sporta (State aid program to the tourism and sports sector) (www.htz.hr)