I must admit I was stunned to find out that in Romania there are 69 sport federations, considering I didn’t know so many sport exist world wide, let alone in my native country. I mean, I am passionate about sports for at least quarter of a century, so if I didn’t know these, I bet very few do. I saw this by accident, the 69 mark and it got stuck into my mind. This is because there is no real world class performance for Romanian sports – at least those which count – apart from swimmer David Popovici and trail runner Mădălina Florea. Of course, there are some solid performances at rowing, gymnastics, table tennis and so on, from time to time, but these are not the kind of sports even the so called supporters are watching, so then they are irrelevant in some ways.
The Netherlands rowing federation has the biggest budget, but… less
OK, I won’t challenge those, fine by me, even though, rowing, for example, has the biggest budget from them all, so it is natural to perform. The biggest question coming to my mind, in short, is: how feasible is for Romania, such a fragile economy, to spend tens, hundreds of millions on sports about which nobody heard, and to finance, in one way or another, 378,533 sports men and women, considering high & peak performance is achieved, at best, by 10-20, maybe? The Netherlands is also a superpower in the rowing category, often fighting head to head with the likes of Romania, it is true. But it is also true that, in 2024 the Dutch Royal Rowing Federation got 1.87M EUR funding, and now, with around 2.5M EUR for 2025 is the wealthiest of them all, exactly like in Romania. From official sources, in 2024, the Romanian rowing federation got 11.000.000 lei funding.
What is the difference between The Netherlands and Romania?
“Results need money!”, many will say. Fair enough, the only thing is that, back then, in 2024, 11M lei meant more than 2M EUR in funding, more than the Dutch federation. “What a big deal, then”? Well, let me explain different, what does 1.87M EUR mean in The Netherlands, and what does 2.2M EUR mean in Romania. For example, you need to earn at least 5,000 EUR / month in The Netherlands to afford a rent. In Romania, the average salary is around 1,100 EUR / month. So if we stretch this a bit we can say it is at least four times more expensive to live in The Netherlands. At the same time, if you do some head to head comparisons between the first three cities in Romania and The Netherlands, we can notice something else.
- cost of living including rent: 120.5% times higher
- Cost of living without rent: 79% times higher
- Average monthly salary after tax: 236% times higher
- Purchase power: 52.4% times higher
- cost of living including rent: 127.4% times higher
- Cost of living without rent: 89% times higher
- Average monthly salary after tax: 246% times higher
- Purchase power: 52.3% times higher
- cost of living including rent: 108% times higher
- Cost of living without rent: 79% times higher
- Average monthly salary after tax: 263% times higher
- Purchase power: 75% times higher
Conclusion: 700K EUR; similar to 1.8M EUR in The Netherlands (with indulgency)
The numbers never lie, and they are relevant. People are paid at least three times higher in The Netherlands, comparing to Romania, if we consider the first three biggest cities head to head. Based on this simple exercise, it turns out that this federation, for example, would have sufficed a budget of around 700K EUR / year, so a 1.5M gap at least. OK, I was referring to this one because it is both the most financed, and maybe with the most results, but the tendency should replicate to all, but without results. And, in the end… what these results mean? How often did you heard anybody saying: “I will watch this rowing qualifier”? I am telling you… at best, in an Olympics final, if there is a medal chance. That’s it. In the same frame, the athletics federation from The Netherlands had in 2024 a budget of 1.6M EUR, while ours had roughly 800K EUR. Closer, and more fair, at a glance, but still enough given the above numbers.
And voila… the federations
The point I want to make is that in an economy with huge problems, the federations, many of them obscure, are paid handsomely, especially comparing to their results. I was shocked, again, to learn that we have… 69 federations. WOW! But which are those? The list, below, from 2024, when, apparently they were a bit less than 69. 🙂
|
Nr. Crt. |
Federatia Sportivă Națională | P1 |
| 1 | Federația Aeronautică Română | 150,000 |
| 2 | F.R. Airsoft | 100,000 |
| 3 | F.R. Alpinism şi Escaladă | 500,000 |
| 4 | F.R. Arte Marţiale | 1,500,000 |
| 5 | F.R. Atletism | 3,500,000 |
| 6 | F.R. Automobilism Sportiv | 900,000 |
| 7 | F.R. Badminton | 500,000 |
| 8 | F.R. Baschet | 5,000,000 |
| 9 | F.R. Baseball şi Softball | 200,000 |
| 10 | F.R. Bob și Sanie | 3,500,000 |
| 11 | F.R. Box | 3,000,000 |
| 12 | F.R. Bowling | 200,000 |
| 13 | F.R. Bridge | 100,000 |
| 14 | F.R. Canotaj | 10,000,000 |
| 15 | F.R. Ciclism | 1,500,000 |
| 16 | F.R. Chanbara | 100,000 |
| 17 | F.R. Culturism şi Fitness | 900,000 |
| 18 | F.R. Cricket | 100,000 |
| 19 | F.R. Dans Sportiv | 700,000 |
| 20 | F.R. Darts | 100,000 |
| 21 | Federația Ecvestră Română | 600,000 |
| 22 | F.R. Fotbal-Tenis CAJ | 700,000 |
| 23 | F.R. Gimnastică | 3,400,000 |
| 24 | F.R. Gimnastică Ritmică | 1,250,000 |
| 25 | F.R. Go | 100,000 |
| 26 | F.R. Handbal | 2.800.000 |
| 27 | F.R. Haltere | 1,500,000 |
| 28 | F.R. Judo | 3,000,000 |
| 29 | F.R. Kaiac Canoe | 1,500,000 |
| 30 | F.R. Karate | 1,200,000 |
| 31 | F.R. Karate Kyokushin IKO 2 | 100,000 |
| 32 | F.R. Karate Tradiţional | 350,000 |
| 33 | F.R. Karate WUKF | 400,000 |
| 34 | F.R. Karting | 400,000 |
| 35 | F.R. Kempo | 2,100,000 |
| 36 | F.R. Lupte | 4,600,000 |
| 37 | F.R. Minifotbal | 400,000 |
| 38 | F.R. Modelism | 300,000 |
| 39 | F.R. Motociclism | 700,000 |
| 40 | F.R. Natatie și Pentatlon Modern | 3,000,000 |
| 41 | F.R. Orientare | 100,000 |
| 42 | F.R. Padbol | 100,000 |
| 43 | F.R. Pangration Athlima | 200,000 |
| 44 | F.R. Polo | 3,300,000 |
| 45 | F.R. Popice | 250,000 |
| 46 | F.R. Powerlifting | 100,000 |
| 47 | F.R. Radioamatorism | 100,000 |
| 48 | F.R. Rugby | 5,000,000 |
| 49 | F.R. Sambo | 900,000 |
| 50 | F.R. Schi Biatlon | 3,000,000 |
| 51 | F.R. Scrabble | 100,000 |
| 52 | F.R. Scrimă | 2,500,000 |
| 53 | F.R. Skandenberg-Armwrestling | 200,000 |
| 54 | F.R. Squash | 110,000 |
| 55 | F.R. Şah | 300,000 |
| 56 | F.R. Taekwondo ITF | 400,000 |
| 57 | F.R. Taekwondo WT | 800,000 |
| 58 | F.R. Tenis de Masă | 4,000,000 |
| 59 | F.R. Tir cu Arcul | 500,000 |
| 60 | F.R. Tir Sportiv | 1,700,000 |
| 61 | F.R. Triatlon | 1,100,000 |
| 62 | F.R. Volei | 3,500,000 |
| 63 | F.R. Yachting | 300,000 |
| 64 | F.R. Wushu Kungfu | 500,000 |
| 65 | Comitetul Național Paralimpic | 400,000 |
P2. Programul „Sportul pentru toţi”
| Nr. Crt. | Federatia Sportivă Națională | P2 |
| 1. | F.R. Sportul pt Toți | 200.000 |
P4. Programul „Redescoperă Oina”
| Nr. Crt. | Federatia Sportivă Națională | P4 |
| 1. | F.R. Oină |
600.000 |
Source: Agenția Națională pentru Sport
Now, having a look on this huge number, I can’t ask myself…
- Why we have four karate federations?
- Why are there two separate federations of “haltere” and power lifting?
- What is… Chanbara…?
- Why can’t we group the likes of “Bridge”, “Go”, “Darts” and “Scrabble”?
- Why do we have two separate federations for Taekwondo?
- Why are there separate federations for minifootball and football-tennis?
- What is Padbol and how it differs from Squash?
100 million at glance
The questions can go on and on, and on, and on… and many would just say: “you don’t understand, is your problem”. I might not understand, but this might happen because we are not performing actually at any sport worldwide, or, more correct, at most of them, so why there is the need to spend / year 100 million lei public money only thru federations. Because, well, you might know how many sports teams, from football, and handball mainly, absorb huge funds. At a quick glance, I am sure that at least half of the federations can be cut and merged with the best sportsmen and women they have. Because there is no point keeping sport clubs which have people that have nothing to do with sports. This is a separate topic, so I’m not necessary interested in developing it right now, but I know how we can improve here.
Money should go only to the talented young, who can develop
Sure, what I am about to write is always easy on paper, but not on actuals, because we, Romanians, never admit the reality. To me, merging federations and allocating funds only to young people, no older than 15 years old, that is, can produce results in the future. Because, in the end, if you want to get public money, they need to be invested wisely, so apart from having the minimum infrastructure for performance (those are other costs anyway), there is no point in awarding millions to sportspeople with mediocre results. It is not normal to pay tens of thousands of euros for salaries of players who don’t bring any quantifiable benefit. “Then you should bring private money, if you are so smart. Do you know how hard is it?” Precisely, that is the whole point. So if privates don’t consider these sports attractive, then we should ask ourselves why, and why are we allocating public money.
Source: zf.ro
Source: zf.ro
2% of the population… active sportsmen!
I am not saying it shouldn’t be provided, but at a development of talent level, not just to tick some criteria which don’t do any kind of good for the economy. I am coming back to the same number: 378.533. This is the number of sportsmen and women registered in 2024. In a country with less than 19.000.000 people, this represents, almost 2%. It is huge and growing. OK, around half are coming from football, another interesting topic as we are one of the weakest federations in Europe, in spite the numbers, but this is another topic, as the FRF doesn’t get too much money (if at all) from the public sector. Of course, football lives highly on local funds, which is even worse, but I feel we need to split the discussion, for not mixing the ideas. Then, 2% of our total population is a registered sportsmen, but from this total, I don’t even know what would be the 0,0000…% of successful results. Whilst, cutting maybe in half the sportsmen numbers, by enhancing the criteria and directing most of the funds to the juvenile level, might make a difference.
Norwegian experience and example
There are countries which do very good, without huge public budgets. The Netherlands was one, but relevant example. Norway is the second, about which I have written here, to show a huge difference at mass sports level, when it comes tot the Oslo Marathon. After the Olympics, their starts, who earned medals didn’t get any state money. I am not saying that this, for example, should also happen in Romania, because I am in favor for true results to be rewarded, but I am highlighting the budget principle from two countries that have no real head start, comparing to Romania, in order to have some results. But they are doing it, and the public involvement is not as high as in Romania. However, they are not struggling financially, as a state, like we are, and neither they hear “the state is not investing”. Because this is what I hear all time in Romania. And this is actually not fake. Indeed, the state doesn’t invest. Like it should, oriented towards results and legacy.
In Budapest there is a world class swimming pool
I can’t even compare the Hungarian sports infrastructure from Budapest, a city which organizes frequently the Swimming World Championship, comparing to our cities who don’t have, yet, a proper and usable swimming pool at Olympics level. And this is stated by David Popovici, our main champion, not by me. Perhaps, in one day, in Romania, the talented will be dealt with properly from the beginning of their career, the system being shaped in that way. And people who want to keep doing sports, at federal level maybe, but without results, to be forced to seek private sponsors. Some might be able to, like there are also right now, some might not. Until then, I think we are far closer to keep the status like it is, with greater investments, many more federations, and even poorer results. And, in the end, the conclusion would be the same: “there is no money to invest!” Like we hear always in Romania. 🙂