The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) have been confirmed as the top sport provider in the country with around 90,000 clubs under their control, after the 2013-2014 Sport Development Report was released.

Professor Christoph Breuer and Svenja Feiler of the German Sports University in Cologne (DSHS) were commissioned to produce the report by the Federal Institute of Sport Science, the DOSB and the country's sports federations.

The report found that the organisations have proved to be adaptable in a changing society, while the sports clubs are continuing to provide people of all ages with opportunities to pursue their sporting interests.

Clubs were also viewed as vital in teaching important values such as fair play and tolerance, in addition to placing an emphasis on community, which was seen to have differed from commercial sport providers.

The report also said that around 20,000 sport clubs have been founded since the reunification of Germany in 1990, which suggests the strength of an organised sport system in the country.

Sport clubs were seen as crucial for helping develop values such as fair play
Sport clubs were seen as crucial for helping develop values such as fair play ©Facebook/sportdeutschland

Despite the positives in the report, the burden of red tape on sports clubs was also investigated with tasks such as tax returns, accounting, bookkeeping and financial statements seen as a considerable expense for clubs.

Clubs were also discovered to feel increasingly threatened by the number of laws, ordinances and regulations, with the report’s authors stating that measures are needed to reduce bureaucracy to not overload volunteers with complicated tasks.

Attracting and retaining volunteers was also seen as another challenge that needs to be tackled, although the number of people who are volunteering in the country was seen as stable when compared to the number in 2009.

The Sport Development Report has become an established tool in advising sport policy in recent years, with the German Football Association and German Equestrian Federation having been among the organisations to have analysis commissioned.



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