The concern can be read in each of his sentences. “It’s a disaster,” blows Jean-Pierre Quilgars. The president of the Olympic multisport club of Bagneux (COMB) has therefore just taken up his pen to alert Roxana Maracineanu, the Minister for Sports.
In a long letter, he recaps the difficulties his club has been facing since the start of the school year. Closure of gymnasiums for adults at the end of September, curfew in Ile-de-France mid-October, and now confinement… “We need state aid. The town hall is present but that will not be enough, blows the president of the club. We have 25% fewer members compared to last year. And now, we are inundated with people asking to be reimbursed… ”
The season had started well
Like him, the sports clubs of Hauts-de-Seine are sticking their tongue out, in this department classified among the most sporting in France, with nearly 335,000 licensees and 2,050 associations.
Everything had started well, this season, for most of the Alto-Sequanese sports structures. At the beginning of September, many residents, delighted to (re) practice sport after the spring confinement, participated in association forums, held in the vast majority of cities.
“We were surprised by the queues, remembers Lounis Amedjkouh, sports director of Gennevilliers. We started with the same number of registrations as the other years. “For judo, for example, the contact sport that has the most licensees in Gennevilliers, five hundred people joined in September, as many as the previous year.
Then everything went wrong. “Families had until October 15 to pay their dues,” explains the sports director. Some were waiting to see the evolution. And today, two hundred and fifty members have not paid… ”
“Leisure sport is what makes everything else work”
It was the closure of gymnasiums for adults at the end of September that dealt the first blow. No more weight training, zumba or yoga. “Leisure sport is what makes everything else work,” explains Jean-Pierre Quilgars, president of COMB. Membership is more expensive, and there are a lot of costs less: no organization of competitions, transport, federal licenses … All that added up, it hurts a lot. “
Mid-October, another blow with the curfew at 9 p.m. in Ile-de-France. “It was a real headache,” says Jean-Pierre Epars, president of the Athletic club of Boulogne-Billancourt. In each section, we had to reorganize all our courses. “At the Athletic Club of Boulogne-Billancourt (ACBB), the most important sports association in the department with its 13,000 licensees, we” have not yet taken stock of registrations “.
Requests for reimbursement of contributions
“Usually, at that time, we know how many people have registered,” explains Jean-Pierre Epars, president of the ACBB. But there, it was complicated, we put everything back. There are some activities like gymnastics for seniors who have not even resumed since the start of the school year. And for more expensive dues, like ice hockey or equestrian sports, people have wondered for a long time. “
