AMENDMENT TO THE SPORTS ACT

#148Amendment to the Sports Act

An amendment to Act No. 440/2015 Coll. on Sports was approved, which will enter into force on 1st July, 2025. The amendment to the Act is intended to reduce excessive bureaucracy, make sports financing more efficient, introduce mechanisms for resolving disputes in sports, and enable clearer support for sports in the Slovak Republic.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, the new amendment to the law will primarily strengthen the labor law area of ​​​​the performance of athletes' activities as well as the position of sports experts. According to the explanatory report, the amendment to the law is also intended to expand the scope of rights for sports organizations, reduce their bureaucratic burden and relieve them of obligations that were without significant benefit to the state or sport.

As a result of the approved amendment to the Sports Act, the following will now apply:

1. It reduces the scope of data that must be entered into the register of natural persons in sports, thereby reducing the bureaucratic burden on athletes by data that is not necessary for the performance of public administration.
2. It abolishes the obligation for sports organizations to publish a list of talented athletes, which is intended to eliminate the administrative burden and duplication of data collection on athletes.
3. Changes the limit for receiving funds from the state budget, for which a sports organization was obliged to establish a controller. This limit is changed from the original 50,000 euros to 500,000 euros.
4. The threshold from which a sports organization that receives public money must prepare an annual report, financial statements and have them verified by an auditor is changing. This limit is now increased: for income from public sources from 250,000 to 800,000 euros and for total income from 800,000 to 2,000,000 euros. In practice, this will mainly affect smaller associations, which will no longer have to fulfill this obligation.
5. Increases the share for youth sports from the original 15% to 20%. Associations will also be able to determine whether to distribute the money to clubs according to the number of young athletes under 23 or according to the number of their teams.
6. It introduces a new joint body for resolving disputes and disciplinary cases, which is intended to make things easier for sports organizations - they will no longer be required to create their own bodies if they decide to submit to this joint solution in their documents.
7. Increases the limit on sponsor presentation costs, which will make sponsorship contracts more attractive. The amendment will allow for better use of modern forms of advertising and support the entry of private money into sports.