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Demokratiskolan
The Sports & recreation card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 34 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaCulture & everyday life
  • Centre of gravityThe municipality
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe municipal election
Culture & everyday life

Sports & recreation

Activities, for leisure or professional purposes

Sport governs itself: the Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet) and thousands of associations decide over rules, leagues and activities. But the money and the places are public. The central government provides support through the sports movement, and the municipality owns the halls, the pitches and the swimming pools where most of it happens. If you want to influence sport where you live, the municipal election and the association's annual meeting are your strongest tools.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · halls, pitches & association grants · approx 55 %
  • Region · public health & district support · approx 5 %
  • State · sports support via the sports movement · approx 35 %
  • EU · free movement for athletes · approx 5 %

The municipality owns the facilities and distributes grants and training times. The municipal election decides the most, even though sport itself is self-governing through its federations.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe facilities & the grants · centre of gravity
The regionPublic health
Central governmentThe support & the frames
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) and the culture and leisure committee.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige), often through a public health or culture committee.
The Riksdag and the Government, with the Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet) as distributor of the central government's support.
What do they decide?
Sports halls, pitches, swimming pools and ice surfaces, association grants and the distribution of training times.
Grants to sport's district organisations and public health work where physical activity is included. The role is small compared with the municipality's.
The central government's sports support, among other things the activity support for children's and youth sport, is distributed by sport itself through the Swedish Sports Confederation.
Where are decisions made?
In the committee and in the council's budget and investment decisions.
In the region's budget and public health strategies.
In the central government budget and in the Sports Confederation's distribution decisions.
Who pays?
The municipal tax. The facilities are one of the municipality's largest leisure expenses.
The regional tax, a small part compared with the municipalities' contribution.
The central government budget funds the sports support.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Involvement in the association, dialogue with the leisure committee, citizen's proposals (medborgarförslag) in many municipalities.
Regional election No strong formal way in. The regional election steers the public health efforts.
General election The general election steers the size of the sports appropriation. Sport's own annual meetings steer the distribution.
EUThe EU's rules on free movement also apply to athletes and have shaped professional sport's player market. Everyday sport is governed nationally. Influenced in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case A new sports hall comes about
  1. State

    The central government pays, sport governs

    The Swedish model is that the Riksdag sets aside sports support but lets the Swedish Sports Confederation distribute it. The association that trains in your municipality receives activity support for its children's and youth activities.

  2. Municipality

    The associations raise the alarm about a shortage of halls

    The queues grow and the training times run out at 21:00. The associations approach the culture and leisure committee, which has the administration investigate the need for a new hall.

    Point of influence

    The associations' joint voice carries weight. Get involved in the board or write a citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag), it is accepted in many municipalities.

  3. Municipality

    The council sets aside the money

    A sports hall is a large investment that competes with schools and elderly care in the municipality's budget. The decision is made by the municipal council, the elected representatives in your municipality.

    Point of influence

    The municipal election decides who prioritises in the budget. The council's meetings are open to everyone.

  4. Municipality

    Place, plan and building permit

    The land is to be pointed out, the detailed development plan perhaps changed and a building permit granted. Neighbours and associations can give their views before the construction starts.

    Point of influence

    Detailed development plans always go out on consultation, and the person affected can appeal.

  5. Municipality

    The times are distributed

    Once the hall is ready, the leisure administration distributes the training times according to the committee's principles, often with children and young people before seniors and an even distribution between girls' and boys' sport.

  6. Your everyday life

    Tuesday 18:00, the hall is yours

    The team warms up on a floor that is a municipal investment decision, with support that the Riksdag set aside and sport itself distributed. The association's annual meeting and the municipal election steer what comes next.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. Which groups get the most of sport's public money where you live, and which should get more?

  2. Is it right that the sports movement itself distributes the central government's support, or should politics steer more?

  3. Training times are hard currency. What would a fair distribution look like in your municipality?

  4. What happens to a town when the sports association disappears?

  5. Elite investment or grassroots sport: what should the municipality's money go to if you have to choose?

Glossary

Riksidrottsförbundet
The sports movement's umbrella organisation that distributes the central government's sports support to federations and associations.
Aktivitetsstöd
Central government and often also municipal grant per completed activity for children and young people in an association.
Kultur- och fritidsnämnd
The municipal committee that most often is responsible for sports facilities and association grants.
Investeringsbudget
The part of the municipality's budget that goes to construction and facilities, decided by the council.
Ideell förening
A democratically governed non-profit association, sport's basic form where the annual meeting decides.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.