Sports can have a positive impact not only on social life but also on the economy and therefore, should be included in economic support programs that governments are devising to overcome the pandemic, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th April, 2020) Sports can have a positive impact not only on social life but also on the economy and therefore, should be included in economic support programs that governments are devising to overcome the pandemic, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach said on Wednesday.
Bach made a reference to a recent study conducted by European researchers, which found that sports contribute some 2 percent to national GDPs, which makes them "economically more important than a number of more traditional economic sectors." In addition, it established that nearly three percent of all jobs in Europe are sport-related.
"This study, like many others, demonstrates that sport can play not just a positive social role but also an economic one in helping the world to recover from the crisis. We are not part of the problem. We can be part of the solution. To achieve this, governments must include sport in their economic support programmes," Bach wrote in a letter sent to the Olympic movement.
According to the president, the pandemic will lead to a long and deep economic crisis that will affect sports as well. But the effect of the crisis on sport will depend on how much funds governments will allocate to help the field recover. Within the context, the president called on governments to appreciate "the immense contribution of sport to public health, its importance for inclusion, social life and culture, and its important role for their national economies."
In late March, the IOC and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organizing Committee announced the postponement of the Summer Olympics and Paralympics due to the spread of the virus to 2021. The delay is estimated to cost the IOC hundreds of millions of Dollars.
