SpoFo-Map

Projektteam

Head of Project
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mittag

Project Coordination
Dr. Maximilian Seltmann

Project Collaboration
Ivana Pranjic, M.A.

Project Period
April 2025 – Dezember 2025

Project Partner
Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund

Initiator
Athleten Deutschland e.V.

Project Funding
Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft

Project Description

The framework conditions and structures for promoting sport in Germany are constantly being reviewed. In recent years, greater attention has been paid to the needs of top athletes. Both the 2016 reform of elite sport and, to an even greater extent, the latest reform of competitive sport, which was provisionally concluded with the “detailed concept” of September 2023, have highlighted the need for structural adjustments in athlete support. In the course of the current further development of the reforms in working groups, the task of addressing the urgent need for a systematic overview of the diverse and complex funding opportunities in German elite sport has been developed.

German sports promotion is highly differentiated and involves numerous organizations and actors that provide athletes with financial, material, and moral support. This complexity results not least from Germany's federal structures, the principle of subsidiarity, and the close cooperation between the state and civil society in the field of competitive sports. However, there are currently no generally accessible tools that offer athletes comprehensive assistance and systematic access to funding opportunities in elite sports.

The project addresses the outlined deficits and the described mandate and intends to address five specific goals as a timely service, which will be realized in successive steps. The plan is as follows: 1) a scoping study of existing support services in German elite sport as an inventory; 2) the presentation and provision of the data and results of the inventory in an interactive web application (“support map”); 3) the integration of the support map with existing applications and services for athletes; 4) the presentation of the inventory and the funding map at accompanying public events in order to incorporate the needs of stakeholders, provide opportunities for discussion, and present service offerings and analysis results; 5) the development of reform and further development options in a final report.