Five years after its creation, the National Sports Agency is partly called into question

This end of the Olympic year has a strange flavor for the National Sports Agency (ANS). The one which is the “armed arm” of the State for the implementation of public policies in terms of sporting practices, and which was supposed to embody a new governance of sport – between the State, local authorities, the sports movement and the private sector – is both the object of fairly wide satisfaction and the source of almost as significant dissatisfaction. Five years after its creation, and while the conclusions of an evaluation of its operation and its results are expected by the end of the first half of 2025, it is the prospect of a partial – and political – challenge. – which already prevails.

The Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life, Gil Avérous, made this clear to the deputies, then to the senators, at the end of October, mentioning a future refocusing. Parliamentarians have also raised, during the examination of the finance bill for 2025 in recent weeks, the need to redefine the ANS intervention framework.

It is not the actions of the latter in favor of high-level sport which raise reservations. On the contrary. In this regard, its policies “have proven themselves”as assured by the senator (Socialist Party) of Creuse, Jean-Jacques Lozach, by presenting, Tuesday, November 26, his report for opinion on the appropriations of the sports mission for 2025.

The support given to French athletes in view of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is unanimously welcomed, to the extent that it led France to be ranked 5^e medal rank at the Olympic Games and 8^e rank at the Paralympic Games.

“Clear piloting difficulties”

Criticisms aimed at the ANS focus on its interaction with local authorities, which it supports financially in different areas (including, for example, the creation and renovation of sports equipment). “The partnership governance of sports policies, at the territorial level, is not satisfactory”, notes Mr. Lozach, referring to the regional sports conferences and the sports funders’ conferences set up following the creation of the ANS, in order to seek to better mobilize and coordinate the actions of the different actors on the ground. .

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