The way to allocate the budget of the federal government to sports federations has changed over the administrations of the National Commission of Physical Culture and Sport (Conade), with the aim that civil associations do not squander the money they are given each year.

Even in the current administration of Alfredo Castillo, the resources that some federations have not accounted for in previous years have come to light, such as the Mexican Athletics Association, archery, boxing, and baseball.

When Jesus Mena was in charge of the organization, with his initiative to professionalize sports federations, he began to curb the delivery of resources to associations, demanding that they account for how they spent federal resources, as there were anomalies.

For this year, Conade will have strict control over allocating the budget to federations, which will be based on the needs they have for their preparation and will analyze if it is feasible for them to attend the competitions they request.

"This year, 45 sports requested a total of 215 camps and 670 international competitions, which represent 454 million pesos; we conducted a first analysis and began to evaluate it, grouping the budget and observing those events that are necessary for preparation and guarantee that, in some way, our athletes compete successfully, and we are talking about 1,284 selected athletes," said Valentin Yanes, Deputy Director of Quality for Sports at Conade.

However, the director mentioned that this budget is not within reach of Conade, therefore, there will be a cut of around 50 percent compared to these requests.

We want to reduce the number of camps and competitions to 145 million pesos, significantly reducing them and thinking that with that we will fulfill the preparation, archery is in sight to see how this preparation develops, it is a way to qualify the resources, to apply them with a technical and methodological criteria, so that the money is optimized," he mentioned.

RESULTS-BASED RESOURCES

In addition, Conade will see if the camps or competitions were productive for the athlete, if so, they will continue to support them, and if not, they will stay to train in Mexico.

"We are applying technical verification to verify that the objective was achieved; that is, that they say 'I am going to a camp in Italy' because there are better facilities, and it is confirmed, everything is fine, but if people did not do the preparation, they are demanded to stay and train in the country. The way to give the money is stricter and has better follow-up, we work closely with the federations and the athletes, and we ensure that the resources are applied objectively, for their benefit."

Before, national federations requested a budget allocation and it was granted to them so that they could manage it as they pleased, but now it will not be that way anymore.

"The federation must approach with a work program, where they say that they have those events and athletes and argue that this preparation will help them in each competition; therefore, we assess and then discuss with the federations. We have to change things because a few years ago we had a budget of 7 billion pesos and now only 2 billion, we cannot continue with the same abundant and open criteria, if we do not qualify the application of resources, this will not guarantee better results," explained Yanes.

In addition, he highlighted that the preparation managed by the federations in 2017 is also to improve for the two fundamental competitions of the following year.

"Preparing or attending to 700 athletes for the Central American Games is more expensive than doing it with the 120 who went to the Olympics, any budget for high-performance sports does not cover the needs and this requires a study and analysis, a priority that is established and carried out in countries worldwide, based on the level of each sport to establish a budget," Yanes explained.

On the other hand, the director mentioned that the coaches for high-performance also represent a significant expense for the federal government.

"These are needs, we have two payrolls, those who are in the Fodepar program (High-Performance Sports Fund) and those who are in the federations. In Fodepar, we have 242 coaches and this costs 18 million pesos quarterly and 112 million annually, including doctors, physiatrists, psychologists, it is support for athletes; we have a payroll of coaches that is not in Fodepar and there are 243, which means 44 million pesos per year, but we do this based on the number of selected athletes and events," Yanes emphasized.

And he went further:

"It is not the same to work with athletics as it is with handball, there I need a coach to work with the team, and in the former with 15 or 18; I have to evaluate the size of the working group and the characteristics of each sport."