Regulating sports activity in the country with a new legal framework is pursued by Concentración Deportiva de Pichincha (CDP), which, with the support of various sectors, presented a Sports Law project before the National Assembly that seeks, according to its president Jaime Ruiz, sports autonomy and the recovery of sources of financing, without state dependence.
What is the origin of this proposal presented?
The current Law (2010) has serious unconstitutional flaws. The sports organization is weakened, full of problems and lawsuits, and that responds to a Law that had a statist bias. It gave all power to the Government with a government policy that intervened in federations and put its people in positions, favoring political issues over a long-term State policy.
How was this new Law proposal structured?
We decided to push a project that already existed in the Assembly with Sebastián Palacios, a former athlete (BMX cycling); a parliamentary group is also working on that project. We analyzed that project and saw a weakness because it seemed that the same advisors of the current Law were now picking up pieces with which an inappropriate project was being woven.
What will this reform seek?
In the new Sports Law, there must be a structure that satisfies the aspirations of all sports organizations. From Olympism, with its rigor of the Olympic Charter and its need to adapt to internal legislation, to the problem of clubs, provincial associations, professional sports, adapted sports, and everything that involves Ecuadorian sports actors.
Who intervened in structuring this project?
We worked with various organizations, former leaders, coaches, technical and methodological directors of some federations. People with a lot of experience like Sabino Hernández and Saúl Vásquez.
What are the main points?
The Team Pichincha project seeks the recovery and strengthening of sports autonomy and co-governance. Other points are sports massification, as well as the recovery of sources of financing to not depend on the State in those aspects.
Define a governing body?
That would be vital for us. There was a Ministry of Sports, however, that condition was removed to reduce it to a Secretariat. With this Law, we want to change that situation of managing the entire organizational, administrative, control, and evaluation scheme of Ecuadorian sports, being both judge and party.
How is the current management?
Everything is managed divorced from the true technical and organizational needs because the State says 'we will hold National Games in a certain year and category', but only because it is convenient for them. For example, they do it in Azuay, but that does not respond to technical needs, but to a social vision.
How would the financing of sports be addressed?
We seek to incorporate sports as a sector that must have its own earnings, as it was before with the 5% of telephone calls, money that entered the National Sports Council. Then it was distributed to sports organizations, with auditing by the Comptroller's Office, and that was an important source of income. Colombia and Brazil copied that and rose, but we removed it. It is a profitability that would give us support.
In sports terms, what does recovering income represent?
It is opening a window to recover a permanent source of financing because if we don't have that, sports will go through difficult times again. The young talents who have shone in the last games will disappear, and an athlete is not made overnight; it takes six or eight years, with a formative process to reach high performance.
Would it be restarting a process?
And it has to be done, unfortunately, because that base is almost at zero, and that's what this Law is for, to restart a process of massification, a process of talent scouting. It's something that has happened in other countries.
What has been the path followed by this project?
The proposal is in the Legislative Administration Council. We hope it will be sent to the Health Committee to analyze this project because they are also reviewing others, and that can lead to debate.
What references do you have about the other projects?
Palacios created his own, which was input for the one managed by the Health Committee, but there are three other projects. The Committee has made one only, and that is the one they are currently discussing.
Did Team Pichincha work with this Committee?
We met, they took two of our proposals, but they kept the rest. That's why we decided to develop a new project, based on technical criteria. We put together a project that we discussed with various sectors, and we believe it is a more balanced proposal.
There have been criticisms from various sectors about this type of reforms. How has the Team Pichincha project been socialized?
The criticisms have been well-founded because they talk about what the previous Law has done. On our part, we have delivered this Law project to sports institutions, we have met with them, and we want to continue presenting this, but the current situation has also influenced. (D)