Mega sporting events and public funding of sport in Brazil (2004–2011)

Abstract

Brazilian law states that it is the duty of the State to promote sport as a right of each citizen, noting the allocation of public funds for the priority promotion of educational sports and – in specific cases – of elite sports. In view of this legislation, the objectives of this study were to investigate the amount of funds planned and executed by the Brazilian federal government on sport between 2004 and 2011, and to verify how these funds were distributed into the three sport dimensions recognised by the Brazilian law: educational, participation and elite sport. The research was quantitative, descriptive and exploratory. The data were collected from the ‘Siga Brazil’ portal and analysed using the Microsoft Office Excel (2007) and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 22) programmes. We found that the development of major sporting events in Brazil has significantly influenced the amount and distribution of budgetary resources in sports and leisure in the country. Although in the budget planning process the government had indicated the promotion of participation sports as a priority, elite sport and hosting Pan 2007 were taken as priorities in the budget execution process. The data show inconsistencies between the priorities established by the Brazilian Constitution and the priorities established by the governors. They also show incoherence between what was predicted in the planning process and what was actually executed. These inconsistencies have interfered with the democratisation of access to sport and leisure practices for Brazilian citizens.

Keywords:

• public policies
• sport funding
• sport
• public funding
• mega-events

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The National Conferences of Sport were established in 2004 by the federal government. They involve various sectors of the Brazilian society, promoting a space for discussions, elaboration and deliberation of sport and recreational policies (Ministério do Esporte, 2014).

2. The classification of expenditure of the Federal Budget in office organises costs according to the area of government action and its respective body of work. The ‘Sport & Leisure’ function refers to expenses that have close connection with the Ministry of Sports. Note, however, that the Brazilian government finances a few other sport and recreation actions through other functions.

3. http://www12.senado.gov.br/orcamento/sigabrasil.

4. In Brazil, the US$ value varies greatly daily and at different times of day.

5. The percentage of budget execution is an index that checks the level of budget executed in relation to the available budget. It is calculated by dividing the paid resources by the authorised resources.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ‘Fundação Araucária’ under [grant number 045/2012]; Programa de Apoio a Planos de Reestruturação e Expansão das Universidades Federais (REUNI).