Athletics Federation Raises Concerns About Sports Council’s Support System: “We’ll Be Worse Prepared in Tokyo”

Last Thursday, on the eve of the European Championships in Vallehermoso, the relay runners from the Spanish athletics team, who shone brilliantly at the World Championships in Canton, showcased their skills in the baton pass to Education Minister Pilar Alegría, who praised their work, talent, and brilliance. Next to the head of sports in Spain, the president of athletics since 2017, Raúl Chapado, held back his tongue. He was eager to tell the minister that the miracle of the relay is unlikely to be repeated this September where it truly matters, at the major World Championships in Tokyo, because the cuts in funding from the Spanish Sports Council (CSD), which is overseen by Secretary of State José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, under the Education Ministry, will force the cancellation of both the national relay program and the athletes’ training camps to prepare for the competition.

“I didn’t want to overshadow the relay women or take away their spotlight. I wrote to Uribes and I’m awaiting a response. I also met with the Director General of Sports, Fernando Molinero,” explains Chapado, who, nearly at midnight on Sunday, after expressing frustration over Spain’s sixth-place finish at a European Championships where calculations went wrong—a tournament won by Italy’s flourishing team of police, army, navy, and military aviation athletes—publicly denounced what he considers the sports ignorance of the CSD officials responsible for designing the aid system for federations. “I am not going against the CSD; I criticize the system,” said Chapado, who is normally very diplomatic and political, estimating a 500,000 euro difference between what they believe they deserve and the final CSD funding in their three calls: the school championships, where they say they lose 40,000 euros, the Team Spain Elite funding, and the ordinary funding, which is reduced by 253,000 euros compared to 2024.

“We are a federation that has been severely punished, with new criteria that demonstrate a deep ignorance of what high performance is and especially what athletics is, and that undermines the preparation of athletes. Probably, we will be much worse prepared in Tokyo. There are not enough resources. My entire team and I feel sadness and discouragement. We do not understand the mistreatment of the sport with the most medals and diplomas in the Paris Olympic Games. And not only us, who have been placed in a global group with swimming to divide the total amount of aid, but also eight of the nine sports that won medals in Paris have received less support.

This year, the CSD is distributing about 90 million euros among the federations with targeted funding for scholarships and training of athletes in preparation for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Nineteen of those million euros, two more than in 2024, correspond to individual aid for athletes with medal potential in Los Angeles, with criteria different from those for Paris 2024, which have automatically excluded those ranked ninth to twelfth in Paris; 60 million euros are ordinary grants to federations; seven million for special plans, and the rest, the so-called CESA and Team Spain Future, with school games as the main activity.

“Chapado is rushing in his complaint because all decisions are still provisional and in the appeal phase,” CSD sources explain, adding that in 2024, the athletics federation received the most aid—almost nine million in direct aid and three million in indirect aid. “And it was also the one that received the most in Team Spain Elite and Strategic funding. While the total investment is yet to close for the current fiscal year, it is expected that in 2025, the total subsidies to the athletics federation will remain similar to last year’s figures.”

Chapado doubts this, as his federation, which represents the most important sport in the Olympic program in the most global sport with the most competition for medals, has been surpassed by federations like rugby, rowing, or equestrian. “We have submitted appeals, but without any hope of being heard,” Chapado says. “They don’t apply sports criteria; rather, they use strange mathematical formulas to decide the distribution.”

Other sources reveal a certain wariness from the CSD regarding Chapado’s management, accusing him privately of seeking grandeur with the federation’s purchase of a new headquarters on the outskirts of Madrid, for which they had to sign a mortgage of 1.5 million euros after selling the previous headquarters on Valladolid Avenue. “We want to grow,” acknowledges Chapado, “but we don’t want the aid for the federation, but for the athletes, coaches, and their preparation. The 15-year mortgage results in an annual expense of 150,000 euros, which, after accounting for investment, leaves 60,000 euros, just 0.23% of a 22 million budget.” Expenses have increased this year due to three championships coinciding in Asia—the relays and World Championships indoors and outdoors—raising travel costs. “And since Álvaro Martín, the Olympic champion in walking in Paris, has retired, they save money in the walking event, not understanding that the walking program must continue with people like Paul McGrath and other young athletes who have taken the baton, as demonstrated in the European Cup. Meanwhile, in team sports, it doesn’t matter if members retire to continue with funding,” adds Chapado, who does not understand the criteria used by the team led in the CSD by Aitor Canibe, Deputy Director General of High Competition. “We have been rated as the 12th federation in terms of program and objectives, even though we score 100 out of 100 in other criteria.”

The CSD does not provide explanations regarding the criteria evaluation process. They merely emphasize that they maintain “a strong commitment to the development of athletics in Spain, which is manifested through financial support to the federation.” “From a broader perspective, we have doubled the direct aid that athletics received in 2017, when Chapado arrived. That year, it received 4.3 million euros,” CSD sources remind those managing public funds for sports in Spain.