Golf’s mass figures raise serious suspicions; the ministry does not plan to request state funding / Article

If you can believe the data used by the ministry responsible for sports in the calculation of funding, then golf is the most popular sport in Latvia at the adult level. In 2023, less than six thousand golfers allegedly competed in at least two official competitions. Last year, their number was almost six times smaller. It is significant that the golf federation itself, looking back on what was done in 2023, stated on its website that a new record of players was achieved last year – 1331. This figure is almost six times less than the one submitted to the Ministry of Education and Science. In addition, almost identical to what the golf federation indicated to the European Golf Association, to which Latvia reported 1326 golfers.

It should be noted that the data of the European Golf Association on the number of players show that an impressive decline in the number of golfers was observed in Latvia last year. From 5,644 players in 2022, the number of players decreased by more than four thousand last year.

If the Ministry of Education and Science reported a record-breaking boom in golf, the European Golf Association reported an almost epidemiological decline in the number of athletes.

It is significant that the number of players also affects the annual membership fee of the Latvian Golf Federation to the European Golf Association. The lower the number of players, the lower the annual payment to the European Golf Association. The Latvian Golf Federation is headed by Jānis Trēgers, its board also includes Santa Puče, Jānis Taukačs and Ainārs Počs.

Jānis Trēgers, president of the Latvian Golf Federation, states: “As Latvian laws and regulations do not define the procedure by which federations must submit data to the Ministry of Interior, in order to comply with full transparency, in our funding request submission we indicated two figures relating to the number of registered athletes – the total number of registered athletes and 2023 . a detailed explanation of the data acquisition and the nature of the information was provided, as well as the opportunity to get acquainted with the data in our player register, which LGF has been maintaining for more than 10 years. we cannot influence either the Ministry of Interior or other partners.”

Less than six thousand people – this is the total number who have obtained a golf skill certificate or “green card” in Latvia, and this number has not been formed in one year.

However, in the documents developed by the Council of Sports Federations of Latvia and approved by the Ministry of Education and Science, it can be read that only athletes who are at least ten years old and have competed in at least two official competitions during the year can be included in the sports register. All the golf experts interviewed by Latvian Television state that the number of participants in last year’s competition was nowhere close to six thousand and, in the best case, exceeds the mark of 1,300 players indicated in other sources.

In the written answer of the Ministry of Education and Science, there is not a word about the definition of an athlete established in the country, which requires participation in at least two official competitions during a calendar year.

The Ministry of Education and Science states, that previously the Latvian Golf Federation has indicated in its reports only the number of those who paid the license fee in the given year, which at that moment incompletely reflected the true situation in the sport, not showing the full number of active athletes. At the same time, the ministry notes that each federation, when providing information on specific criteria data, assumes responsibility for the truthfulness of the submitted data.

Since golf in 2023 in Latvia showed the highest mass participation at the adult level, the points of all other federations in the mass participation segment were calculated, taking as a reference point the number of players of the most mass sport – golf – indicated. If, instead of the less than six thousand players indicated by the Golf Federation, the calculations include the number indicated by the federation on its website, or the number submitted to the European Golf Association, then its state funding would decrease by 23 thousand euros, while the amount of money for a large part of the other Latvian federations would increase slightly . The Latvian Sports Federation Council (LSFP) has the duty to defend the interests of sports federations.

“I think that in this case we will not react because, as I said, of course I have asked and discussed the situation with the golf federation, and there is an explanation. But, again, we, the Federation Council, do not have how to react,” says LSFP general secretary Artūrs Balodis-Rozītis.

Balodis-Rozītis admits that the Council of Sports Federations is obliged to monitor the compliance of the federations’ websites and the sportsmen’s registers found in them with the rules, therefore it will pay more attention to the golf federation’s data.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Science does not plan to make the golf federation repay the state funding. It can be initiated by other sports federations by writing a submission to the Ministry of Education and Science or by applying to the court.