This article is brought to you by GO fit
The Spanish are coming! To the Presidency of the EU Council that is. In July of this year, Spain will assume the Presidency of the European Union Council. The policy agenda that it will bring is being led by a Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, who will face a domestic general election later in the same year. He will be determined to use this semester of the Presidency to great effect.
Within his agenda sits a firm commitment to promoting the powerful role that sport can play in society. Within Spain, this role has received greater degrees of recognition and understanding in recent times. Whether it is in the essential status afforded to facilities in several regions across Spain through the pandemic, or the recent work by Spain Active Foundation and PWC to map and quantify the impact of the Spanish sporting ecosystem, there has been a steady drumbeat of mounting support for the evolution of the sector.
Where does this lead? The destination is far from clear. What is undeniable is the responsibility of the industry to keep arming its advocates with the evidence and messages to maintain and grow the momentum.
For our part in GO fit, we are committed to playing a leading role. That is why we are supporting the forthcoming ThinkActive publication due for release at FIBO 2023 which will provide a real time case study of the social value that we are producing as a company. It is why we are recommitting our investment to a doctoral PhD programme, to strengthen the expertise within the industry on this topic. And it is why we are encouraging all of our peers, in these far from predictable times, to remember the lessons of the pandemic and redouble their efforts to strengthen industry advocacy programmes and demonstrations of evidence, in whichever market they operate.
There is no alternative; to be supported by governments through regulation that aids the growth of our market first requires earning respect, and in order to earn respect we must continue to demonstrate credibility.