New public funding to offset soaring energy costs: Minister Abodi announces the disbursement of a second €5 million tranche for sports clubs managing swimming facilities, as the support plan already looks ahead to 2027.
Minister for Sport and Youth Andrea Abodi has announced the launch of the second disbursement of non-repayable grants for swimming facility operators, drawing on funds allocated in 2025.
The tranche amounts to €5 million, directed at the amateur sports associations and clubs that manage these facilities, and is designed to help cover rising energy supply costs. This figure adds to the €12.4 million already paid out at the end of 2025, bringing the total funding allocated since February 2022 to approximately €180 million.
A plan with its sights set on 2027
The plan does not stop there. A further allocation of €4.4 million, provided for under the 2025 Budget Law, is expected between September and October, while an additional contribution for 2027 is already in the planning stages, with the aim of ensuring medium-term management continuity. Behind this process lies the work carried out by the Italian Swimming Federation, with president Paolo Barelli driving the dialogue with the Ministry and with the Department for Sport, headed by Flavio Siniscalchi.
A dialogue that has produced tangible results, responding to a clearly stated need: to ease the financial pressure on facilities, ensure the sustainability of activities open to the public, and support elite sport as well. Because without open pools, there is no swimming for everyone — and no swimming that wins.
From 2022 to today
The current measures build on a path laid out three years ago. The first step was taken with the Prime Ministerial Decree of 10 June 2022, which established the criteria for disbursing non-repayable grants to swimming facility operators, introducing precise eligibility requirements based on pool dimensions, number of registered athletes, and participation in national competitions. In 2023, the distribution decree of the Unified Fund for the Development of Italian Sport earmarked €67 million specifically for pool operators.
The 2025 Budget Law then added a new total package of €25 million — €15 million drawn from the Unified Fund and €10 million in additional refinancing — once again directed at swimming pool and facility operators, cementing a commitment that, through successive updates, has taken on the character of a structural policy in support of aquatic sports infrastructure.
Sources: federnuoto.it, sport.governo.it
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