A hundred local elected officials denounce the limitation of the Pass'Sport, a "shot in the wing" of the "Olympic legacy"

Some 130 elected officials sent a letter to the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister on July 11th to request the return of the Pass'Sport, a club registration aid for children aged 6 to 13, the Ville et Banlieue association announced on Thursday, July 17th. At the end of June, the government had decided that the scheme would now be reserved for young people aged 14 to 17 who receive the back-to-school allowance, but that it would increase from 50 to 70 euros per adolescent.

The 133 elected officials who signed the letter – including many mayors from the Paris region, such as Philippe Rio (French Communist Party, PCF), from Grigny (Essonne), Pierre Garzon (PCF), from Villejuif (Val-de-Marne), Raphaël Adam (various left), mayor of Nanterre, or Ali Rabeh (Génération. s), mayor of Trappes (Yvelines), but also the mayor of Lyon, Gregory Doucet (Les Ecologistes) or that of Echirolles (Isère), Amandine Demore (PCF) – expressed their “deep disapproval of this deadly measure for access to sport” , which they describe as “desertion of the State towards an effective sports policy” .

"The Pass'Sport has put a stop to financial discrimination in access to sport. It has led to a boom in sports registrations for young girls! In large families, it has stopped prioritizing sport for one child to the detriment of another," they write, lamenting the "lead in the wing" of the "legacy" of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The decision to reduce the scope of the scheme had caused an outcry in the world of sport. The French Football Federation regretted this decision and expressed its concern. It hoped "that solutions would be found to maintain this valuable aid for many families" , recalling that it was "involved in the educational and social function of sport, which must be able to accommodate, without discrimination, particularly financially, the greatest number of children" .

Its basketball counterpart, the FFBB, which also said it was waiting for solutions, considered , in "total agreement with the Cnosf [French National Olympic and Sports Committee] and the other sports federations, that this measure is not part of the expected legacy of the Games . " In an interview with Le Parisien on July 6, the Minister of Sports, Marie Barsacq, had expressed her wish to return to a Pass'Sport from age 6, as part of the 2026 budget.

This measure was introduced in 2021 to boost sports participation and help low-income families pay for their children's club registration. This scheme, initially budgeted at €100 million annually – not always fully used – will be reduced from €75 million to €40 million in 2025, according to the Ministry of Sports, interviewed by Agence France-Presse in June. It was budgeted at €85 million in September 2025. With this latest cut, it has more than halved.