Minister of Youth and Sports: Pirority for funding, federations training atheletes for Tokyo Olympics

Minister of Youth and Sports Constantin Bogdan Matei said in Deva on Sunday that this pre-Olympic year's funding priority belongs with the federations that train athletes for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, aiming at winning the highest possible number of medals.

"Priority will be given to federations that prepare athletes for Tokyo, as I have said. There have been talks about prioritizing financing and I agree with this prioritization of the federations, because if we really want to have as many medals as possible at the Olympics we will have to grant proper funding to those that train athletes for the Olympics. As a matter of fact, we have secured funding for a part of the federations, there is no problem whatsoever. (...) It is extremely important to also ensure proper funding for our department clubs that actually give athletes to federations and national teams," Bogdan Matei said.

The Youth and Sports minister mentioned that this year there is "a generous budget for the specialized federations", showing, in this context, that the Romanian state supports sport.

"I repeat, the Romanian state supports sport and we will not deprive any federation in terms of funding (...), there are smaller federations, but that does not mean we do not have to finance them. On the contrary, we are going to support them in all their demarches, because we are interested in making our children exercise. It is extremely important, and for this we have to help them," said Bogdan Matei.

The minister was in Hunedoara County for two days, on which occasion he also visited the training center of the Romanian Archery Federation of Aninoasa, and on Sunday he participated in the awards ceremony of the athletes who took part in the National Championship of Archery.