Seven out of ten young people in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation find it too expensive to practise a sport, according to a survey conducted about the accessibility of sports activities by the Youth Forum on 23 August.
Aside from the expense, young French speakers decry a lack of sports infrastructure, socio-cultural discrimination, and a lack of time or motivation, while 30% of the respondents complain that their disabilities hinder them from access to sports.
The same number of young people denounced sexist, racist, homophobic, or social discrimination at sports clubs.
Proposals for solutions
The study conducted by the Youth Forum also asked 1,123 youngsters it interviewed to come up with their own solution to the problem of a lack of accessibility to sports infrastructure.
Among the suggestions were vouchers that could use for sports activities, the implementation of measures to combat discrimination, or policies to improve young people’s social mobility.
The organisation itself proposes a series of measures to reduce these inequalities and improve access to sports for Belgian youth.
"School sports halls be accessible to sports associations at low cost, as is already done in Flanders. In Brussels, this is not done yet or very little,” Ayman Ramdani, spokesperson for Play4Peace, an association that helps Belgians who may be victims of discrimination to practise sports, suggested.
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The Brussels region is set to invest €43 million into new sports infrastructure over the next three years. Brussels municipalities have noted that demand for sports infrastructure has far outstripped the supply in the capital.
Brussels Minister for Local Authorities Bernard Clerfayt stated that “practising a sport should become a right.” Funding will be prioritised for areas with little existing sports infrastructure, such as central Brussels, Forest, and Saint-Gilles.
