Paris 2024

The Pass'Sport, a new symbol of the battle for the Paris 2024 legacy

— Published June 30, 2025

French sport is baring its claws once again. On Tuesday, the day after Olympic Day, the Ministry of Sports unveiled the new terms of the Pass'Sport, a program that provides financial assistance to young people from low-income families to join a club or gym. While it previously targeted 6- to 17-year-olds, it will be refocused on 14- to 17-year-olds at the start of the school year. Young people with disabilities aged 6 to 30, as well as scholarship students under 28, can also benefit. The ministry tried to sweeten the deal by increasing the amount of aid, which will rise from 50 to 70 euros, but it failed to avoid a backlash.

375 children excluded from the FFF alone

Launched in 2021, the Pass'Sport " has enabled more than 3,5 million young people to have access to regular sports practice ", underlines Minister Marie Barsacq. At 14 years old, nearly one in five middle school students does not participate in regular sports activities, particularly due to cost constraints. The Pass'Sport is an essential aid in overcoming this barrier. "The benefits of the system are not in dispute, but the decision to exclude 6-13 year-olds (which allows the government to save around 40 million euros) has pushed the sporting world to come out of the woodwork, once again, to defend its corner of the world." How can we accept seeing support for the essential sporting activities of the youngest in our country halved? Everything is decided between the ages of 6 and 13! The legacy of the 2024 Olympic Games is being sacrificed. ", writes Gilles Erb, the president of the French Table Tennis Federation, believing that this choice is that of a " unacceptable short-term vision ».

The French Football Federation also reacted with a press release. This cost-cutting measure is detrimental to the expected legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games., deplores the FFF, the country's leading sports federation with 2,3 million licenses issued in 2023-2024. Previously open to all children under 18, subject to their parents' income, the Pass'Sport will now only apply to adolescents aged 2025 to 2026, starting with the 14-17 academic year. This measure is particularly worrying. Thus, of the 977.000 FFF members under 14, 375.000 of them were currently covered by the Pass'Sport. Starting next academic year, they will be excluded from the scheme. "A hard blow for the FFF, obviously, but also for the place of sport in French society, since some of the children excluded from this framework risk no longer practicing regular physical activity.

“Everyone must make an effort, but sport has already done too much.”

Having just been elected head of the CNOSF, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra would have hoped for a more serene start to her term. The 6-13 age group is a strategic age! Because it's during childhood that the taste and habit of exercising are developed. At a time when childhood obesity is on the rise and our children's mental health is declining, what a mistake to sacrifice a program that encourages little ones to play sports! ", she writes on LinkedIn, recalling that " France ranks 42nd out of 45 in terms of the rate of children aged 11 to 13 who achieve the 60 minutes of physical activity/day recommended by the WHO. "The president of the CNOSF is outraged that no evaluation preceded this decision and is concerned about the repercussions for the clubs, " caught off guard as registrations begin in some disciplines ».

« Abolishment of the Pass'Sport will deprive thousands of children of access to sports, known to improve physical and mental well-being, as well as cognitive and academic performance. We are aware of the country's budgetary situation. And we are aware that everyone must make an effort. But sport has already done too much since March. And the Government cannot continue to weaken it with such cuts, which ignore its societal impact and betray the legacy of the Games. » So she asks « the full reinstatement of the Pass'Sport ", but also " that not a single euro be withdrawn from the sports budget ". A pious wish in view of the last few months. We sometimes reassure ourselves with the existence of the liquidation bonus for the Games (€76 million), but this bonus is barely higher than the amounts cut by the Government for the month of April 2025 alone. ", warns the former minister. A few weeks before Paris Games celebrations, on July 26, in the presence of Kirsty Coventry and Thomas Bach, France remains in a worrying paradox: the Games will be celebrated, but their legacy is weakened and the place of sport has not really evolved in society.