18.12.2025 at 06.45
Performance audit

State sports administration

The state’s funding for sport is fragmented, maintains existing structures, and is loosely steered. The National Audit Office of Finland recommends strengthening the strategic role of core funding and ensuring that the funding supports the mobility of the entire population.

Photo: Jessika Laakkonen

Download report: NAOF's conclusions and recommendations: State sports administration PDF 188 KB

Scope of the audit

The efficiency and effectiveness of the steering instruments used by the Ministry to promote social goals with the appropriations for sports.
How discretionary general grants have been allocated to organisations that promote sports.
How the network of sports education centres has been steered and how their educational efforts have been allocated.
How municipalities have allocated the central government transfers to local government and other discretionary government grants they have received, as well as how they have funded their sports-related efforts.
The transparency and clarity of the budgeting of sports appropriations.

Key findings

The Ministry of Education and Culture primarily steers its sports funding in a loose fashion without any strategic priorities, which has led to both overlapping funding and a fragmented approach to funding in general.
The Ministry has considered the sports-related central government transfers to municipalities as non-earmarked support, and it has attempted to close this steering gap by granting numerous investment and special grants that overlap with the central government’s transfer funding.
The central government transfers granted to sports education centres do not optimally promote the objectives set for sports-related appropriations. While most sports training centres aim to promote the health and well-being of the entire population through educational means, as is required by their operating permits, their performances have become increasingly focused on elite sports and coaching, and thus also on those who are already physically active.
Organisations that promote sports are key to the implementation of Finland’s sports policy, but the criteria for allocating general grants emphasise maintaining the established organisational structure, and do not contain incentives for achieving the objectives of the Sports Act.
In strictly financial terms, the funding of sports-related facilities has focused on large sports arena projects, but in relation to the population, smaller municipalities have received proportionally more grants for the construction of sports facilities.

Briefly

The central government appropriations for sports total around EUR 150–180 million annually. Although these appropriations account for a small share of the central government’s budget, they are linked to the problem of physical inactivity in the population and its societal costs. No performance audit has previously been carried out on the topic.

The Ministry of Education and Culture has allocated appropriations in accordance with the wide-ranging objectives of the Sports Act (Act on the promotion of sports and physical activity 390 / 2015). The absence of strategic priorities and the dispersal of funding across numerous actors have led to overlaps, fragmentation, and unclear performance responsibilities.

Only a limited amount of direct funding has been allocated to the activation of those who engage in little physical activity. Increasing the physical activity of the entire population is being promoted through separate development funding, which has resulted in further funding-related fragmentation. The implementation of the Ministry’s sports policy focuses on grant decisions instead of strategic steering activities.

The Ministry’s limited strategic steering has led to overlapping funding that maintains existing structures.

Network of sports policy actors and allocation of budget class 29.90 appropriations in 2024. Central government transfers and discretionary government grants have been allocated to sports training centres, municipalities, foundations, associations, universities, and companies, as well as to athletes in the form of grants. The largest appropriations were allocated to municipalities (central government transfers to local government EUR 19.7 million, discretionary government grants EUR 30.1 million), associations (EUR 67.2 million), and sports training centres (EUR 17 million). The allocations also included grants for athletes (EUR 2.3 million) and financial aid to foundations (EUR 1.1 million), universities (EUR 2.2 million), and companies (EUR 1.5 million). The use of the appropriations also includes administrative operating expenses (EUR 267,000) and the funding for the Get Finland Moving (Suomi liikkeelle) programme. The total appropriations in class 29.90 amounted to EUR 168.7 million (budgeted appropriations) in 2024. — The appropriations for sports are distributed across a wide network of actors, with municipalities and associations being particularly prominent recipients (Network of actors in Finland’s sports policy, from the perspective of the allocation of budget class 29.90 appropriations in 2024. Sources: combined MoEC and AVI government grant data; MoEC draft of account-level sports appropriations in the budget proposal for 2024; Get Finland Moving/Suomi liikkeelle mid-term review).

Trend in the number of student days at national sports training centres, elite sports and coaching vs. education promoting physical activity, 2015–2024. In 2015, more days were spent on education promoting physical activity than on elite sports and coaching, but in 2016 the share of elite sports and coaching began to grow sharply, while the share of physical activity-promoting education began to decline. — Most of the performances by national sports training centres have focused on training days for elite sports and coaching, Source: EDUFI, compiled by NAOF.

On average, around

6.7%

of sports appropriations in 2015–2024 were allocated to projects that promoted a physically active lifestyle to those who engage in little physical activity

Around

€345.5 M

in discretionary government grants (60%) and transfers (40%) for municipal sports activities in 2018–2024

Recommendations of the National Audit Office

The Ministry of Education and Culture should clarify the responsibilities for implementing the societal goals presented in class 29.90 of the central government budget (State sports administration), and include objectives in the steering structures for appropriations.

The Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Finance should conduct sports-related central government transfers to municipalities as part of the Ministry of Finance’s central government transfers for basic public services.

The Ministry of Education and Culture should assess the grounds for granting operating licences to sports education centres and steer the funding of the training centre network to meet the determined needs.

The Ministry of Education and Culture should utilise specific criteria and incentives to create the preconditions for the results-oriented use of the general grants allocated to organisations that promote sports.