Support worth €60,000 a year for three years, for a total commitment of €180,000, aimed at ensuring continuity for the activities of the Sammarinese Special Sports Federation (Fsss). This is what the three-year agreement signed with the State Secretariat for Sport provides for, in implementation of resolution number 31 adopted last June by the Congress of State.
The agreement aims to give greater stability to the Federation’s activity planning, moving beyond the system of one-off contributions. In 2025, €15,000 had been disbursed, while under the new arrangement a multi-year funding scheme has been established, running alongside the ordinary channel provided by the San Marino National Olympic Committee (CONS).
“A multi-year commitment of €60,000 a year to ensure continuity for activities across the territory,” reads the statement from the State Secretariat, noting that “San Marino’s institutions are choosing the path of continuity.” The statement continues, describing it as “a formal step that moves beyond one-off support, such as the €15,000 disbursed in 2025, in order to build a secure economic pillar alongside the ordinary channel provided by the San Marino National Olympic Committee.”
The presentation of the agreement was also attended by several Federation athletes together with their coach. The agreement comes at a time marked by rising enrolment in the various disciplines practiced within special needs sport — growth that, the Secretariat points out, also brings greater organizational and financial demands.
“In recent years, growth in participation across the various disciplines has been constant, even exponential, requiring appropriate logistical reorganization. More young people on the field means more trained coaches, accessible facilities and modern equipment,” the statement highlights.
Commenting on the significance of the agreement, State Secretary for Sport Rossano Fabbri stated: “Guaranteeing the practice of sport as a universal right represents a clear political and social choice.”
According to the Secretariat, the goal is to provide families with a stable outlook and create the conditions needed for athletes to pursue their sporting activity with continuity. The funding for the Fsss also fits into the broader process of revising San Marino’s legislation on the matter.
The new draft of the Sports Law, expected to have its first reading in the Grand and General Council (Consiglio Grande e Generale), is set to explicitly introduce the right to sport for people with disabilities and redefine the criteria for distributing public funding.
“The new draft of the Sports Law, ready for its upcoming first reading in the Grand and General Council, will for the first time enshrine the explicit right to sport for people with disabilities, while also redefining the criteria for redistributing state contributions,” the Secretariat explains.
The reform should also allow CONS to formally take on the functions of the San Marino National Paralympic Committee, with the aim of bringing the various components of the sporting movement together within a single organizational framework.
The importance of the three-year outlook is also underlined by Filiberto Felici, president of the Sammarinese Special Sports Federation, an organization that has been active in the Republic since 1984.
“Being able to work with the assurance of guaranteed funds for the next three years dramatically improves our ability to plan ahead,” Felici explains. The rise in registered members, in fact, has gone hand in hand with growing costs needed to sustain the Federation’s activities.
“Ensuring regular training sessions, renewing technical equipment, covering the costs of international travel and maintaining a widespread presence across the territory all require stability — without constantly having to scramble in emergency mode,” the statement stresses.
The agreement thus sets out a three-year financial horizon for the Fsss, while at the same time the process of drafting the new Sports Law continues — a law set to also affect the organization of Paralympic sport in San Marino and the criteria for public support of sporting activities.
