ICF and the Department of Sports, through the Consell Català de l'Esport, are making available to city councils and decentralised municipal entities an instrument to speed up investment in public sports facilities across Catalonia's municipalities.

The new ICF Equipaments Esportius line is aimed at local councils looking to improve the Basic Network of Sports Facilities across the country. ICF will contribute €8 million, and the Consell Català de l'Esport will add a further €1.5 million to subsidise loan interest.

ICF's CEO, Vanessa Servera i Planas, states that "one of ICF's reasons for being is to act as a lever for the Government of Catalonia's public policies, and in the case of these ICF Equipaments Esportius loans, to advance the resources needed to improve sports facilities used by thousands of citizens across the country."

The Secretary General of the Department of Sports, Abel García, states that "with these loans we want to make it as easy as possible for local bodies to carry out projects to improve their sports facilities. With the emergency plan, we are settling a historic debt with our municipalities, which deserve modern, safe, efficient and accessible sports facilities for everyone, fostering social and territorial cohesion," he adds.

This new instrument will give municipalities access to a financing line that will allow work planned and financed under the emergency plan to improve the Basic Network of Public Sports Facilities for 2025-2029 to begin before the corresponding grant is paid out.

The loan amount cannot exceed the grant awarded by the Consell Català de l'Esport, and will be capped at €1,250,000 per operation, with subsidised interest and a term of up to 15 years.

93% of Catalan municipalities benefit from the Emergency Plan

The ICF Equipaments Esportius loans are a new support tool that adds to the €120 million the Department of Sports is allocating over 2025-2029 to 803 city councils and 10 decentralised municipal entities (EMDs) — 93% of Catalonia's municipalities with sports facilities — to carry out urgent improvement and refurbishment work under the Emergency Plan.

The Emergency Plan aims to finance urgent work to modernise and upgrade sports spaces that are part of the Basic Network of Sports Facilities in Catalan municipalities. Specifically, the Government of Catalonia wants to guarantee the quality, safety, accessibility, functionality and sustainability of publicly owned sports facilities across the country.

The Department of Sports coordinates and executes the project, one of the priority objectives of this term of government under the Esport 360 project, in collaboration with local government and other departments of the Government of Catalonia. Cooperation is also being promoted with public programmes such as the Pla únic d'obres i serveis de Catalunya (PUOSC), to ensure consistency and efficiency in the distribution of aid.

Beneficiaries of this aid are all city councils and EMDs with more than 500 inhabitants, which could submit up to three projects for publicly owned municipal sports facilities serving community, school, federation or health-promotion purposes: courts, halls, pavilions, pitches and swimming pools.

The three most requested types of work by local bodies have been resurfacing courts and football pitches, refurbishing sports complexes and multi-sport pavilions, and improving indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

The Emergency Plan's aid also seeks to strengthen territorial cohesion, ensuring the availability of quality sports facilities in all municipalities, and to contribute to Catalonia's international commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.