Double the budget for sports, Minister Borko Ristovski and Minister Gordana Dimitrievska-Kochoska at a panel discussion - Handball sport number 1?

Minister of Sports Borko Ristovski and Minister of Finance Gordana Dimitrievska-Kočoska today attended the panel discussion "Handball, sport number 1?" organized by the specialized handball portal Samorakomet.mk.

Strategy, vision, infrastructure projects and forms of state financing in sports, more specifically in handball, were the topics on which Minister Ristovski and Minister Dimitrievska-Kočoska presented their views and answered questions from those present in the third part of the panel discussion.

As a former handball national team player and current Minister of Sports, Ristovski emphasized that handball, according to specific results, is positioned as the number one sport in the country and has such a status in the strategy of the Ministry of Sports.
-Handball is the number one sport in Macedonia and that is definitely the case. We in the Ministry have also made a decision to declare handball as the number one national sport. There are remarks from some national sports federations, but it is very easy to defend something when there are results. Almost all national teams in all age categories in handball have qualified for major competitions, which is not the case in other sports, and it is logical that most of the funds from state subsidies in sports go to handball - Ristovski stressed.

He pointed out that there must be a strategy for the development of sports and that the Ministry of Sports will build it in cooperation with the national sports federations.
-Such steps have already been taken with the Volleyball Federation of Macedonia, we will also make such a strategy with the Handball Federation of Macedonia. We have also had certain discussions with the Football Federation of Macedonia to do something similar, and we will also do it with the Basketball Federation soon. That is the strategy that we are advocating for together with the Minister of Finance. We are always fighting for as much funds as possible to enter sports. But we are against spending state money without results and spending money, and sport does not have any benefit as it has been so far. Because except for handball, which maintains some continuity, sport in recent years has generally been going downhill and that must change. If we continue to finance as before, the results will be as before. We are ready to make changes, we have support from the Government for everything we need to do. We need to do this in a planned manner in cooperation with the national sports federations – emphasized Minister Borko Ristovski.

Minister of Finance Gordana Dimitrieska-Kochovska emphasized that sport is one of the areas to which this Government pays special attention and that the budget for sport for 2025 is three times larger than the funds that were allocated in 2019.
- The Minister of Sport knows how much I support sport. For me, even before I became a minister, it was continuously important for the state to have quality education and good sports. As a result, the budget for sports this year has doubled compared to the previous year. If you look at, for example, in 2019, about 280 million denars were allocated for sports, now for 2025 we have a budget of 1.1 billion denars. That is more than a three-fold increase in the budget for sports. That shows that we as a Government support sports. Naturally, all of this should be aimed at achieving results. When we allocate so much money, we need to know what the ultimate goal is, what we want to achieve. In the past period, dissatisfaction has appeared among some clubs. That is why as a ministry we are considering some reforms, but that will lead to a reduction in direct subsidies to clubs provided by the Ministry of Sports. The key question is what we want to achieve. Sports should ensure fair treatment for everyone. This is especially true for competitions in the pioneer and youth categories. We need to provide conditions for every child to be motivated and with conditions for sports. Sport builds a healthy nation. In me you will always have an ally when it comes to supporting sports - said, among other things, Minister Gordana Dimitrieska-Kochovska.
Minister Ristovski also addressed the infrastructure projects of the Ministry of Sports at the panel discussion as a basis for the development of sports.

- I started solving those infrastructure problems from the very beginning. In record time, we have completed several capital projects. We reconstructed the sports hall in Radoviš, we started the reconstruction of the sports hall "Rasadnik" in Skopje, which I hope will be completed by October this year. Now we are starting the construction of three new sports halls, one next to the "Jane Sandanski" hall, which we discussed with the Handball Federation of Macedonia, the hall will be in a public-private partnership if there are conditions for that, if not, we will build it ourselves. Another new hall will be built as part of the Military Academy in the Aerodrom settlement. The third hall will be built in Strumica, and we plan to begin construction of a martial arts hall in the second half of the year.