engleski

Role of state funding in participation of Croatian athletes at major sports events

The aim of this paper is twofold. First aim is to examine the amount and structure of funds that the Republic of Croatia invested in their athletes through Croatian Olympic Committee (COC) during the period from 2003 to 2016. Additionally, a hypothesis that international success of Croatian athletes at various World Championships (WCs) and Summer Olympic Games (SOGs) was positively correlated with state funds aimed for financing of these competitions was tested. The paper uses data from the annual financial statements of COC, since the funds from the state budget are planned and implemented in the unified COC financial plan. An analysis of income and expenses showed no evident trend of growth or decline. COC’s expenses consist of several categories appearing on a regular basis. However, in this paper only expenses whose aim is to finance the preparations and participation of Croatian athletes at international sport events were analysed (NF’s/NA’s regular programmes and special programme projects). Correlation analysis showed no statistically significant correlation between total amount of expenses aimed for financing participation of Croatian athletes at various WCs and SOGs and medals won at these competitions. However, a more detailed analysis including other variables (other sources of financing, other championships, expanding the data on achieved international success to encompass results from 1st to 8th place, etc.) as well as deeper analysis of the structure of these funds is needed. Most important limitations of the study were missing data from some federations.

international success, financial resources, development programmes, correlation analysis

nije evidentirano