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Procedure descriptions

Apply for Corona federal bridge grant for professional sports

The "Corona Aids Professional Sports 2021" are grants from the federal government and offer financial support for professional sports clubs, companies and associations at the federal level.

The benefits are designed to mitigate financial losses in ticket revenue and losses incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
You may be eligible for grants under the Professional Sports Corona Assistance Program if you fall into one of the following categories:

  • Sports clubs and companies in professional and semi-professional competition with at least one team belonging to a 1st, 2nd or a 3rd league in the field of Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic individual and team sports.
  • Federations at the federal level that have at least one team in professional and semi-professional competition in the field of Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic individual and team sports, or
  • Federations at the federal level that regularly host or organize at least one professional or semi-professional competition in the field of Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic individual and team sports.
  • Associations hosting 2021 championships without spectators ("ghost championships") as qualifying competitions for the Tokyo 2021 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games may receive compensation for lost ticket revenue,
  • Clubs and companies that host or organize a professional or semi-professional competition in the field of Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic individual and team sports on behalf of an association can receive compensation for lost ticket revenue.

Furthermore, in order to be eligible for support, you must be

  • Your operation from a domestic venue or
    • Operate from a domestic location of the club, company or association's headquarters

and

  • be registered with a German tax office, and
  • must not have discontinued the operation of the association or business.

As a sports club or company, you are not eligible to apply for funding for your men's 1st and 2nd Bundesliga soccer teams.

Applications can only be submitted by one of your authorized representatives, such as:

  • Tax advisor/tax consultant,
  • certified public accountant/auditor,
  • attorney-at-law or
  • certified accountant/sworn auditor.

You do not have to repay the grants.

The application for Corona grants for professional sports must be submitted by your authorized representative via an electronic procedure provided (online portal).

Details

Prerequisite

Applications can be submitted by:

  • Tax consultant,
  • certified public accountant/auditor,
  • lawyer/attorney-at-law or
  • sworn accountant/sworn auditor authorized by the applicant.

Other requirements:

  • You must not have had more than 249 employees in each of 2019 and 2020.
  • From the date of approval through June 30, 2021, you must refrain from making any layoffs for operational reasons.
  • As the applicant, you must not have already been in difficulty within the meaning of the General Block Exemption Regulation on December 31, 2019.
  • At the time of application and until the equity benefit is granted, you must not have filed for insolvency proceedings or be in the process of insolvency proceedings.

Application requirements for compensation of ticket revenue shortfalls:

  • As the applicant, you will not participate in, or will only be able to partially participate in, league and cup events and regular competitions during the months of January through June 2021 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
  • Ticket revenue losses of at least EUR 2,500 must have been incurred or will be incurred in total.

Application requirements for compensation of further losses:

  • You have incurred or will incur losses in the eligible period from January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021 that are not due to the loss of ticket revenue.
  • Your total sales have decreased by at least 30 percent during the eligible period compared to the period January 1, 2019, through June 30, 2019, and the decrease in sales is at least EUR 2,500.

Procedure

You must apply for corona aid for professional sports via an electronic procedure provided (online portal). To do so, you must first register.

Registration procedure:

  • The authorized representative(s) appointed by you as the applicant must first register in the online portal.
  • After submitting the registration data, the authorized representative will receive an e-mail to verify his/her e-mail address. After successful verification, a PIN letter is sent to the business address provided by the authorized representative(s).
  • The PIN will then be required for the actual application process.

Note: Please note that it is mandatory that the business address of the authorized representative(s) matches the address in the respective professional register, otherwise the registration cannot be completed successfully.

  • The registration process may take some time, for example, the mailing of the PIN letter may take up to 5 business days. Therefore, early registration is recommended.

Application submission:

  • The application is also submitted through the electronic process/online portal provided.
  • The link to the application page will be sent by e-mail to your authorized representative(s) after successful registration.
  • Your authorized representative goes to the link on the application page and completes the application. In order to submit an application, the file number from the above email and the PIN from the PIN letter will be required.
  • The required documents must be uploaded directly by your/your authorized representative in the portal. The documents do not have to be sent additionally by mail to the BVA. The application is submitted fully electronically.
  • Once the application has been processed, the applicant authorized by you will receive the notice of approval or, if applicable, the notice of rejection by mail.
  • Payment is made immediately after the notification of approval has been delivered.

Deadlines

  • Registration and application:
    • Until May 15, 2021

Required documents

When applying, you must submit:

  • For registration:
    • a bank confirmation,
    • a proof of authorization by the association/association/company,
    • proof of authorization to represent the applying club/association/company (up to three persons).
  • For application:
    • The actual ticket revenue from league and cup events and regular competitions (excluding sales tax) from January 1 to June 30, 2019 (total and event-specific statement),
    • the actual or estimated ticket revenue from league and cup events and regular competitions (excluding sales tax) from January 1 through June 30, 2021 (total and event-specific statement),
    • revenue from Jan. 1 through June 30 in 2019 (total and month-by-month statement),
    • the revenue from January 1 to June 30 in 2021 (total and month-by-month statement),
    • the amount of loss incurred or to be incurred from January 1 to June 30 in 2021 (total and monthly statement).

Costs

none

Processing time

  • for processing the application: usually about 4 weeks

Release note

Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Infrastructure (BMI)

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