Sport 2027: French boxing federation backs manifesto for 2027 election

The French boxing federation (FFBoxe) announced on November 13 that it is backing the Sport 2027 coalition and asked its members to sign the group's manifesto. Launched on October 28, the coalition wants sport to be an issue in the campaign for France's 2027 presidential election. It has just published its first proposals, led by one measure: writing a right to sport into the Constitution, then using it as the basis for a multi-year funding law that would guarantee everyone equal access to practice.

Eight organisations, six first proposals

The coalition brings together eight bodies: the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), the French Paralympic Committee (CPSF), ANEJAPS, which represents young people training for jobs in sport, COSMOS, the sector's main employers' organisation, the Fondation du sport français, SPORSORA, SporTech, and Union sport & cycle, the trade body for sports equipment and leisure companies.

Six proposals are set out on the coalition's website. Beyond the constitutional right to sport, it calls for a personal sport account for every citizen, with public funding for people on the lowest incomes. For young people, it proposes ending lessons at 3:30 pm in lower secondary school and 4:30 pm in upper secondary, to free up time for supervised sport. Physical activity would become compulsory in higher education. A national programme called "Sport pour toutes" would strengthen the place of women in the sector. Finally, the coalition wants to use the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps to reach an international agreement on adapting sport to climate change.

Five more chapters are due in January 2027: para sport, health, elite sport, volunteering, and tax and the economy.

What it would change for a combat sports club

None of the measures targets a particular discipline, but several would directly affect boxing, judo or karate clubs. A personal sport account would cover part of membership and licence fees, as the state-funded Pass'Sport already does for some 6-to-17-year-olds. Afternoons freed from 3:30 pm would open daytime slots in gyms that are currently full in the evening and on Wednesdays, when French primary pupils traditionally have no school in the afternoon.

FFBoxe, which reports more than 60,000 licence holders, says it wants sport to be a priority of the next presidential term and believes the number of signatures will show how much sport matters to the public. The manifesto is open to everyone at sport2027.fr; the site showed just over 1,000 signatories on Saturday, November 14.

For now these are intentions: the coalition gives neither a cost nor a timetable, and what becomes of them will depend on the candidates' platforms.