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Emanuela Karastoyanova

€5 500 000 for basketball, €3 800 000 for volleyball and €2 700 000 for handball are the amounts that the Greek state will grant in 2010 for the respective sports federations, announced Secretary General of Sport Panos Bitsaktsis. In letters Bitsaktsis send to all three federations, he stressed the importance of proper use of the allocated money and the need to prevent any kind of abuse in managing the budget. Basketball, volleyball and handball are vital sports for the country and the state is committed to profoundly help them and also take care of their development and further dissemination. In the event that the sports federations are in need of additional funding they can count on greater support from the state, which may not exceed the maximum amounts of €6 100 000, €4 100 000 and €3 000 000 for basketball, volleyball and handball respectively. In his letters to the sports federations Bitsaktsis stressed the importance that the three sports have for contemporary Greek society. He pointed out basketball to be the sport, which had brought success in the country on international level and at the same time greatly enjoys popularity among the people. In his letter to the federation he called basketball a sport that the Greek youth exercises even in the smallest village in the country. Therefore, despite the problems with aggression with which this sport is still struggling, the state will continue to financially support the Basketball Federation. However it is expected to actively participate in combating the problem, which in the words of Bitsaktsis comes as a response from football fields, but in parts also it is an independent phenomenon. Even when it is a profession, sport is only sport - it must evolve in a peaceful environment and without aggression. In his letter to the federations Bitsaktsis voiced the popular issue of the participation of foreign athletes in Greek teams. According to the Secretary-General, Greek basketball, volleyball and handball players "reasonably insist for the current process of globalization not to become cause for races to turn into pantheon of coming and leaving international stars,” but to be based primarily on the successes achieved by the Greek athletes.