After the announcement that Madrid's 2020 Olympic bid failed, "the majority of Spain's athletic federations are returning to face the harsh reality of Spain's economic crisis," according to Amaya Iríbar of EL PAIS. Nothing "reflects this better than Spain's national roller hockey team, which just won its 16th world championship in Angola thanks in part to a sponsorship with a Spanish company with ties to Angola that sponsored the team's trip to Africa." Spanish "hockey's situation is not unique: 29 (including 19 Olympic sports federations) of Spain's 63 sports federations have presented, or will soon present, economic viability plans" to Spain's Superior Sports Council (CSD). The CSD "will supervise through '16 the federations' finances, with inspections every six months carrying the threat of decreased financial contributions from the government." Under "the approved plans, the federations will reduce their average spending by 36% before the 2016 Rio Olympics and they aim to decrease their collective debt," which has reached €27M ($36.7M), by 40%. Although "compared with the magnitude of the problems in football, these figures seem trivial, the situation has become unsustainable for many federations, which are suffering from recent decreases in the government's subsidies." Of Spain's Olympic sports athletic federations, some, "like basketball, football and tennis, do not have problems." However, "three of Spain's biggest sports -- athletics, swimming and gymnastics -- are among the 19 Olympic sports federations that have not made the cut." To reduce costs, the athletics federation, for example, "has approved a budget" of €7.2M ($9.8M) for this year. This "is 35% less than a year ago and half of the federation's budget for '08" (EL PAIS, 10/1).
