06/02/2021 at 9:24 PM CEST
Gerard esteva took possession this Wednesday of his position as president of the Unió de Federacions Esportives de Catalunya (UFEC) after being reelected on May 12. That day, as happened in 2016, he obtained the majority support of the endorsements of the Federations (71 out of a total of 72), a circumstance that prevented him from participating in an electoral process. This will be his third term at the helm of the UFEC, an entity that he began to preside over in 2014, when he took the baton from David Moner, who holds the record for the most consecutive years at the helm: 18.
Esteva’s reelection, according to him, was based on four main lines of work: defense of the sector; services, projects, and business area. The new board of directors of the UFEC advances towards parity incorporating two women, for a total of seven, by thirteen men. It will be formed by Marine Gomez (Acell), Maribel Zamora (FCV), Monica Bosch (Fceh), Francina Guardiola (Fctri), Kira Menén (FCK), Suzanne Martinez (Fcpm), Pain Moon (Fcecs), Ramon Basiana (Fecapa), Enric Bertran (FCN), Xavier March (FCGimnasia), Pere Hernàndez (FCP), Xavier Adell (FCH), Joan Villuendas (FCA), Jordi Tamayo (FCT), Carles muñoz (Fecpc), Ramon Nogué (Fcgolf), Joan Soteras (FCF), Ferran Aril (Fcbq) and Joan Ollé (FCA).
The reinforcement in services to entities; digitization, such as the project for its own over-the-top (OTT) platform, Esportcat.tv, with an investment of 28.5 million euros; and the financial autonomy of federations are part of its program of actions for the next term.
Sport, an economic engine
During his speech, Esteva influenced the important roots of the UFEC in the territory. “Counting our ecosystem, club members and members of sports federations, we have 3.5 million practitioners and around 800,000 volunteers who represent savings to clubs and administrations of more than 213 million euros & rdquor ;, the president of the entity, which also emphasized the importance of sport as a powerful economic sector in Catalonia: “Sport represents 2.1% of GDP. We have 71 federations, more than 670,000 federative licenses, we generate more than 80,000 jobs in more than 6,000 companies & rdquor ;. “We can say that it is a ptente sector of our economy,” he stressed.
“As social agents, we have the obligation to defend our sector. We want to be useful to Catalonia& rdquor ;, Esteva stated. For this reason, the president of the UFEC demanded that sport be declared an essential service, the creation of its own Department and that the Generalitat allocate 1% of the budget to the sector.
