Analysis Of The Efficiency Of The Hungarian Sport Funding System In The Light Of Results From 2016

The Hungarian government made a decision in 2010 to treat sport comprehensively as a strategic sector and to change its sport policy system fundamentally. As intended by the change, the deteriorating tendency of the past time since the regime change of 1989/90 is being successfully reversed in the fields of leisure, youth and elite competitive sport as well, and the Hungarian sport is being reinstated to its previously earned social and efficiency level. Literary background Houlihan (2008) and his co-authors, and also a broad international research network worked based on the SPLISS methodology on the description and comparison of the sport management systems of different countries. Andreff, and among the Hungarian authors Dénes (2015) dealt with the specialties of the Central European transition and the transformation of the Hungarian funding. The analysis of the social background of Hungarian sport was included in the works of Földesiné (1993). The strategic and legal side of the administration was presented by Sárközy (2015). The international competitiveness of Hungarian sport was summarized by Gulyas (2016)’s research based on quantitative and qualitative methodology preparatory to the Rio Olympics of 2016. Methods The Hungarian Olympic Committee settled its strategic directions in 2012 after the London Olympics and designated the range of highly subsidized sports. In order to achieve these objectives, the beneficiary sports federations (n=16) prepared their sport development concepts which were commented on the basis of MOB’s mandate by the instructors, researchers of the University of Physical Education in 2014. As qualitative method, we performed source analysis and questionnaire surveys (n=103) among athletes, coaches and sport directors. In our research, we used the financial data of state financing of sport starting from 2012, and we compared it, using the Gracenote data base, with data showing sport branch efficiency. We analyzed the results of the Rio Olympics 2016 in the light of the four-year Olympic cycle and the increased financial data, and drew conclusions of efficiency received on the level of sport branches. We also analyzed the results of youth world competitions, and with statistical methods, we examined that by what probability will the results predict the adult successes branch by branch. Conclusions 41 The sport financing system introduced by the Hungarian state intends to reverse a deteriorating tendency of decades, thus the analysis of the only Olympic cycle cannot ensure a stable foundation for scientific conclusions. Nonetheless, behind the aggregated results (the number of Olympic gold medals) of 2016, the processes according to which some sport branches spent the increased sources effectively while others did rather prodigally are showing. The analysis of the international tendencies, the study of well-functioning sport management methods and the adaptation of policies could help the Hungarian sport management in achieving efficiency not being due only to a small number of outstanding athletes of some sport branches but to well-grounded, broad elite sport development.