The South American Games Asunción 2022 are once again in danger due to a budget cut

The specter of suspension is once again hovering over the South American Games in Asuncion, Paraguay, less than a year before their opening, Octobers 1st, 2022.

The president of the Paraguayan Olympic Committee and head of the South American Sports Organization, Camilo Perez Lopez-Moreira, sounded the alarm: a fund of more than 70 million dollars originally destined to the budget of the Games has been redirected to another sector.

Although the South American executive did not specify the new destination of the money, many began to speculate that it was the health sector in the midst of the health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the arrival of Covid-19, the Games already had their first scare when the Paraguayan government renounced them two years after receiving the venue, and then reconsidered its decision in the summer of 2019, after significant cuts in the initial budget by the organizers.

Paraguay’s own sports minister, Fátima Morales, confirmed in December 2019, during a continental sports week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that after readjustments her government would back the Games with an investment of some $90 million.

Everything seemed to be on track, despite the adversities of the pandemic and the change of date from April to October 2022, until the last session of the Chamber of Deputies on the treatment of next year’s Budget.

Perez has warned that if the South American mega-event is suspended, Paraguay would be exposed to a heavy economic sanction and the suspension of its athletes for at least two years to participate in championships at the international level.

“This would damage our athletes too much, with all that means international embarrassment, since it would be the second time that this event falls in the country”, said Perez to the local newspaper “La Nacion”.

Perez is a member of the IOC, of the Executive Boards of ANOC and Panam Sports, and of the International Tennis Federation.

“Today we can’t say that the games are suspended, but that we are without a budget. But we are going to fight to get it,” Perez commented before an important meeting at the Ministry of Finance.

Of the general budget for the games, some U$D 20,000,000 have already been executed. The remaining U$D 70.000.000.000 -which have been cut- are translated into works and the execution of other expenses such as hotels for 4.500 athletes, 1.600 officials, 1.200 referees, food and transportation for the South American sports family.

Pérez remarked that the Games, in addition to being the main sporting event in the history of the country and its legacy, would leave a very important economic injection for Paraguay, which has been hard hit by the pandemic.