A group of members of the parliament with Jožef Kavtičnik from PS – also the father of Vid Kavtičnik, one of the best Slovenian handball players, as the first signer – has proposed a bill on bridging insurance for professional athletes that would ease their transition into the so-called 'civil' life.

The payments into the fund, which would not be taxed, would be the obligation of sports clubs or athletes themselves. The funds would be paid out to the athletes at the end of their careers in the form of monthly income and, in special circumstances, as a one-time payment. The first estimates suggest the government/municipalities would lose EUR 676,000 in income tax due to non-taxed payments. Besides members of PS, the bill bears the signatures of some members of SDS (Andrej Vizjak, Andrej Čuš, Sonja Ramšak etc.), the president of the NSi party Ljudmila Novak and five members of the SLS party with Franc Bogovič, its president.

The bill took the athletes' union six years to prepare
The bill was prepared by the Slovenian Athletes' Union. The president of the union, Dejan Stefanović, says the bill took six years to prepare. “The Slovenian Athletes' Union detected an enormous void in the field of sports programmes in terms of helping athletes adjust to life when their sports career comes to an end (adapting to a new life career),” reads the bill. “First and foremost, the athletes’ social security needs to be taken care of, since it can often be threatened in the transitional period following the end of the sports career,” the union adds.

The bill to receive wide support
The first signer of the bill, Jožef Kavtičnik, stresses that the proposal on establishing a bridging fund has received support of the majority of parliamentary parties. “The bill gives active athletes an opportunity to pay into their own fund, a fund of bridging insurance. The payments are gathered on personal accounts of the insured, which can then draw funds when their career is over – a bridging income paid to the insured as a monthly income or a one-time payment. If the athlete’s career ends prematurely or due to health-related reasons, the bill allows for a possibility of preliminary assertion of the right, with a special committee to decide about it,” Kavtičnik describes the fund’s operation.
Support in the opposition, too
Kavtičnik is not the only member of the parliament with sports family ties. The nephew of Mihael Prevc from SLS is Peter Prevc, currently the best Slovenian ski jumper, which is perhaps why his signature under the bill is not surprising.
“In today’s global competition for top results, any established sports discipline requires a lot of sacrifice and years of trainings, which the financial influx from successful performance, with rare exceptions, never outweighs. With recognition that our athletes are undoubtedly the best ambassadors of our country, I believe it’s the right thing that the country enables them conditions for a decent life when their career ends,” notes Prevc from SLS.
Compulsory and optional insurance
The bill proposes for professional athletes who are employed by a sports club, a member of a branch national sports association, to be required to pay into the bridging insurance. On a voluntary basis, athletes with a status of a top-rank athlete and athletes who work abroad will be able to join, too.