The vouchers scheme as a mechanism of public support allocation in theory and practice

Sport support at the municipal level has a long tradition, especially in Europe. Youth involvement to the sport is usually one of the important aspects of grant policies. There are questions regarding how to allocate public resources more efficiently and how to increase youth participation in sport. We analyze the sport vouchers as a tool for increasing transparency and efficiency as well as the involvement of youth and their parents in sport policy at the local level. Vouchers typically transfer purchasing power to the client. Using sport vouchers as a tool for allocating public resources is still quite rare, though some attempts with sport vouchers were made in the Australia, UK and there are examples of sport vouchers in the Czech Republic. The aim of the paper is to discuss the vouchers as an alternative method of sport support at the municipality level and identify strengths and weaknesses of this method. Finally we formulate recommendation for implementation the voucher system.