Sport management in the Canary Islands is gearing up for a significant leap. This is not just a cliché. The Deputy Minister of Sports of the autonomous government, Ángel Sabroso, emphasises: “We want the Canary Islands to have, for the first time, a dynamic and executable tool that allows us to truly know what we have, how it is doing, and where we need to go in terms of sports. It is no longer about intuitions or blind decisions: we are going to manage based on updated and verified data.” For Sabroso, the sports framework in the Canary Islands is strong but was “disconnected”; the information was “scattered” and now, with the Observatory, it will be integrated for a leap in quality. “This is transparency, it is planning, and it is future,” he stresses, before clearly stating the aim: “The great goal is clear: to increase sports practice in the Islands and for physical activity to unleash all its benefits.”
The Canary Islands Observatory of Physical Activity and Sport (OCAFYD), created under Decree 172/2024, is a permanent collegiate body attached to the Deputy Ministry of Physical Activity and Sports. Its functions include conducting studies in the field of physical activity and sport, issuing reports and statistics on sports practice, conducting surveys and recommendations, promoting research and work related to physical education, and analysing the impact of public initiatives that use sport as a tool for social and economic development. Additionally, it must publish results and disseminate them through a website, submit an annual report of its activities to the Canary Island Sports Council, and serve as a reference for establishing suitable strategies in physical-sports matters.
The Observatory is born with a strong inter-administrative collaboration focus. It leverages the experience of the Canary Islands Statistical Institute (ISTAC) in data collection and processing, and, furthermore, “they have been asked to incorporate questions designed by the Observatory into their surveys,” explains Sabroso. This will allow not only the use of existing statistical data but also the generation of new specific information for the sporting ecosystem of the islands.
The initiative is supported by the experience of Acagede, the Canary Islands Association of Sports Management Professionals, responsible for the contract for technological and methodological services that shapes the Observatory. Alejandro Serrano, a technician at Acagede, details: “We are using Power BI, a tool that allows us to cross-reference data from federations, councils, municipalities, and ISTAC. Previously, each had its own figures, now we can see them all together, filter them by island, sport, and year… That is gold for decision-making.” He adds that the tool is designed to update almost automatically: “When federations upload their reports to justify grants, that data is uploaded to the system. This way, the Observatory will refresh itself without additional costs or extra bureaucracy.”
One of the cornerstones of the Observatory is transparency. The information will be publicly accessible and will enable, for example, knowing which municipality invests the most in sports per capita, how many federated clubs there are by discipline, or how many adapted sport licences exist. It can now be observed, as shown with the images provided for the preparation of this report, how the sports budget managed by the Gran Canaria Council increased from €25.2 million in 2021 to €35.5 million in 2024, amounting to a spending per inhabitant of €41.64. Serrano highlights that “these data existed but were scattered” and that now their evolution can be tracked intuitively and practically.
The true value of the tool lies in the breadth of thematic categories it offers, all filterable by island, year, or sport modality. It includes general data on federations, information about women, refereeing, disability, sports economy, sports clubs, traditional games and sports, councils, municipalities, grants, special education sports, employment in the sector, and a section on Expodeca and events.
Users can navigate to discover, for example, that in the clubs section, football holds 6,126 federated clubs, followed by mountaineering with 2,230 and cycling with 1,378, allowing analysis of trends such as the decline in clubs recorded between 2016 and 2019, followed by a gradual recovery to reach 2,175 clubs in 2024. Another category shows that there are 534 licences for people with disabilities, of which 500 correspond to athletes, 18 to coaches, and 16 to referees or judges, data geo-located on a map of the Canary Islands that reflects, for instance, that Gran Canaria has 251 adapted sport licences.
The Observatory also collects data on indigenous disciplines, with 7,953 licences in traditional games and sports such as Canarian wrestling, stick fighting, Latin sail boats, or shepherd jumping, distinguishing by gender and age, showing that female registrations represent 19.62% of the total. Overall, the current census counts 198,592 federated athletes in the Canary Islands, accompanied by 8,982 coaches and 4,097 referees and judges, with football leading, followed by mountaineering, basketball, and athletics.
The Observatory is also conceived as a research engine. The public universities of the Canary Islands are part of its structure and will be able to launch specific studies on sports habits, economic impact, or public policies. “We want constant updates and for the Observatory to become a reference for researchers, students, and professionals,” assures Sabroso.
The private sector will also benefit, as a business person wanting to open a paddle centre or gym will be able to analyse which areas have more licences, where there is less supply, or where public spending on sport is higher. “This tool will serve everyone: administrations, federations, businesses, athletes, and citizens. It is a common database for better decision-making,” adds Serrano.
The Observatory is attached to the Deputy Ministry of Physical Activity and Sports, with a committee that includes representatives from the Canary Islands Government, universities, and the Official College of Graduates in Physical Education. Chaired by the head of the Deputy Ministry — in this case, Ángel Sabroso — the designated members include Gemma Sonia Mendoza León (General Sports Directorate), María Inés Pérez Quintana (General Directorate of Indigenous Sports), Francisco Jiménez Jiménez (University of La Laguna), José Miguel Álamo Mendoza (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), and Eva María Navarro Navarro (President of the College of Graduates in Physical Education).
The Deputy Ministry is working to present the fully operational version of the Observatory at Expodeca, the sports and physical activity fair in the Canary Islands, whose second edition will take place next October in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Ángel Sabroso insists that “we are taking it step by step. Success will not be just launching that application, but making sure people use it, that data is downloaded, consultations are constant, and that it serves to make better decisions.”
While in other regions, sports observatories have remained as one-off initiatives, the Canary Islands aspires to become a reference. The combination of public data, interactive technology, and collaboration between institutions is already garnering interest beyond the archipelago. “We have tried to gather the best of each model and improve it. It is a huge job, but I am convinced it will mark a milestone,” asserts Serrano.
The Canary Islands Observatory of Physical Activity and Sport is, in essence, an invitation to manage rigorously. It is a tool for all agents in the field of physical activity and sport — certainly including citizens — to have quality information before making decisions. The technology is ready, data is starting to be organised, and the goal is ambitious: for sport in the Canary Islands to continue growing, but this time, in a coordinated, transparent, and evidence-based manner.
