SUPPORT FOR SPORTS

Support for the professional athletes and sports for the young promotion

We support top athletes as well as young promising athletes at the regional level.

Professional sport

In 2019, NLB Group continued to support top Slovenian sportsmen who are among the greatest ambassadors of Slovenia around the world. As the Golden Sponsor of the Slovenian alpine skiing national team for the twentieth year in a row, the Bank proved to be their reliable supporter. It enabled the success story of Ilka Štuhec, whom it supported even in the time of recovery after injury. In the last four years, the Bank also sponsored other Slovenian sports associations. Since 2017, NLB Group has been the sponsor of the Slovenian football national team and official sponsor of the Slovenian Handball Federation. For the fourth year in a row, it has also supported the Slovenian Table Tennis Association and the Slovenian Sailing Association.

NLB Group supports Slovenian professional sportsmen on their way to top-level results

Youth Sports

NLB Group devotes special attention to youth sports. For all that follows.

Long-term support of NLB Group to sports, with a great emphasis to youth sports became in 2019 even stronger by financing the Youth Sports project. For the fifth year in a row, the Bank has supported this project to encourage responsible training in the area of youth sports, and at the same time strengthened long-term initiative to encourage young sports enthusiasts in all regions of Slovenia to exercise and lead a healthy life.

Youth Sports is a project in the scope of which NLB Group supports sports clubs all over Slovenia that encourage young people to exercise and live an active life, and to make a dedicated and important contribution to the development of a healthy and responsible society. More specifically, the Group believes that it can help ensure a better tomorrow by connecting the local communities and educating young people. In 2019, the program of sports intended for the young, comprised almost 10,000 children.

… Because we know that victories are not from yesterday …

In 2019, NLB Group decided that financial assets intended for the Youth Sports project should be evenly divided between all Slovenian regions. The selection included clubs of sport disciplines, which the Bank defines as the main pillars of socially responsible acting of NLB Group, and in which it is actively included in the area of professional sports.

In 2019, NLB Group financially supported 36 local sports clubs, which develop their young enthusiastic players in football, handball, skiing, table tennis, and sailing. In addition to financial support to young sportsmen, the Group also taught them through entertaining workshops about prudential management of finances and in this way helped them become good masters of their property, and in a manner adapted to the young equipped them with necessary financial knowledge for their safe future.

Financial literacy lessons at the summer camp of the Handball Club Celje Pivovarna Laško

The purpose of the Youth Sports project is to encourage young people, who nowadays live more or less in a virtual world, to go back to nature, sports halls, and courts, to learn how to win – but also how to lose with dignity, stand up again, and fight even harder.

Blaž Brodnjak,
President of the Management Board of NLB d.d.

In life it is important that in good and in bad – and in all that follows – heartfelt supporters stand by us. Therefore, NLB Group makes it possible for young sport fans to visit football qualification matches for the European Championship 2020. In September 2019, it took almost 2,000 children from the Youth Sports project to Stožice in Ljubljana to see the football match between Slovenia and Poland.

NLB Group enabled the unforgettable football experience to more than 2,000 Slovenian young football players, included in the Youth Sports project.

Within the Youth Sports project in 2019 NLB d.d. financially supported:

local sports clubs which systematically work with young athletes;

almost 10,000

children and teenagers from more than 30 cities in Slovenia;

key sports, which are supported: football, handball, skiing, sailing, and table tennis.

In 2019, NLB Group continued to support the Alpine youth skiing team of the Ski Association of Slovenia. Co-operating with junior skiers was upgraded with mentorship. In October 2019 – the savings month – the Group prepared for them training on the topic of financial literacy and offered them joint planning of their financial future. To each of the junior skiers, the Bank offered a personal mentor and banking expert who advises him, gives him support and is available to him for every financial question. For all that follows.

… We encourage the development of potential ...

Workshops of financial literacy for young sportsmen in the Innovative Entrepreneurship Centre

Athletes of the Paraplegics’ Association of Slovenia

NLB Wheel

Team sports require team efforts to achieve good results – it is good to know that one can always rely on the teammates, trust them, and pursue the set goals with even more success. While some people take participation in various sports events for granted, many are not so lucky.

This is why NLB Group has been proudly supporting the international wheelchair basketball league NLB Wheel for 12 years. It provides support to help the basketball players exploit their potential and lets them know, with the team spirit in mind, that unity is strength.

At the final meeting of the NLB Wheel league in 2019 two wheelchair basketball players were drawn who received new basketball wheelchairs. The two lucky winners with the support of NLB Group with new basketball wheelchairs and their devotion to sport will be prepared for all that follows.

NLB Group has been proudly supporting the international wheelchair basketball league NLB Wheel for 12 years.