- 6 Oct 08, 04:30 PM
Picture the scene in a school playground.
Some of the most senior people in British sport lined up. Waiting to be picked.
Desperate to catch the eye of one man, and one woman.
That's what it must have felt like this morning, as the chairmen and chief executives of Britain's Olympic and Paralympic sports sat by their phones, waiting for a call which would shape their plans for the next four years.
The call came from either Liz Nicholl, director of Elite Sport at UK Sport, or John Steele, its chief executive.
And the subject was funding.
UK Sport is finalising its plans to distribute £400m to elite British athletes, ahead of London 2012, and will announce its final budget in December. But today the individual sports were given a first indication of what to expect.
Some of the more successful sports - cycling is one of them - have been given a figure. Not an exact amount, but enough reassurances with which to begin their own individual budgets. In effect an indication to use as a financial planning tool. Other sports, however, were not told a number. And they should be concerned.
So why can't UK Sport be precise?
Because a significant part of its budget is yet to be confirmed. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is supposed to be raising £80m privately, but at the moment, as BBC sports editor Mihir Bose revealed, only £20m of that is secured. That will be provided by the government.
UK Sport's Board last week discussed how it would deal with any shortfall if the £80m isn't raised. And under the organisation's "no compromise" position on financial backing, members approved a plan to cut funding from the bottom, not across the board.
In other words, sports with little to shout about in terms of performance, potential, or governance, could find their budgets slashed.
That's why certain sports are none the wiser this evening. UK Sport simply don't know yet how much, if any, money it will be able to hand over.
We find ourselves in a curious situation where Olympic and Paralympic associations within the same sport get different outcomes.
British Shooting, for example, may well find they get a decision on funding deferred, partly because they've been given an overall red light in UK Sport's ongoing Mission 2012 tracker system.
Britain's Paralympic shooters, however, were awarded an overall green light, and could well be given a provisional funding figure.
How sports are run is just as important as how many medals they deliver. British handball, for example, has little prospect of winning a medal in 2012 - but I understand they have little to worry about.
A phone call with no figure is the equivalent of being handed Blind Pew's black spot in Treasure Island. And it means an agonising wait until December, to find out which sports can realistically go for gold in 2012.
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I have to say, as a shooter on the Pathway Plan funded by UK Sport, i'm pretty worried about the state of our funding post-Beijing. I understand UK Sport has to divide its budget somehow but it'll be a real shame if British Shooting's funding gets cut, we have some real prospects for medals in 2012. Besides it's particularly hard for us to make positive strides when we have to go to Germany to train. Maybe if we had a centre of excellence like cycling have in Manchester, things could be different?
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I am glad a lot of our sports did well in China and earnt the right to more funding but surely we cannot just let those sports that did not do well lose money as clearly they need the money to improve coaching/facilities.
What more could our wonderful world class cycling team do than what they are at the moment!?
Whereas Judo and Shooting need a pick me up type boost in investment rather than being forgotten about.
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Funding of sport in this country is a complete mess - too many government agencies all trying to guard their empires.
Ok the cyclists, rowers and sailors all did brilliantly at the olympics, and you can't take anything away from the individuals involved - fantastic achievements. But... how many other nations do they have to beat?
It isn't right that some sports get loadsamoney thrown at them - almost money no object - while others are left to rot and starve.
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For ref: To get to the Olympics, a sailing athlete needs to qualify his nation. It varies from class to class but in most cases there may only be 30 or 40 Nations competing at the Games themselves but often, over 70 or 80 attempting to qualify.
There is the added qualification issue of only one team, per nation, per class in sailing. This leads to the dreadful situation were World Champions have to sit at home and watch the Games as another team from the same nation beat them in their national trials process. The effort and commitment required to win a medal at either a World Championship or Olympic Games is no less than TV friendly sports like athletics or swimming. When you see the focus, attention to detail and winning mentality of the sailors, cyclists and rowers you see why they consistently win.
Shame there is not enough money for all sports but please do not try to run down the incredible efforts and achievements of any of the smaller, less TV friendly sports.
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'It isn't right that some sports get loadsamoney thrown at them - almost money no object - while others are left to rot and starve.'
Well it is when you consider that GB's aim in 2012 is to come 4th in the medal table and they are allocating resources to where they believe success will come from. With the exception of athletics, their specific funding targets where proved spot on.
Anyway, in this current money crisis, I think any sport which receives half decent funding should be grateful.
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