Call for UK sport to avoid two-tier funding approach

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Dame Katherine Grainger starts works as the new chair of UK Sport next week, and she will 

The sports without funding for Tokyo 2020 have called on the Government to heed the mood of the country and avoid a two-tier approach to elite sport.

With less than half of the Olympic and Paralympic sports set to receive public money for their Tokyo preparations, 11 governing bodies have teamed up to demand an immediate review of funding agency UK Sport's strategy.

The call comes at a pivotal moment for UK Sport as new chair Dame Katherine Grainger starts work next week after months of bad headlines for British elite sport involving bullying, discrimination and poor leadership.

But while all parties appear united on the need to address those issues, there are alarming signs of a rift over funding, with some talking about 'haves and have nots' and a betrayal of the Olympic and Paralympic ideals.

Under the banner of "every sport matters", the 11 sports have called for an end to UK Sport's "no compromise" model of only backing likely medal-winners and asked for a basic level of support so every sport has a chance of competing.

Grainger has said she is sympathetic to their cause and believes a review of UK Sport's strategy is needed, but not until after Tokyo 2020 and the current funding commitments.

Speaking to reporters in London, GB Wheelchair Rugby chief executive David Pond said: "It's all very well saying we need a review but we need a review now. I think the public would be behind that as well.

"I don't buy this argument that the public only want medals. They have a broader view.

"They don't want a 'them and us' situation. Look at what is happening elsewhere in this country.

As a recently retired athlete, Grainger may be more a more sympathetic figure
As a recently retired athlete, Grainger may be more a more sympathetic figure Credit: PA

"Culturally, people don't want that. And they pay for this programme: it's money from the lottery and tax."

Pond said 2020 will be too late for his athletes, who are currently competing at the European Championships.

UK Sport's decision to cut his funding last December has left him with two paid members of staff and he does not think the team will be able to take up the place they have earned at next year's world championships in Australia.

"I'm meeting all my athletes on Monday to crudely means-test them," said Pond.

"I need to see who I can help so they can keep playing rugby. For at least six of them, I know their only income will be disability benefit. So our system will almost certainly fold."

Badminton England boss Adrian Christy told a similar story about the cost of losing UK Sport backing - a decision which came as a shock after badminton met its medal target in Rio, a result they have since backed up on the world stage.

Having spoken to Grainger on the phone on Wednesday, Christy said they are hoping to meet soon for a full discussion of the unfunded sports' plan and he is also meeting sports minister Tracey Crouch next week.

"We want (Grainger) to open her mind, eyes and ears, to see and hear what is happening around the system and take this as a matter of priority. Systems will break.

"I've made 33 redundancies in total, we've gone from 24 athletes to 12, five coaches to three and no sports science - we're buying that in piecemeal.

"Our development pathway is eight to 12 years, so if we lose the Tokyo cycle, we've lost 2024, too, and will have to rebuild."

UK Sport allocated £345million - from a total 2017-21 budget of £550million - to 16 Olympic and 16 Paralympic sports in December and Christy stressed that none of the unfunded sports wants to revisit those decisions.

What the 'have nots' are interested in is what Table Tennis England chief executive Sara Sutcliffe described as "the fat in the system", the £200million or so UK Sport spends elsewhere.

About £30million of this goes to winter sports but the rest is spent on hosting international events, trying to get British administrators into positions of global influence and the sports science service provider English Institute of Sport (EIS), as well as UK Sport's own overheads.

Christy, Pond and Sutcliffe all questioned the money spent on events, "international influence" and the EIS, pointing out the latter's budget has gone up by almost £10million, with some of that going on more than 30 new staff.

They say that sum would fund their programmes and leave plenty of change for other sports.

Sutcliffe said: "Everybody talks about the nadir of 1996, (before lottery funding) when we were 36th in the medal table, but I worry that 2016 could be the other end of the scale.

"The obsession to stay at second place in the medal table has become so blinkered that we're at the point it tips over again. Whether that happens in four years, eight years, whenever, they will wake up and realise that it happened on their watch.

"Second place (in Rio) was brilliant but maybe we should be asking how do we sustain that so we're always a top five or top six nation? Saying we have to be second is a very dangerous mindset."

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