London Update -- Britain’s Team Sports Fear Funding Cuts, Anti-doping Agency Stalled

Britain’s ambitious plans to field teams in every sport at the London Olympics hang in the balance, ahead of U.K. Sport announcing its funding allocations tomorrow. A shortfall of $112 million is expected toresult inup to 20 Olympic and Paralympic sports having grants cut, while the establishment of an independent anti-doping agency may also be delayed.

U.K. Sport's chair Sue Campbell and her colleagues will make some tough decisions at the agency's board meeting today. (ATR)Handball, water polo and volleyball (indoor and beach) are among sports facing cuts that may end their dreams of taking part in the Olympics. Even field hockey, a sport in which Britain has a strong tradition at the Games, could suffer.

“If we lose our funding, it will have a massive, negative impact on our sport, with huge implications all the way down to grass roots level,” said David Faulkner, British Hockey’s performance director who saw his teams finish fifth and sixth in Beijing. “It will make the last three or four years totally wasted effort.”

In 2006, Gordon Brown, when chancellor of the exchequer, announced an Olympic funding package in which he guaranteed $715 million for performance spending, but U.K. Sport was charged to raise commercially a further $143 million.

The National Lottery has since contributed a “bonus” $30 million, but despite hiring a sponsorship agency to raise the balance, U.K. Sport has failed to sign a single deal.

The tough decisions will be determined at a U.K. Sport board meeting in London today.

Sports that were successful in Beijing – cycling, rowing and sailing – had their four-year budgets confirmed soon after this year’s Olympics. Meanwhile, team sports have had three months of uncertainty.

“It’s been a very uncomfortable time,” said Faulkner, who won an Olympic gold medal with the Great Britain hockey team in 1988. “We’ve been left waiting, and we fear the worst.

“We’ve done everything we’ve been asked to do by U.K. Sport, and it’s beginning to show some benefits. Funding works - you only have to look at cycling, rowing and sailing to see that. And it is beginning to work for us, too. Any cut in funding now would be a disaster.”

Team sports may suffer because they have the least opportunity to win medals: hockey, for example, took a squad of 46 players and officials to Beijing, but could only win two medals.

Alistair Grey, the chairman of British Basketball, is confident that some of the doomsday scenarios may be overstated, and that his rapidly developing sport, which depends on a U.K. Sport annual grant of $2.3 million, will continue to receive backing.

“It is too simplistic to say that just team sports will suffer,” he told ATR. “I am not expecting the full amount - it’s a difficult economic climate, obviously. But I am assuming that stringent requirements will be placed on all sports.”

U.K. Sport distributed around $336 million in the four year lead-up to Beijing, where Britain enjoyed its best Games in a century, winning 47 medals, 19 of them gold and placed fourth on the medal table.

Treasury Blocks Anti-Doping Agency Funding

The credit crunch could also delay the establishment of Britain’s proposed National Anti-Doping Organization so that it is not fully functional in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The Treasury has so far refused to approve the $2.8 million transition costs and $11.5 million annual budget for the NADO. U.K. Sport, as well as being Britain’s grant-funding agency, has overseen drug testing for the last 20 years, but is keen to hand over responsibility to a separate organization, in line with Australia and the U.S., in time for 2012.

Unless a funding deal with the Treasury has been agreed before today’s U.K. Sport board meeting, the October 2009 opening date for the agency will be missed.

“In terms of London 2012, time is of the essence and a launch date for the new organization beyond 2009 could well impact on its ability to be truly effective by Games time,” U.K. Sport spokesman Russell Langley warned. “This is particularly the case for some of its new functions, such as links with law enforcement agencies without which issues of trafficking and supply cannot be addressed.”

Where There’s a Will, There’s No Way

Probably the biggest revenue-generating team sport at the 2012 Olympics, soccer, may go ahead without a united The Scottish FA's David Will (front) insists there is no way the Scots can be persuaded to be part of a united British soccer team for the 2012 Games. (Getty Images)British team. Scotland will refuse to have any part in Britain’s 2012 Olympic soccer team, according to Scottish Football Association official David Will.

Speaking at last week's Confederations Cup draw in Johannesburg, South Africa, Will refuted promises from FIFA President Sepp Blatter that the participation of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in a united Great Britain Olympic team will not affect their separate entries for the World Cup and other tournaments.

“It's not in the president's gift to make such guarantees,” Will said. “It is purely a matter for the FIFA Congress to decide and who knows how they will vote in the future? I believe Scotland are making completely the right decision in opting out. There is no way now the Scots can be persuaded to take part. It's a London Games, so have an England side.”

The first sporting event of the 2012 Olympics is due to be a soccer match at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland.

Boxer DeGale Turns Professional

One of Britain’s Beijing champions will not be defending his title in London: James DeGale, winner of the middleweight boxing gold medal, today announced that he is turning professional under promoter Frank Warren. The 22-year-old Londoner’s announcement continues the break-up of Britain’s successful boxing team, as Beijing bronze medallist Tony Jeffries, Frankie Gavin, the 2007 world lightweight champion and Billy Joe Saunders have also turned pro.

Briefs...

…Tarique Ghaffur, the senior Metropolitan Police officer in charge of security arrangements for the 2012 Olympics, is to receive a $1.2 million pay-off after dropping a racism claim against the former commissioner, Ian Blair, and resigning from the force. Blair himself had his last day in post last week, following his own resignation over differences with London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson has taken over as acting Met commissioner today, but no replacement for Ghaffur’s key Olympic security job is likely to be named until the new year, when a permanent successor to Blair is appointed.

... 2012 triathlon venue Hyde Park will be given an early test next year when the course, which uses the Serpentine lake for the 1,500-meter swim and prestigious Park Lane for the cycle route, stages a race in the 2009 ITU world championship series.

...New York Marathon-winner Paula Radcliffe will take on five of the top six finishers from the Beijing Olympic Marathon, including gold medallist Constantina Dita, when she races in next April’s London race.

...Olympic gold medalists Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington were named Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year at the 60th annual Sports Journalists’ Association awards in London after a poll of Britain’s sportswriters. IOC member from Britain Princess Anne presents Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington with the Sportswoman of the Year award. (ATR)Adlington received her trophy from IOC member Princess Anne, who won the same award herself in 1971.

Triple cycling gold medallist Hoy was missing from the awards event, on vacation in Thailand, where he found himself stranded at Bangkok airport by anti-government protestors. Only the intervention of one of his long-term sponsors, international shipping company DHL, allowed Hoy to get a flight out of the country from Phuket.

...Seven of the ten short-listed competitors for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Award are Olympic gold medal winners from Beijing. The annual televised sports review, which this year is broadcast live from Liverpool, England on Dec. 14, attracts audiences of more than 10 million, who will vote for their winner during the show. Favorite to win is motor racing world champion Lewis Hamilton.

… Senior sources at the BOA suggest that, three years after beating Paris to the right to host the 2012 Games, British sports officials may find a way of reminding their French rivals of their historic enmities: in seeking a new headquarters building, the BOA is considering central London offices in Waterloo.

Written by Steven Downes

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