Decision awaited on Olympic funds

Dec 3 2008

Sports chiefs are due to announce which Olympic sports may face funding cuts in the run-up to the London 2012 Games.

The Government shaved £29 million off the funding gap on Tuesday but it still means that UK Sport has a £50 million shortfall.

The board of UK Sport, the high performance funding agency, met on Tuesday to consider its 2009-2013 funding awards to Olympic and Paralympic sports bodies preparing British athletes for 2012.

The funding gap arose because the Government's plan of attracting private sector investment has so far failed to bring in the money.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham stated that no sport "will be cut adrift" despite the shortfall.

In the 2006 Budget, Gordon Brown committed the Government to £300 million of additional funding in the run-up to London 2012, with £100 million of that expected to come from the private sector.

A projected £21 million lottery sales meant that the £100 million figure was revised down to £79 million.

The extra £29 million means that £40 million more will be spent overall up to London than was done in the run-up to this summer's Beijing Games where Team GB finished fourth in the medal table while ParalympicsGB finished second in the medals table behind their Chinese hosts.

Both the British Olympic Association and the shadow Olympics minister Hugh Robertson have called on the Government to honour their original commitment to £100 million a year for Olympic sports.

Team GB won 19 golds at the Beijing Olympics to finish fourth in the medal table with a haul of 47 medals - their best performance since the London Games of 1908.