Sport England cuts funding

The Football Association is one of six sports to receive reduced public funding and will see a £1.6 million drop in its subsidy.

Sport England, the body responsible for distributing public money to increase sports participation, says the reduction is a clear message that football needs to change its grassroots strategy.

Golf is the second biggest loser, having £500,000 of its overall funding package withdrawn, but there are also reductions in England for netball, hockey, mountaineering and rowing.

As part of its review process, Sport England not only considered participation numbers in each sport, but also each sport’s plans to try to increase interest at grassroots level.

That is why other sports that have experienced a decline in participation – such as cricket, rugby union and badminton – have not had any funding removed this year.

The Lawn Tennis Association, subject to intense scrutiny over its failure to translate Andy Murray’s Wimbledon win into greater numbers of people playing regularly, had a £500,000 cut in 2012 and is having £10m of its funding withheld by Sport England until the agency is convinced there are plans in place to stop the slide.

Source: Sport England