UK Sport has appealed directly to Theresa May to make up a £30m shortfall in funding for Olympic and Paralympic athletes following a decline in national lottery sales. The body responsible for managing elite Olympic sport decided to go to the prime minister after its overtures to the treasury were rejected.
In the four-year buildup to the Rio Games, UK Sport received £350m to support British athletes and a similar amount was expected to be announced on Friday to help Team GB prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, especially after the exchequer announced an increase in direct funding from £135m to £148m last year.
However, the steeper than expected fall in national lottery sales, which contribute to two-thirds of funding, has led to “challenges” that will need addressing in the next seven days to avert widespread cuts, according to the UK Sport chair, Rod Carr.
“We are not panicking here. What we are seeing here is a trend in the lottery and that has been acknowledged by Camelot,” Carr said. “But the issue for UK Sport is we have to make some difficult decisions.
“ We understand the situation. We are not stupid. We know what’s going on,” he continued, acknowledging that the government has to watch its pocket in these straightened times. “On the other hand it’s a relatively small amount of money, £6m or £8m a year.”
Carr conceded that could lead to many sports having less funding than ideal but insisted an efficiency drive in Olympic and Paralympic sports would negate the worst effects. “What everyone will see is that many of the sports may have less funding but that’s maybe because of the efficiencies that have been made.”
“But if we don’t get a solution before next Wednesday from Government the reality is that yes we are going to have to make some hard decisions.”
British Athletics reported “incredibly strong” demand for the 100,000 remaining tickets for next year’s world championships in London. However, a number of customers were left frustrated when the official website crashed, some saying they waited over an hour only for the page to reset and put them back to the end of the queue.
Buy tickets for the IAAF World Championships London 2017 from: tickets.london2017athletics.com
