Boxing And Basketball Get Funding Boost

Boxing and basketball are set for improved funding after reaching an agreement
with UK Sport as to how the respective Olympic sports are managed.

As part of a strict overhaul of the funding regime for Olympic sports
undertaken by UK Sport, boxing and basketball will now receive financial aid
from the organisation in a bid to match medal expectations for the 2012 Games.

The two sports had previously had funding withheld over concerns about the
way they were run by their respective national associations.

UK Sport’s latest Quarterly Performance Report shows that the vast majority
of sports are shaping up to meet the huge challenge of the coming years, with 17
now meeting all of UK Sport’s ‘Funding Triggers’, and a further four expected to
by the end of March this year. 

Only boxing and basketball  remain outside of the receipt of any additional
funding for London 2012 but the specific action plans are now in place to help
both to move forward quickly.

The agreement has seen UK Sport invite the British Olympic Association’s new
elite performance director Sir Clive Woodward to work with the Amateur Boxing
Association on its new performance management group while Woodward’s former RFU
colleague Chris Spice is part of a new body overseeing basketball.

Spice, who resigned as performance director of the RFU last April, will be
part of a four-man board in charge of British Performance Basketball Ltd.
Basketball in Britain has not previously had a single united governing body – a
failing which has cost it millions of pounds in Lottery funding.

Under UK Sport’s rules, any governing body that fails to show that it is
running its sport efficiently and successfully – i.e. producing as many current
and future medallists as possible, without wasting resources – has its funding
held back.