Ice Hockey, Skipping, and even Korfball..

Gerry Sutcliffe, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was recently asked in Parliament to provide details regarding what funding Sport England provided for each sport in the last three years. These figures, combined with those I blogged on previously regarding sporting participation, offer another further insight into today’s domestic sport environment.

Among males the most popular sport was football by a considerable margin. Yet in 2007-2008, Football will receive a similar amount from the national lottery as Equestrianism. Basketball will receive double that amount, and Canoeing almost three times as much. Despite the participation figures this is probably a smart policy move – the professional game of Football is not starved of funds, and it is important that people are offered a variety of sports to participate in. Perhaps in recognition of this, 2007-2008 will also be the first time that Ice Hockey, Skipping, and even Korfball (an introduction to which can be found here) receive funds from the lottery. Conversely, American Football, Taekwondo, and the Modern Pentathlon will see their funding end.

Clearly, a very finely tuned balancing act is taking place here, which is why we see one American sport - American Football, losing out on funding, but another - Ice Hockey, gaining it. These figures also illustrate the difficult job Sport England has in distributing funding, but the recent balance seems largely to be the right one.