You will have woken this morning to our sport very much in the media. First the great news that our Sport England investment plan has been fully funded which is an incredible result and recognises the outstanding development work that has been achieved over the last 4 years. Kirsty, her team and the many volunteers who have helped deliver our programmes, as well as all of you who have made your clubs a welcoming place for new participants can share in the success of our bid which will help us further grow the game. The £2.4M is the full amount we asked for and is a significant increase in our funding from the last cycle – one of the only sports to have achieved this. We also bid for £300k to fund our talent programme but that has been deferred whilst we work out how we are going to manage the GB programme following the UK Sport decision to cut all of our funding.
That decision is also in the news today as we continue to ramp up attention on what we still feel is an unjust decision. As you will imagine it is this news that has occupied much of my time and that of the Board over the last week. If you have not bought The Telegraph today then I suggest you do as we are the front page of the Sports section with some fantastic coverage. You will see that Ed Warner, the Chairman of UK Athletics has taken up our cause and he is helping us to find ways of dealing with the challenge that we now have. It is critical that we keep the focus on the impact of the cut which will mean no GB team unless we can reverse the decision or find new funders. Both of these options are being worked on. This week I instructed our lawyers Hogan Lovells to represent our case to the UK Sport Board with the expectation that we will make representation to the board in the new year. I am indebted to Hogan Lovells who are doing this at no cost. In parallel we continue to work on our campaign to raise awareness of the impact of the decision and to try and find other ways of funding the programme. As well as Ed Warner helping with this, we have our ambassador Mike Brown leading the charge. I met with Mike again yesterday and his agent, the former England soccer player Tony Woodcock, and both are fired up to do all they can to support us. Mike’s approach to this is as combative as his game on the field and we are very lucky to have him on our side. The RFU is also being supportive and looking at ways they may be able to help us more. They are a great partner and already provide considerable support to us but at the end of the day we are our own governing body and it is not their job to fill the gap created by the UK Sport decision. I want to thank the many, many people who have come forward offering their support. There is a huge amount of interest on social media and we must keep this going. We have had messages of support from many of the other wheelchair rugby nations who are as shocked as we are by the decision. My thanks also to those of you who have offered to help in a voluntary capacity, which has included our Head Coach who remains absolutely committed to creating a medal winning team. All of this support is a great boost to me as with the board and the senior management team’s support we look to find ways of meeting this challenge.
I said in my blog last week that we have much to celebrate and that is even more true today with this fantastic Sport England news and we must remember and thank the National Lottery for supporting us – they feel like our very own Santa Claus! It allows us to smile and to end the year on a more positive note than a week ago. There is still a great deal to do and I am even more committed to ensuring we find a way through this, but for now I want everyone to go away, have some down time and to relax and have fun with loved ones. For me I am looking forward to going home to my beloved Cornwall, my lovely twins and my wife, and to enjoying this very special time. I wish everyone a very happy Christmas.
David Pond
