Morning:
14°c
Public asked to sponsor athletes by Olympics chiefs
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent29.09.09
Taxpayers will be asked to do their patriotic duty by sponsoring British athletes competing at the London Olympics in 2012 to make up for a shortfall in government funding, it was announced today.
Members of the public will be able to make cash donations to their favourite competitors or team, or contribute to the cost of sports equipment.
The appeal, to be made as Olympic fever hits Britain in 2011, will come from the British Olympic Association which is responsible for preparing the host nation's team. It may prove controversial as the 2012 Games already receives £9.3 billion from the public purse.
The voluntary scheme is one of several measures to be outlined today by Olympics chiefs trying to plug a £50 million shortfall in funding for the GB team pledged by the Government in 2006.
Olympics chiefs will also call on businesses and high-earners to contribute to support Britain's bid for fourth place in the medals table.
Games chiefs have reduced the funding gap as credit card giant Visa today announced a £10 million deal to sponsor the host nation's 700-strong team in 2012 in what is billed as the largest ever team sponsorship deal .
Under the “Team 2012” deal, Visa has bought restricted image and promotional rights to the athletes in return for helping to fund their training over the next three years. Olympics chiefs have spent almost three years putting together the complex deal which pooled the rights to athletes held by three public funding bodies, the British Olympic Association and the 2012 organising committee, Locog.
But agents for about a dozen athletes have advised them not to sign up to Team 2012 because they fear it may restrict their earnings from other potential sponsors in the run-up to 2012. Locog chairman Sebastian Coe said: “Team 2012 is a ground-breaking moment for British sport. It will help bring to reality the dreams of future generations of athletes in competing at the very highest level.
“It complements the crucial funding from the National Lottery and Government. Team 2012 will help ensure that as Olympians and Paralympians head toward London, they are properly resourced to do the job and make Britain proud.”
The funding gap emerged because private sector money anticipated in the 2006 budget by then chancellor Gordon Brown failed to materialise as the Government held no rights to athletes with which to tempt sponsors.
The £292 million budget to fund 34 Olympic and Paralympic sports to 2012 was £50 million short of the amount pledged and left 12 sports considered medal “no hopers” — such as fencing, shooting, water polo, volleyball and handball — with virtually no funding.
Reader views (18)
as a pensioner perhaps someone would like to sponser my golf club subs it is surely at least one persons patrotic duty!!!!
- Bob, stamford
Most seem to do ok as it is and will this go just to elite athelets or youngsters coming through.
The trouble is here the country in general are lacking money and whilst is not the sportspeople at fault in reality they are not the most important people to worry about for now.
- Mark, Watford
The public should not be asked to fund this BUT this new money should be directed to those sports who took the full brunt of the funding cuts. Because we have automatic qualification into all events as the host nation, youngsters with the potential to compete at an olympic level were actively recruited away from their families, promising careers and academic futures before the current financial situation. They knew from the outset that their path would be tough, lonely and challenging, nobody knew then that it would involve setback after setback, continual change and massive financial hardship. They have no access to any type of loan or grant. These youngsters are some of the most remarkable and resilient people I have ever had the privilege to meet.... they are not self-indulgent, self-serving spongers, they ARE the pride of Britain. Please ensure that this does not, yet again, go unrecognised.
- Shelley Innes, Sutton Coldfield UK
When will the government agree to the audit office carrying out a full investigation into the 2012 LOCOG and the ODA accounts and practices as in the Parliamentary Question request by the Lord Corbett of Castle Vale and when will investigations start into all that Seb Coe has accrued as a result of becoming the Chairman of LOCOG not just from that company but from all the spin off ventures that he has enjoyed.
- Clare, Cardiff
No worries, I'll run for them, don't get me wrong I'll come last but that's pretty well what we do anyway. I'll even throw away the batton for good measure.
- Steve, Brentford
It's not our patriotic duty to fund athletes when most people are flat broke. Why didn't the Olympic chiefs check there would be enough money in the country to fund the Games in the first place before bidding for it! Other countries already had the facilities. Why should we all be made to feel it's our patriotic duty to fork out money on athletics, just because they don't have it. We are in a recession. The Games is a luxury. They are conning us big time and dressing this up as a way to make us feel it's our patriotic duty. They might like to note that money for humanitarian causes has been really drying up during the credit crunch. Wouldn't our cash be better spent on helping those less fortunate, instead of dipping into our pockets for bread and circuses. They should be ashamed of themselves. The public might like to note their fat cat salaries. I for one will not be giving a penny to fund this lavish, money wasting farce. They have such a 'Let them eat cake' attitude.
- Madame Defarge, London, UK
Get Lost!
- Steve, Brentford
If money is needed for the GB Team then why was Lord Coe awarded a 25% pay rise and why are the Olympic Delivery Authority still receiving bonuses, when nothing has yet been "delivered"?
So much money has been frittered away:-
on consultants,
on poor accounting practices,
on Locog's insistence on using unsuitable sites like Greenwich Park
on the logo!
Sport England are now throwing good money after bad by spending a proposed £300,000 to find out where their £20 million has gone.
The Olympics is surely meant to be about sport - therefore the Government's FIRST priority should have been to make sure that ALL the sports were properly funded, not just the ones they thought would make the Government look good.
This "let's have a coffee morning" approach and "do you have anything for the BOA's raffle?" is unbelievably pathetic and very demoralizing for those who are trying to compete in the Government's insulting "no-hopers" category.
Whatever happened to the importance of taking part, and the legacy of inspiration for teamwork?
- Sally, Ipswich
Sponsoring them?We're already funding the event for them.They'll be asking us to compete for them next.
- Steve, London
Enormous corporations like McDonalds and Coca Cola will be making a fortune from their sole vendor rights at the Olympics and individual taxpayers are being asked to buy equipment for the athletes?
- Helen, West London
What do these muppets think the taxpayer will be doing
for the next 20 - 30 yrs? We'll be paying for this
monstrous waste of money anyway!
- Lb, Bromley
Can i sponser the beach volleyball girls.
- Mr S.Port, London
The VISA input should be a no brainer, £10m should be spread amongst the 12 sports denied funding by the already reported funding deficit. The dreams and hopes of potential Olympians should not be discarded due to a promise not kept. The public should not be asked to contribute anymore than they are already. I know for a fact, after 3yrs of dedication, only to be told , no more funding, had a devistating effect on the teams that lost out. I know for a fact , That careers, homes, and NORMAL life , was put on hold in order to answer the call to be an Olympian. I know this because I, and other fathers and mothers and families, have had to subsidise our kids to keep their dream going. It is about time the Fat Cats who, have, and will, benefit from the Olympics, start looking at what has been achieved by the LESSER sports. The super stars will always have individual sponsors, but lets not forget what the Olympics are all about, let the WEE peaple have a chance, give them the support they deserve for their efforts, let them leave a legacy for the future of British kids to look up to and say " I could do that " come on BOC spread the wealth where it will be MOST appreciated, and not to bulge the pockets of the ones that already have.
- Brian, P, cumbernauld scotland
I currently fund an athlete training for 2012 and can confirm that she is nor any of her team are self indulgent athletes. My daughter is one of the underfunded 'no hopers' currently playing Handball and as recently as Saturday being part of a squad to go through to groups of the European championships. This has been achieved by hard work, sheer determination by the team and the backroom staff, parents and supporters with very little in the way of funding. I can only hope this money is spent on those sports who were not deemed good enough to fund,giving an extra boost of cash to individual athletes who currently recieve nothing by way of funding, what little there is available is spent on camps and competing. The true reason for not being funded was simple, team sports offer little reward, one team one medal and therefore not much use for the medal board we are so desperate to sit a top of. We are missing the point, these sport offer a legacy to a wider group of people, for all to get involved with. Maybe just maybe someone will see sense and ensure this money will head towards these teams who are working so hard to achieve their dreams.
Leaving home at 16 to live in a foreign country, with no income, in some cases sharing beds or sleeping on floors, missing out on family gatherings, friendships to pursue their dreams isnt self indulgent...then again i guess they could be hanging round street corners going nowhere and doing nothing....pity that isnt an olympic sport!
- Rena Fairbrother, Ash Vale UK
Great that UK Sport, Locog and the BOA have got together at last to find a way that individuals and small business can get involved in the London Olympics
- Kenny Barton, Sheffield
What a joke. I've got an old pair of trainers and a spare bike they can have.....? If we're going to look like a 3rd World country why are we holding the games?
- Mark, London
Sod Off is all I can write that you could legally print, we have subsidised this circus enough.
I would rather throw money down the drain, that support these self indulgent sports people.
- P Staker, Londonistan.
Make Coe sponsor all of them. His bank balance must be nearly as big as his ego.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK
