UK Sport chief confident funding arrangements won’t be altered by Brexit

The chief executive of UK Sport is confident that the government will honour the funding commitments it has made with the quango amid rumours of an emergency Budget being called in light of Brexit.

Liz Nicholl told Sports Management that there have been “no indications” that the £148m (US$194.9m, €175.6m) of exchequer funding set aside for UK Sport’s Tokyo cycle was “at risk”, and that the funding body had not made alternative arrangements if funding was to be shaken up by an emergency Budget.

“We’ve got a new prime minister, we’ll probably have a new cabinet and a new Budget in autumn possibly, but if we continue to perform as a system and if we continue to support our athletes to achieve and make the nation proud and inspire the next generation to get active and participate in sport we are providing huge value,” said Nicholl. “I’m confident that perspective will be seen through Rio and on towards our next funding decisions for Tokyo in December.”

However, Nicholl caveated that if an autumn Budget is to be called UK Sport has to be “confident of the resources we have” before December when the board finalises decisions on the “hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment” the organisation will make.

UK Sport attended a meeting of DCMS arms-length bodies called by culture secretary John Whittingdale last week to talk about the potential effects of Brexit on the sport and creative industries.

Nicholl stopped short of confirming whether Whittingdale had made assurances over funding, but as reported by Sports Management last week, the DCMS remains committed to sport in the context of the Sporting Future strategy it published last December, as well as existing funding awards.