Small and medium businesses urged to raise £15m for Team 2012

SMALL and medium businesses have been urged to give their financial support to Great Britain's athletes for the London 2012 Olympics to the tune of £15m.

TWO YEARS TO GO: With two years and one day to go until the London 2012 Olympics, small and medium sized businesses have been urged to back Great Britain's athletes (Getty Images)

‘Our Team 2012', a scheme designed to attract sponsorship from SMEs, was launched at the British Olympic Association headquarters today and aims to contribute to the £25m fund-raising target set for Team 2012.

The scheme runs in conjunction with Team 2012 - a programme launched last year to offset the £50m funding shortfall for British athletes - and 750 firms will be asked to pay up to £10,000 a year, across two years.

The funds raised, as is the case with Team 2012, will largely used to support elite athletes in the build-up to London 2012. In return, the businesses will receive networking opportunities, tickets to build-up and test events ahead of the Games and the right to use an official Our Team 2012 logo.

"Sports funding has always come from a mixture of exchequer, lottery and private sources," said Sports and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson.   

"Clearly everybody knows that the public expenditure backdrop is pretty challenging at the moment.

"But there is a record amount of exchequer money in the London 2012 process and we've already raised the percentage of National Lottery money going towards sport.

"When it comes to private funding that is what Our Team 2012 is all about. This is a fantastic opportunity for small or medium sized businesses, who cannot access tier one sponsorship but who want to get involved in these Games.

"It would be an absolute tragedy for any business to look at these Games after they are over and think they could have done more.

"With just two years to go until the Games begin, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support the UK's Team 2012 athletes on their home turf."