British Swimming fury at Water Polo funds cut

London 2012 Water Polo Post a comment

Posted: Thursday 29th January 2009 | 18:31

BRITAIN may not have a water polo team at the 2012 London Olympics - despite being the birthplace of the sport.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE: British water polo captain Craig Figes may now miss out on London 2012, following UK Sport's decision to slash the sport's funding (Getty Images)

UK Sport has cut their funding by more than 50 per-cent, meaning teams will receive £1.4 million to prepare for a home Olympics.

David Sparkes, chief executive of the Amateur Swimming Association, the sport's British governing body, has already been vocal in opposition to any cut - claiming it was unlikely Britain would be able to fulfill both their hosts' invites to the competition.

He also hinted the men's team - four-times Olympic champions in the early 20th century - would likely to be ones to suffer.

"While we are disappointed with the final level of water polo funding to prepare both the men's and women's team for London 2012, we recognise this is a consequence of the current £50 million shortfall in funding for the preparation of athletes for this once in a life time opportunity," said Sparkes.

"We are clearly concerned for the athletes who have already made massive commitments to the water polo programme and British Swimming will be working with everyone to bridge the gap in funding.

"Our plan going forward remains to try and get both teams to the London 2012 Olympics but we're in a position now where focus will have to be given to the women's team who have made excellent progress.

"We are facing some very tough decisions and some changes will have to be made but we will be as committed as the athletes and coaches have been to date in doing what we can to find help to fund the programme."

Water polo was one of eight Olympic and four Paralympic sports that had to wait until today for a funding allocation to be confirmed following an initial sports investment announcement in December.