£32m a Lott for elite few

THE issue of public funding for sport, mostly via proceeds from the National Lottery, is always going to be a tricky one. In fact, public funding, full stop.

You can justifiably argue that winter sports, which collected £32million worth of funding over the last Olympic cycle, are limited to a certain, small section of society.

But the Birmingham Royal Ballet has received £23.67m worth of public funding over the last three years. The National Centre for Circus Arts received £1.025m.

Good news for jugglers, a pie in the face for what some might consider more worthy causes.

Watching the Winter Olympics from afar (skeleton gold-medallist Lizzy Yarnold, above), it seemed like Team GB – who do not receive direct public funding – had an absolute ball, everyone out there seemed to have an absolute ball.

Funding should not be dictated solely by how many people participate – or can participate – in something. But the fact remains that £32m for sports, with the odd exception, in which few from these Isles is unlikely to excel, and in which multitudes are unlikely to participate, seems a touch excessive.

TIGER WOODS finished 12th in last week’s Honda Classic and put 20,000 spectators on the gate.

In the extensive list of crass shouts from

American galleries, one line was right up there.

“Make Sundays great again, Tiger.”

Cringeworthy, but he has a point. Whatever your take on Tiger (above), golf has suddenly got a whole lot more interesting.