Funding appeal gets a red light
GB Badminton’s appeal to their funding being completely cut has been rejected by UK Sport.
And it’s a decision which does not sit well with BADMINTONscotland chief executive Anne Smillie, who has expressed her disappointment and has called for government intervention.
The sport suffered a major blow recently when the decision was taken to withdraw all funding for the next Olympic cycle, despite reaching set targets.
Kinross Commonwealth Games competitor Patrick MacHugh, who dreams of turning out at an Olympic Games, has been affected and told the PA he will be forced to move away from the performance centre in Milton Keynes.
Speaking when news first broke of the funding cuts, he said:“I think it all came as a huge surprise to everyone.
“After exceeding their targets at Olympics by winning a bronze in the men’s doubles and getting to a quarter final in men’s singles, badminton suffered the loss of all 5 million it was receiving.
“It’s had quite an impact on a number of players with more than half being cut from the programme and myself and Adam Hall will have to move back to Scotland and start training up here again.”
Ms Smillie said:“The decision by UK Sport to refuse badminton’s appeal is a major set-back to the sport and the Government should intervene to overturn it.
“I see no justification for leaving an Olympic medal winning sport with no funding whatsoever, especially when sports that didn’t win medals or reach their targets have retained their funding.”
She continued:“Without a strong performance programme to provide quality coaching and with no grant to enable them to train and compete full time, British athletes will be at a huge disadvantage.
“Olympic qualification is a long, difficult and expensive process, which only the wealthy few will be able to attempt.
“Losing the resource to deliver a quality service to the elite end of the sport is only the tip of the iceberg.
“It means there is now a massive barrier to the badminton pathway and the fear is that many young people will be deterred from taking up the sport because reaching the top will be virtually impossible.
“BADMINTONscotland, are fortunate to have positive support from sportscotland, but they too are under financial pressure and they will not be able to completely fill the gap.”