British Cycling may ditch chairman after five weeks
BRITISH CYCLING are under increasing pressure to get rid of recently appointed chairman Jonathan Browning or risk losing millions of pounds. Sport England, who distribute public and Lottery money to grassroots sport, could withhold their £17.3million pot unless personnel changes are made at the beleaguered governing body. They have not ruled out demanding Browning’s resignation after only five weeks in the job. A draft report, leaked to
Sportsmail, revealed the British Cycling board had agreed a cover-up of an internal investigation into claims of discrimination made by Jess Varnish. The sprint cyclist told
Sportsmail the whole board — including Browning, who stepped up from a non-executive director role — should resign. The Sport England board, chaired by Nick Bitel, met yesterday to discuss the draft report of the cycling independent review, compiled by Annamarie Phelps. It is understood they are perturbed by some of the findings, including the ‘inept’ handling of the Varnish case. The report says the board not only ‘sanitised’ but ‘reversed’ the initial findings to suit their own agenda, although British Cycling dispute some of the findings. Some Sport England directors believe this makes Browning’s position untenable. Bitel said: ‘We will need to consider the final report of the cycling independent review, and a more developed version of British Cycling’s action plan on governance, before our board makes a decision about any additional requirements we might put in place.’ The review was set up following allegations of discrimination made by Varnish and a number of para-cyclists.