ATHLETICS WORLD CUP’S £1m LOSSES
UK ATHLETICS is expected to descend further into crisis with confirmation that the governing body suffered a seven-figure loss staging the Athletics World Cup.
The organisation is already in turmoil because of a row between the governing body and the home nations that has led to calls for UKA chairman Richard Bowker to stand down.
But senior officials are bracing themselves for the publication of the annual accounts that are likely to highlight how ill-conceived an idea it was to stage the new team event in London on the same weekend as the FIFA World Cup final and Wimbledon finals.
The event was the brainchild of Niels de Vos, who quit as chief executive of UKA last month, and to a lesser extent Bowker. But insiders believe it has cost UKA ‘in excess of £1million’ because of scheduling difficulties, poor ticket sales, issues with major sportswear manufacturers, a lack of appearance money and chaos around travel plans for the athletes.
It threatened to be a disaster from the moment organisers picked that busy July weekend to stage the event at the London Stadium.
Friction between Adidas and Nike meant the Athletics World Cup could not gain the contractual dispensation major events secure so that Adidas athletes, for instance, can wear Nike kit to compete for their country.
Adidas-sponsored athletes were told they would not receive bonuses for competing, which had a huge knock-on effect on the quality of athletes taking part.
British stars like Dina AsherSmith and Reece Prescod competed in a Diamond League event in Rabat on the eve of the World Cup rather than run in London.
Others to miss the World Cup were Britons Laura Muir and Zharnel Hughes and the world’s fastest man, Christian Coleman.
At the time De Vos dismissed concerns that ticket sales and scheduling could hurt the World Cup. ‘It doesn’t concern me,’ he said. ‘We always knew that a couple of athletes wouldn’t be able to make it because they had signed contracts for Diamond League events. But the overall quality is going to be astonishing.
‘It’s pushing 30,000 for the Saturday and a little less on the Sunday.’ The capacity for athletics at the London Stadium is 50,000.
Bowker and the board want to streamline the governing body and the home nations organisations. England Athletics and the UKA — both based in Birmingham — suffer from a duplication of staff, and insiders feel big savings could be made even if it meant up to 40 jobs being lost.
But if it proves that UKA are motivated by shortfalls in their own accounts, England Athletics may argue that their organisation — and indeed their staff — should not suffer as a consequence.