UK Sport plans mass cuts for 2028 Games
Funding body to axe quarter of staff due to budget squeeze Medal hauls at Milan and LA at risk in new financial climate
Olympic and Paralympic sport is facing a huge real-terms fall in budget for the next cycle to Los Angeles 2028, with funding body UK Sport preparing to cut a quarter of its employees this summer.
Staff were told this week – with 100 days until the Paris Games – that they would be entering a period of consultation and that changes would be made for the cycle to 2028.
UK Sport has invested £305million in Olympic and Paralympic sport during the current four-year cycle but it would need this funding to rise to around £360million just to keep pace with inflation, following dramatically increased costs.
However, with a squeeze on public finances and competing demands for government money, UK Sport believes that there is a real risk of no financial increase for high-performance sport. The planned savings will go to the very highest end of UK Sport, with directors also being told that they will be cut by half. The changes are set to come into effect in July.
It is felt that UK Sport cannot make a serious plea for additional public funds if it has not made savings itself shown that it is working as efficiently as possible.
Individual elite sports are also being asked to make savings.
The changes will not directly impact on preparations for the Games in Paris this summer, which are largely already complete and now rest with the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations, who are funded separately by commercial partners.
It does, however, place a huge question mark over planning for the Winter Games in Milan in 2026 and then the Los Angeles Olympics and Paralympics in 2028.
Great Britain has developed into a sporting superpower since the introduction of National Lottery funding, which is allocated by UK Sport, and finished among the top four medal winners in Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
UK Sport remains committed to its 10-year plan of “winning well” and there is still confidence that there will be continued Olympic and Paralympic excellence.
Dame Katherine Grainger, the chair of UK Sport, had alluded to the looming pressure in her New Year’s message.
“It’s important to remember that the successes of the recent past did not happen by chance – and that we should not expect the same level of success to continue automatically,” she said. “Sustained levels of investment are required if our teams are to remain a force on the global sporting stage and continue to bring joy to the British public.”
A UK Sport spokesperson said: “Due to the challenging financial environment, in order to continue to deliver our ambitious strategy and ensure the maximum amount of funding possible continues to reach our sports and athletes, we are looking at some proposed changes to our organisational structure.
“Our priority right now is to support our colleagues and as we enter into a consultation period with them.”