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Rival sports hit out at 'baffling' rescue funds after rugby union is the big winner in £300m bailout
Rugby union was on Thursday handed a bigger bail-out than all other sports combined in the Government’s £300 million rescue package.
Loans across 11 sports will be distributed within weeks as ministers also confirmed the door was “ajar” for the potential return of spectators by Christmas.
Nigel Huddleston, the sports minister, dismissed suggestions rugby was getting preferential treatment after it emerged the Premiership and Rugby Football Union would receive £103m between them.
Championship rugby clubs and the tiers below received £32m in an announcement branded “baffling” by smaller sports forced to reapply for funding. However, Huddleston insisted he was “comfortable” the package was being fairly distributed. “The money is based on the need of clubs to make sure they survive, so it is not a north-south divide, Tory vs Labour area,” he added.
A total package of immediate loans amount to £241m, plus an as-yet-unallocated £60m contingency fund. The figures are dwarfed by the £1.15 billion support pot for cultural organisations delivered over the summer, but sports told to expect cheques on Thursday expressed delight.
Darren Childs, chief executive of Premiership Rugby, said the £59m payout matched the league’s expectations and was “great news”.
Horse racing, which had asked for £60m, is due to be handed a £40m lifeline. Non-League men’s football receives £25m, while £3m has been set aside for the Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship. Rugby league receives a second bail-out of £12m, motorsport gets £6m, the Lawn Tennis Association has been promised £5m, while ice hockey, netball and basketball get £4m each. Badminton receives £2m, while £1m has been set aside for greyhound racing.
The cultural sector received thousands of small grants over the summer, but at least £250m of the new package for sport will be in the form of loans only. The emergency fund was assessed on the criteria of which sports had to postpone the return of spectators to venues across sport from Oct 1. Summer sports such as cricket and athletics can make separate approaches to the Government.
The Rugby Football League, Football Association and RFU all welcomed the package on Thursday, as ministers moved to ramp up pressure on the Premier League to finally agree a package for the English Football League.
Andy Holt, the chairman of League One Accrington Stanley, was among a host of footballing figures to question why lower-league clubs were still waiting. “We are doing everything we can to encourage Rick Parry [the EFL chairman] and Richard Masters [the Premier League chief executive] to come to a reasonable arrangement,” Huddleston said, adding it was a “false comparison” to look at why Premiership Rugby was receiving state support.
Rugby is far more heavily reliant on gate receipts than the footballing elite. The RFU receives 85 per cent of its income from events at Twickenham. The sums involved had been branded a “pittance” by Steve Lansdown, the billionaire owner of Bristol Bears, but Childs recognised on Thursday night that the package his competition is now due was “pretty much on the money for us”.
Sport’s finances have been ravaged by the loss of match-day revenue, with plans to allow a limited number of fans to attend events from Oct 1 scrapped following a rise in Covid-19 infections. The industry had initially asked for a rescue package exceeding £1 billion, but ministers said the package “is the most generous of any Government for its domestic sport sector in the world”. They added that it was unfair to compare the package with the support for the arts, which applied to thousands of venues being forced shut throughout the majority of the pandemic. Thursday’s package was in addition to a £16m emergency loan for rugby league over the summer, as well as a £100m package for council-run leisure centres.
Huddleston recognised pressures on government finances meant many sports were getting just enough to stay afloat. The Government is not ruling out a further emergency scheme in the spring should the situation not improve.
British Speedway chairman Rob Godfrey confirmed his sport was among those to miss out on initial funding. “It’s baffling to see why some sports are and some sports aren’t included,” he said. “Some aspects of motorsport have been totally neglected. It is very strange the way it’s been administered, but we have been assured that there is a pot available, and we just need to apply for it.”
Grass-roots sport remains under intense strain and Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson, the chair of leisure industry body Ukactive, has written to MPs calling for leisure centres to be reclassified as essential businesses so they can open during lockdowns.
Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said the support was delivering on a promise “to stand by sports when we had to postpone fans returning”. “Britain is a sports powerhouse, and this Government will do everything we can to help our precious sports and clubs make it through Covid,” he said.
Full details on the Sports Winter Survival Package, including when it will open, eligibility and how to apply, will be announced by Sport England in due course. It is expected that the first tranche of funding will be distributed in the coming weeks.
