GREAT to hear the news yesterday that first minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish government have found £80,000 of funding for Shelley Kerr’s Scotland women’s national football team. For approximately two weeks’ worth of Scott Sinclair’s wages, they can now meet the shortfall to allow those who aren’t currently practising full-time to do so for six months, boosting the group’s chances of making an impact as they make their debut appearance at the World Cup in France next summer. Anything you are about to read in this column should not be read as a criticism of that decision.
But, this week of all weeks, it did occur to me that politicians – both of the Edinburgh and Westminster variety – can be very fickle indeed when it comes to selecting which sporting causes to throw their arms around. Or, more importantly, get their wallet out for.
The news, after all, comes a matter of days after Hannah Miley, the venerable Scottish swimmer, was being informed that she was losing her UK Lottery funding and being dropped from British Swimming’s world-class performance squad. This, ostensibly, is a body blow to her hopes of reaching a fourth Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
Sometimes you just wonder about the political calculus involved when it comes to the intricate jigsaw of sports funding on this island. Of course, backing for Kerr, Kim Little and co is a nice quick hit which will garner immediate headlines. But if Scottish politicians are serious about funding a wider Team Scotland, then it has to be all year round and not just a little bit here and a little bit there in the lead-up to major events such as women’s World Cups and Commonwealth Games.
While Miley, typically, is thought to have taken her news stoically and not regarded things as a surprise, the 28-year-old would be entitled to feel rather miffed. She can hardly be said to be coming off a bum year.
First she narrowly failed to win a record third Commonwealth Games gold in the 400m individual medley in the Gold Coast, settling for a silver instead, then she weighed in with a fine bronze medal at the European Championships in Tollcross, an event which for the purposes of British Swimming was said to be a bigger deal all along. For good measure, Stirling-based English swimmer Aimee Wilmott – who pipped her to the touch in Australia, but not in Glasgow – found her funding cut too.
In these times where Brexit hangs over us like a sword of Damocles, it hardly needs stating that there are huge pressures on the public purse circa 2018. With fewer people playing the lottery, there were three fewer spots in total in the British swimming team this time around. Nine Scots did find a place, not only poster boys such as Duncan Scott – rather ironically named athlete of the year at the National Lottery awards only this week – but also youngsters such as Cassie Wild, Keanna McInnes and Katie Robinson, all of whom are included for the first time.
Harsh as it is, the bottom line in the Miley equation, ultimately, is that somebody somewhere doesn’t fancy her chances of finding herself on an Olympic podium in Tokyo. But, having finished 0.15seconds away from third in Rio, are her chances any better or any worse than the Scotland’s women’s team doing likewise in France?
One thing is for sure, Miley won’t be the only one who finds her face no longer fits when it comes to these funding announcements across various sports. Hopefully, like Eilish McColgan, who took a European silver medal in Berlin in August, three years after she had her funding cut in the wake of breaking an ankle in January 2015, they will all have the last laugh.
Perhaps it is inevitable that football, and rugby, in this country - strongly backed recently with Oriam - will always be near the front of the queue when it comes to hand-outs like this. Women’s football, certainly, has the potential to be a huge growth sport in Scotland and it deserves a fiscal spark to see if it can deliver.
But other sporting governing bodies in this country are attempting to deliver world class with all the financial backing of a Scottish Championship club. Politicians should bear that in mind the next time they find spare cash down the back of the sporting sofa.
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