Disappointing news as British Water Polo misses out on UK Sport funding again - December 18, 2020

UK Sport has announced today that British Swimming’s recent funding application has been unsuccessful, and in response the British Water Polo Leadership Group has issued the following statement:

“As many people will know, British Swimming were invited to submit an investment application and detailed strategic plan for Water Polo in Britain to UK Sport back in September. This application was developed in partnership with the home nation governing bodies of England, Scotland and Wales, the wider Polo community and the British Water Polo Leadership Group.

Today British Swimming received feedback from UK Sport on its application for progression sport funding for the next quadrennial. Unfortunately our sport was not successful in obtaining direct investment on this occasion, which is very disappointing news for everyone involved and our stakeholders.

UK Sport have however officially recognised the strong work done to date on the strategy and governance of our sport, most notably the collaborative approach taken by British Swimming, the home nations and the wider water polo community.  We have been made aware that there is likely to be future funding support for sports in our position and we believe that the work done to date will put us in a strong position to successfully apply for this in due course.  We are encouraged by the recognition of UK Sport of the progress that has been made and although funding would have accelerated our development, we will continue to push forward in our ambition to develop the performance end of British Water Polo.

We would like to thank Swim England, Scottish Swimming, Swim Wales and all of the home nations Water Polo volunteer working groups for the work done to date.”

Swim England’s Water Polo Leadership Group Chair, Toby King, told us, “We are obviously disappointed that UK Sport has not awarded British Water Polo any direct funding at this stage, but we do take some comfort from the fact they were highly complimentary about the quality of our application, particularly the way all the Home Nations, both volunteers and paid staff, have worked together to put a coherent development plan together for the future of our sport.

It has definitely not been a wasted effort, particularly in light of the fact UK Sport strongly encouraged us to apply for a portion of the money they will be making available for ‘progression’ sports next year.  In the meantime, our Leadership Group will continue to work to deliver our Swim England Water Polo Strategy as best we can in the current difficult times, and look forward to doing a lot more next year when we hope some degree of normality will resume.”

3 responses to “Disappointing news as British Water Polo misses out on UK Sport funding again”

1. Gavin Hubrich says:

   December 18, 2020 at 5:59 pm

   very disappointing news, do let us all know in due course what can be done at an individual/grass roots level to assist

   Reply
   • cheerychris says:

     December 18, 2020 at 6:18 pm

     Thanks for your support Gavin, we’ll pass your offer on to Toby King and keep you posted.
     Best wishes
     WPE Admin

     Reply
2. Giles Govier says:

   December 20, 2020 at 8:49 am

   Thanks for the update , very disappointed.But the positive feedback must be encouraging? Again if we can do more down at the club level , please let us know . Even if we all make an effort to collectively raise some funds . Thanks from Faversham water polo and Invicta

   Reply

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