Only a few days ago the talk was about drastic funding cuts for Olympic hockey, even to the point of suggesting that a choice may have to be made as to whether we entered a men’s or women’s team in 2012. The worst case scenario was that hockey would not be competing on home soil in an Olympic Tournament. But what a difference a week makes. UK sport has announced that hockey will be receiving a grant of approximately £3,500,000 per annum. That is about a 25% increase on what was allowed for Beijing.
The Executive Chairman of England Hockey, Philip Kimberley, commented on the news, “I know that our fifth place finish for the men and the sixth for the women in Beijing has given us a strong platform from which to build.” He went on to say, “This increase in funding will enable us to give our athletes that little bit more support to put everything they need in place to maximise their chances of success.”
