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SPORT ENGLAND ANNOUNCE £195M COVID-19 SUPPORT FUNDING

over 3 years ago | Behind the Scenes

£195 million package to help sport and physical activity through coronavirus

The money will help their partners, clubs and community organisations cope with the short and long-term impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

£195 million of funding will be available to help the sport and physical activity sector through the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis.

The package is made up of the following:

Alongside this, given cashflow concerns in the sector, they’ve also agreed to consider requests to release six months of the coming year’s funding (50% of awards) to their partners, meaning additional funding will be available sooner.

The package follows Sport England's recent decision to offer major flexibilities to those who currently receive funding – including the ability to change timings, key performance indicators, targets and conditions, and redirect money to new activity in response to coronavirus.

Sport England Chief Executive Tim Hollingsworth said he hoped the package would help the sector get through these “extremely challenging times”.

“Sporting events are being cancelled, gyms and leisure centres are closed, clubs and community groups are not operating, and children and young people are all at home," added Tim.

“This is impacting the sector financially in a significant way, although it is heartening to see huge amounts of innovation and agility, with many operators getting classes online in a matter of days to enable home workouts for example.

“As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity at a grassroots level, we have an important role to play both in ensuring that we support those with short term cashflow concerns and immediate loss of income, as well as those facing medium and long term survival challenges and financial difficulties.

“We want the sector not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future and this package will ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to that.”

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, said everything is being done to support the sport sector and keep Britain active through these challenging times.

"This multi-million-pound package of public funding will not only help local sports clubs facing financial concerns but also encourage people to stay fit at home," he added.

"When it is safe to do so, we want our brilliant community sport organisations to bounce back and we will work alongside Sport England and others to make that happen.”

Further information and details of each of the funding streams, along with details of eligibility criteria and information on how to apply are available HERE.

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