Civil servant to mediate in sports funding row

ONE of Scotland’s most respected civil servants has been asked by ministers to step into an escalating row over claims of bias in how the country’s sports agency has carved up spending between sporting bodies.

Sir Harry Burns, the country’s chief medical officer, will meet this week with a Glasgow lawyer and former badminton international who has accused SportScotland of mishandling spending decisions.

In a dossier Ronnie Conway sent to MSPs, he claimed sports with close connections to senior officials on the quango, including gymnastics, wrestling and rugby, received far more than their fair share of funding in decisions this year.

The Commonwealth Games and sports minister, Shona Robison, has now asked Sir Harry to meet with Mr Conway to hear his complaints.

Funding for gymnastics has more than doubled in the past three years from £361,000 to £821,000.

Louise Martin, CBE, a former head of the Scottish Gymnastics Association, is chairwoman of SportScotland. The board includes Sir Bill Gammell, the leading businessman and former rugby player.

Wrestling was another big winner in decisions announced earlier this year. However, funding for Badminton Scotland, which has 22,000 members, of which Mr Conway is vice-president, was reduced from £758,0000 to £678,000. A Scottish Government spokesman said yesterday: “The Scottish Government has complete confidence in SportScotland, its management and its chair.

“Mr Conway raised concerns, and although we have no reason to believe there is any substance whatsoever to his concerns, we have, as a matter of courtesy and due process, offered a meeting to discuss them.”

Mr Conway has claimed that SportScotland, which will receive £264 million over the next four years, has been unfair in its decisions and lacked transparency.

The agency has described his claims as “offensive and wrong”.

The funding for Table Tennis Scotland, with 2,000 members, was cut from £174,000 to £63,000. Yesterday the organisation’s vice-chairman, Terry McLernon MBE, said: “It’s difficult times, I understand that, but they can’t give one sport more money and give money to another sport if their performance is not any better.”

The funding had allowed daily training for the country’s table tennis team, which had delivered better results than before in international contests, he said.

At the European Youth Championships last year, Scotland came 23rd out of 45 countries.

There has been particular anger over the decision to increase funding for Scottish wrestling, which rose to £180,000.

Yesterday Mr Conway revealed that Badminton Scotland is now seeking legal advice over new language SportScotland has written into its “investment agreements” for funding different sports. He described them as “gagging orders”.

The new agreement includes a clause stating: “No media activity will be initiated by Badminton Scotland without prior consultation between Badminton Scotland and SportScotland.”

It adds that Badminton Scotland would lose its funding with behaviour that “brings or is likely to bring SportScotland into disrepute”.

Badminton Scotland has not been funded by SportScotland since 1 August, when it refused to sign the new investment agreement.

SportScotland said yesterday that only one sports governing body had queried its “updated” contracts.

“Any suggestion that any funding decision taken by SportScotland is influenced by personal relationships is as offensive as it is wrong,” it said. Decisions were taken on past performance, future potential, and plans for “development, performance and governance”.

“It is unsurprising that not everyone is fully satisfied with the decisions we reach.”