Sport and the Credit Crunch

You don’t really need to look far to see the detrimental effects the credit crunch is having on sport within this country and beyond. The latest victim of the financial constraints is Olympic Hurdler, Andy Turner, who was amongst a 20% cut in the number of funded athletes by the UK Athletics. Turner is obviously dissapointed by the UK Athletics decision but truth of the matter is there is less money to go around and the UK Athletics were under pressure to cull under-performing athletes from the list.

English football is also running up huge debts, which are worrying those in charge of the FA. Don’t let the huge TV sponsorship deals pull the wool over your eyes, only a handful of clubs are financially well-off and when you consider that over three billion pounds is owed by all the English football clubs – that’s a worrying figure.

No matter where you look, be it athletics, football, motor racing, golf, tennis … the credit crunch is biting. We haven’t even touched on minority sports and how they are coping in these difficult times. Perhaps, sports betting fans, we are being taught a financial lesson here … that professional sport should be played, first and foremost, for the love of the game and not always be centered around monetary gain. As if that will happen any time soon…