According to this thread, funding is based on participation numbers. The 5 or so London fans keep telling us that there are close to 3.5 billion kids in London Playing RL do surely we should be getting funding that is equivalent to what other minority sports of a similar size to us get, like tennis, polo or chess?

This thread also pointed out that under 16's aren't counted in the Sport England participation stats.

Tennis is to receive £17.4m
Equestrian sports to receive £6m
Chess doesn't get anything as its not an "active" sport. Yet bizarrely Angling is to receive £1.8m while snooker gets nothing.

Rugby League is to receive £17.5m

if you combine the sport england money that league and union get, then its a fair chunk of money for two variations of the same sport.

I suspect the root of the problem with this reduction is that RL, by hook or by crook, massively over-achieved in the last funding round. In its own right the funding being received over the next few years is good money. But look at where RL was in the past round:

Cricket £38.0m
Rugby Union £31.2m
Rugby League £29.4m
Tennis £26.8m
----------------------
Football £25.6m

It's disappointing but in many ways it was an amazing coup to get so much compared to other sports in 2008. Thanks Richard Lewis

Wasn't this Sport England money one of the reasons we abolished GB?

Clearly you have underestimated the number of children in that there London/Home Counties et al as the numbers swell by at least 500M every other month


As far as I have seen the participation figures for u16s(which as pointed out aren't counted for the relvance of SE funding anyway) have increased year on year for quite some time with more and more kids attending 'camps and/or minis/full contact tournaments at all age levels. Medway Dragons being one of the huge success stories with massive increase over the last 3-4 years.
Instead of having a pop at anything you don't understand (seemingly everything) why not try some constructive discussion...just a thought

No otherwise there would be no Olympic Team GB!