Failing to invest in success

Amateur sports are the bedrock of the Britain's success in the current olympics.  That's what the government will undoubtedly be saying following the success of our athletes.  New Labour will be crowing with delight as our olympians strike gold after gold with 2012 in London yet to come.

I'd like to get my retaliation in first and suggest that the Olympic situation is in spite of, rather than because of, the way the British government (both national and local) gets involved in sport.

The cycling team have been backed by UK Sport, funded by Lottery money, and organised by fantastic performance directors.  The rowers are the product of years of coaching in Universities across the country, to the point where private sponsorship is the norm.  Sailing is a massive leisure sport in certain areas, where Britain has traditionally competed if not been world beaters.  The evidence against any form of sudden massive improvement due to government policy is the fact that the majority of track athletes have barely made it into their semi finals (apologies to our new 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu).

Amateur sport in Britain is in a pretty unhealthy state.  Sports grounds are becoming scarcer, and more importantly more expensive every year.  Without wanting to get into the realms of Sky Sports populist investigation into the state of amateur football, it is a problem that is in evidence in many of the UK's favourite pastimes.

There is a fantastic set of facilities at Sportcity, where the cyclists are based, but there is little advertising that these are available to the general public.  The council surely has an obligation to the payers of council tax to ensure that their leisure needs are cared for, along with their desire to see every street in Manchester dug up once a year.

If you play football in any of the Manchester leagues, you'll know that every year you must find more and more money to pay for a pitch, whilst also paying the FA, referee, Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all.  The state of the council pitches is laughable, we regularly turn up to find they've not been mown, lines unpainted, pitches so poorly drained as to be unplayable or in some cases, the posts so sunken into the ground as to make them little more than 5 a side goals.

If the government really want us to believe they don't want us to win the title of the most obese nation on earth, then they need to make sure that the amateur sportsmen (of all sports) get the maximum opportunity to participate, and not be ruled out on the basis that they can't afford all the top gear or a multi-million pound stadium.  Lottery grants to improve local sports facilities would be a step in the right direction, and as important for our local communities as any campaign against knives.