The news that the RFL will receive Sport England funding of £11,902,306 for a five-year period from the start of next month to support the England team and the community game is very good news indeed.
Someone at the RFL needs to be congratulated on the work they have done to get this level of support.
Sport England will be handing out £193 million over the next five years to a wide variety of organisations – many of them charitable organisations – that aim to generate more activity in a wide variety of sports, with an emphasis on getting people to take part in sport who otherwise may be inactive.
A total of 43 organisations will receive financial support. And the RFL will receive the second highest figure of all the grants due to be given out. Only SportsAid, which is a UK charity that helps the next generation of British sport stars at the start of their careers when their parents are their only other means of support, has received a higher award – in its case £16,465,000. The charity helps these athletes by giving them cash awards to help them meet the cost of training and competing.
Two thirds of the athletes who represented the United Kingdom in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were SportsAid alumni.
The RFL hasn’t published the details of how it will apply the Sport England funds but I’m sure they will be applied in some very worthy ways.
Many Rugby League supporters love nothing more than to criticise the governing body for various reasons, many of them unjustified
But sometimes we should acknowledge good work when we see it.
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