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UK Sport - paintball as a sport

jonhaley

jonhaley

Active Member
Jun 24, 2002
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Morning all

There are frequent posts here about why paintball is not recognised as a sport in the UK. I need a specific and, if possible, concise answer to the following:

On what grounds has/does UK Sport decline to recognise paintball as a sport?

Presumably someone at UKPSF can answer this? Has a particular response been received from UK Sport following UKPSF's representations?


Please - no rants or guesses here. Just factual answers if you know them.

Thanks.
 
Syd (NSPL)

Syd (NSPL)

NSPL and Pr0to KotH
Aug 30, 2001
2,116
41
73
47
Torquay, UK
www.purepaintball.co.uk
I believe Bully is on holiday at the moment, but Russell Smith might be able to answer you.

I know the Sports Council has given plenty of excuses/reasons, the UKPSF has successfully argued against most if not all of them and then the SC come back with another. They seem to be dragging the issue out as much as possible.

The UKPSF have a big file on this - I would suggest contacting them directly.
 
Hotpoint

Hotpoint

Pompey Paintballer
Jul 28, 2001
832
0
0
Portsmouth, United Kingdom, European Union
www.ukpsf.com
Originally posted by jonhaley

On what grounds has/does UK Sport decline to recognise paintball as a sport?

Presumably someone at UKPSF can answer this? Has a particular response been received from UK Sport following UKPSF's representations?
Click to expand...
Well this is my specific area of UKPSF responsibility so here you go. Long story short the reason why paintball has not been recognised according to the Sports Council is:

"Recognition of Paintball would not be a priority in helping the Sports Councils achieve their strategic objectives"

And when I asked them what their "strategic objectives" were they responded that the strategic objectives of the councils (England, Scotland, Wales Northern Ireland) generally are to

"promote, develop and achieve excellence in those activities formally recognised by the councils"

Whereas for UKSport (united Kingdom Sports Councils) the strategic objective is:

"the provision of support for athletes at a GB/UK level with realistic chances of winning medals at the highest level in formally recognised Olympic/Paralympic programme sports and UK/GB sports which are significant in the international sporting arena"

Yes these are both circular arguments in that the first is just plain nuts (you can't get recognition because you aren't already recognised) and the second fails to grasp that you can't actually get into the Olympics without first getting national recognition nor is it easy to become "significant" if you aren't recognised in the first place.

I have massive amounts of correspondance on this issue but the above is basically it. Yes these are direct quotes from letters from UKSport to the UKPSF :eek:

I actually got the decision initially overturned because the reason given was not within the list of Recognition Criteria published by the Councils...but when they voted on it again they turned us down again for the exact same reason!



Bit of trivia. Since they got lottery funding the Sports Councils have not recognised one new activity... amazing coincidence :p

Oh yes, the DCMS (Department of Culture Media and Sport) insists that the decision is entirely up to the Sports Councils and they have final say on whether to recogise an activity or not.

I can give you the original reasons (from the first application way back in 1994 before I joined the UKPSF) if you want but I shot those down in flames easily.
 
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