11 Jul 2017
Table Tennis England become first NGB to lose funding for breaching governance code
BY Matthew Campelli
The national governing body for table tennis has become the first to breach the government’s Code for Sports Governance, with its full £9m (US$11.6m, €10.2m) Sport England funding award suspended as a consequence.
Table Tennis England chair Sandra Deaton said losing the funding – which was due to cover the 2017-2021 period – has put the organisation’s “future at risk”.
On 8 July, the Table Tennis England board put forward a proposal to meet the requirements of the code.
The proposal needed the support of 75 per cent of leagues and counties to be accepted, but just fell short with 74.93 per cent.
As a result, governance changes will not go ahead and Table Tennis England remains non-compliant, meaning that funding has been taken away.
A spokesperson for Table Tennis England declined to reveal details of the proposal, but confirmed that a more detailed statement would be published “in due course”.
“Despite being told of the consequences, the action of a small number of the individuals, some with their own agendas, have meant that the association is now in a suspended state of business,” said Deaton.
“Table tennis has become the first sport to fail to deliver on the government’s requirements for funding. This has put our future at risk, as well as every programme we operate.”
A Sport England statement said the quango was “disappointed” by the vote and confirmed that the organisation was not in a position to receive public investment.
“Sport England has undertaken a substantial amount of work with Table Tennis England to prepare them to deliver their package of governance reforms,” said the statement.
“We note that members rejected the proposed changes by narrow margin, so Table Tennis England will be working to make improvements, and we hope that in the future they are able to meet the code to be eligible for funding again.”
Last October, Sport England and UK Sport delivered the government’s Code for Sports Governance, which stated that publically funded national governing bodies needed to increase boardroom diversity and transparency to keep their funding.
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