UK Sports have had a rethink on the funding of the Great Britain
national programme, following a successful appeal by British Performance
Basketball last Wednesday.

Funding details remain to be agreed, but the GB teams are assured of funding for at least a year.

BBL
Chairman Paul Blake welcomed the news, “We are absolutely delighted
that UK Sports has accepted the strength of the case of basketball,
which we all believed was compelling. Our thanks to the great work of
the Basketball All Party Parliamentary Group, led by Sharon Hodgson, MP,
and the superb efforts of Stephen Mosley, MP, Chairman of the BBL
Foundation. And we are particularly grateful for all the basketball fans
up and down the country who supported the grass roots campaign driven
by Sam Neter and Russell Levenston. We believe this will prove a crucial
turning point for our sport.”

GB and Leicester Rider’s player,
Drew Sullivan commented: “Today’s news is absolutely fantastic for the
sport, I am overwhelmed to hear basketball have been awarded funding
from UK Sport.

“This news puts GB firmly back on the map and on
the road to success. I would like to say a huge thank you to all the
fans who have supported the campaign to fund British Basketball.”

Sharon Hodgson, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Basketball

“On
behalf of the APPG on Basketball, I am thrilled with UK Sport’s
decision to fund Basketball for the Rio Olympic cycle. This is fantastic
news for the thousands of young people who enjoy playing Basketball
every week, and for those young athletes inspired by London 2012 to work
towards competing at Basketball’s elite level. Basketball is at the
centre of an immeasurable amount of positive work in local communities
up and down the country, and having an Olympic team for these young
people to look up to is vital to these efforts. I am confident that
this decision will enable British Basketball to continue in their
strides of progress up the global leader-boards, and enter into Rio 2016
with a superb chance of competing for a place on the podium”

Chester’s
MP Stephen Mosley, Chairman of the BBL Foundation, has offered his
congratulations to the British basketball community after UK Sport
reversed their decision to cut basketball’s funding for the Rio 2016
Olympics to zero. Stephen Mosley said:

“This is absolutely fantastic news and incredibly important for the future of basketball in the UK.

“UK
Sport deserve a great deal of credit for going back on their original
decision, but they had a compelling case put before them.

“Everyone
associated with the game can be incredibly proud of the hard work that
they have put in, and although the full four year funding allocation is
dependent on GB’s success at this summer’s EuroBasket tournament, the
ball is definitely back in our court.”

British Performance
Basketball’s Chairman Roger Moreland said: “We are absolutely delighted
with the decision of UK Sport today. They have acknowledged that we
successfully presented compelling new performance data, which not only
impressed the Board but made them recognise that we are potential podium
contenders for 2020. They could see from our evidence and that supplied
by Patrick Baumann from our International Federation (FIBA) that our
sport has an upward trajectory in terms of both performance and
participation. The endorsement and support of FIBA also played a
crucial part in our success by demonstrating through technical
information, how much progress we have made over the last 7 years as
well as our position globally. We will now enter into a dialogue with UK
Sport about the actual details and level of funding as well the support
services required. This is a momentous day for British basketball and
everyone who is connected with the sports, whether players, fans or
officials.”

Reacting to the decision, Mr Baumann, Secretary General
of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) said: “I am thrilled
for British basketball and UK Sport’s recognition and appreciation of
the very strong case we presented. The new funding will allow the sport
to build on the progress and growth it has already made in a very short
time and aim for a podium place in 2020.”