London hopes wait on funding news

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BBC Sport's Matt Slater reports from Sheffield on the Olympic funding gap

Britain's Olympic and Paralympic sports will find out on Wednesday just how much funding they will receive in the run-up to the 2012 Games in London.

UK Sport plans to announce at 1430 GMT how it has divided up its £550m budget.

The amount is £50m below the £600m that had been pledged because of a lack of money from the private sector as a result of the global economic crisis.

But the shortfall would have been greater had the government not found an additional £29m of funding on Tuesday.

Culture secretary Andy Burnham said the extra cash would give Britain's Olympians "certainty" as they prepare for the London Games.

People can build for London... this is a package that works for everybody Andy Burnham Culture secretary

"It's a good deal but a realistic one given the changed economic circumstances we are now in," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"People can build for London. This is a package that works for everybody."

UK Sport, which handles budgets for Britain's Olympians and Paralympians, had been allocated £600m over six years for elite sports, with £300m coming from the government, £200m from the Lottery and £100m from the private sector.

But with a global financial crisis in full swing, no money was forthcoming from businesses, leaving UK Sport with the prospect of reducing the number of athletes, and perhaps sports, it funded ahead of the London Games.

Cuts are still in the offing, but the outlook is not as gloomy as it was. All sports, with the exception of football and tennis, will receive some funding, whether or not they offer realistic chances of medals.

"No-one is more committed than us to ensuring we have a full team that performs creditably in every sport," said UK Sport chair Sue Campbell.

There is still pain to come, but this basically shores up the Olympic ambitions for the British team to 2012 BBC Radio 5 Live Olympic correspondent Gordon Farquhar

"But there will be some sports at the bottom where we've just got to be realistic and say we've still got some work to do to raise that money - but we haven't given up on those sports and we'll not give up on anybody."

BBC Radio 5 Live Olympic correspondent Gordon Farquhar said the additional money should help to keep alive Great Britain's stated aim of finishing fourth in the medal table.

"The amount they've now got means that they don't have to start downgrading medal hopes," said Farquhar.

"There is still pain to come, but this basically shores up the Olympic ambitions for the British team to 2012."

UK Sport pledged to inform the 26 Olympic and 20 Paralympic sports what their London 2012 budgets are by 1100 GMT on Wednesday. The spending plans will be made public at a media conference later.

Burnham added: "It really is for the experts now to take difficult but realistic decisions, sport by sport, about where our medal potential lies. But we are saying that no sport will be cut adrift."

He also remains confident of being able to tease money out of the private sector to help athletes prepare for London.

Team GB claimed 61 Olympic and Paralympic gold medals in Beijing

"Sport is such a great thing to invest in, even in difficult economic times," he said.

"It's not frivolous spending in any way, shape or form. This is money that brings real benefit in terms of greater activity in the population and real joy, real happiness when we see our national team do well.

"It is also right now that we really up our efforts to bring in private sector funding to support our preparations for London."

Shadow Olympics minister Hugh Robertson has insisted the government should have honoured the original commitment.

"This still falls £50m short of what the Government unconditionally promised sport that it would get two years ago."

Team GB finished fourth in the medals table in Beijing, exceeding expectations by landing 19 golds. China were top with 51 golds, followed by the USA (36) and Russia (23).

At the Paralympics, Team GB claimed 42 golds to finish in second place in the table, 47 behind the hosts.