British athletics dubbed a 'complete mess' with BBC partly to blame
UK Athletics is in dire straits
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UK Athletics is in dire straits heading into next year's Paris Olympics, according to one unnamed British athlete, with their current deal with the BBC partly to blame.
Athletes in the UK have previously held legendary status among the British public with the likes of Linford Christie, Sebastian Coe, Steve Redgrave and Jessica Ennis-Hill among those to capture the hearts of a nation.
A large part of their popularity was due to the BBC's coverage throughout the calendar year with the general public easily able to keep up with their favourite athletes.
But the sport's coverage of athletics in the UK over the past few years has fallen by the wayside and UK Athletics were even forced to pay the BBC for covering part of this year's Diamond League meeting in London.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson will be pushing for gold in Paris
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UK Athletics lost their annual £3million contract to screen major domestic events with the BBC back in 2020.
The annual World Tour event in Birmingham has also been scrapped from next year's schedule after announcing losses off £500,000.
The Diamond League meeting in London this year marked a momentous occasion in British athletics history when Zharnel Hughes smashed John Regis' 30-year 200m national record.
There was a sell-out crowd inside the London Stadium to witness history, but UK Athletics reportedly had to pay the BBC for covering the landmark event in a telling example of how far the sport has fallen in this country.
A few months later and Great Britain posted their best World Championship performance since 1993 with 10 medals, including golds from Josh Kerr and Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
Despite the positive result, UK Athletics this month announced losses of £3.7m for 2023 and one British athlete appears to be sick and tired of the governing body.
“Everyone I have talked to says it’s a complete mess,” the unnamed athlete told the Telegraph.
UK Athletics have also been unable to find a major sponsor since cutting ties with Muller and there has been no broadcast company willing to replicate the previous BBC deal.
“Now you have the BBC thinking, ‘Do we need to renew? Where else are UK Athletics going to go?’,” an industry insider said.
“Sky might spend money but, when you sit down with a big potential sponsor like Aviva, Sainsbury’s or Muller, they want a couple of million eyeballs watching.
"It’s a virtuous circle. If you haven’t got the shop window you can’t bring in the sponsor.”
All this comes just months before the Paris Olympics where Great Britain will be hoping for a big medal haul in athletics.
Johnson-Thompson, Kerr, Hughes, Laura Muir, Dina Asher-Smith and Keely Hodgkinson are among the athletes pushing for gold next year.
UK Athletics insist their financial position is less perilous due to their new kit deal with Nike running from 2030 to 2040 with a large portion of the agreement reportedly paid upfront.
And UKA chair, Ian Beattie, has played down fears of the governing body's financial situation by stating they have money in the bank from Nike.
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He said: “We’ve closed the year on 31 March 2023 with cash in the bank of £6.5m. Now that’s going in quite the opposite direction from the accounting loss.
"And that was due exclusively to Nike. We renegotiated our agreement and they made a significant cash payment to us.”
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