British government to cover third of Olympics funding shortfall

LONDON (AP) -- The British government agreed Tuesday to cover more than a third of a funding shortfall for the country's Olympic sports at the 2012 London Games.

The move clears the way for the British Olympic Association to pursue its target of finishing fourth in the medals table, matching its performance at the Beijing Games.

Government culture secretary Andy Burnham offered British sports $43.4 million, reducing the deficit to $74.8 million. Officials say the shortfall was caused by the global financial crisis.

Sports with slim medal hopes will face funding cuts, which will be announced Wednesday. Volleyball, basketball and handball are most vulnerable because of the cost of team sports.

About $150 million was expected to come from private business, but it failed to develop because of the economic downturn. The gap was trimmed to $118.2 million by sales of lottery tickets.

"We have reached the very limit of public investment in Olympic sport," Burnham said. "I accept that raising private funds is challenging in the current economic conditions. But British business has a great track record of investing in sport. I urge them to rally around the British athletes as we prepare for this historic moment of our first home Olympics in generations."

In a sign of the financial pressures on the Olympics, leading sponsors of the 2012 Games met with UK prime minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday.

Brown and Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee, were among those to speak at the first meeting of the so-called "Chairman's Club."

"In these challenging times, we all need to look at creative ways in which we can make the most of these partnerships," Coe said.

The news comes after The Times of London reported Tuesday that the government ignored a 2002 report that the Olympics would not bring any economic benefit to Britain -- even before the downturn.

"We concluded that countries should host the Olympics only for reasons of national celebration because the economic rationale is weak," John Clark, the report's chief author, told the paper.

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