The £1.5 million fund for organisations in the run up to the FIFA World Cup,Labour Plaid’s cheerleaders have done very well from this fund, as opposed to the undervalued community sports organisations

World Cup Partner Support Fund benefits Labour’s cheerleaders

n August, Vaughan Gething announced a £1.5 million fund for organisations in the runup to the FIFA World Cup, but only gave 11 days for applications. In a written statement today, it was announced that the funding has been allocated.

Commenting on the announcement, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Sport, Tom Giffard said:

“The Labour Government gave less than 11 days to put in an application, in the middle of Summer, so of course community sport organisations were not going to get much from this fund. The clear beneficiaries, as expected, were large organisations that already receive public funding.

“I was particularly taken aback by the news that The Barry Horns, an intolerant, exclusionary, abusive, Plaid Cymru supporting band received over £17,000 from a fund aimed at ‘promoting Wales, projecting our values’ and ‘securing a positive legacy’.

“In fact, Labour and Plaid’s cheerleaders have done very well from this fund, as opposed to the undervalued community sports organisations that we were calling for.”

The Barry Horns’ political affiliation is abundantly clear – on their Facebook page, they used the hashtag #KickToriesOutOfTheSenedd and in last year they posted ‘Have you joined Plaid Cymru yet? Do it now.’

Announced as part of a written statement on the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the fund was also supposed to come with a commitment to promote Wales via an international marketing campaign. There has been no update on this campaign or its cost, despite the World Cup fast approaching.