We’re millionaires! Handball in England secures triple funding for the next four years …
Some excellent news coming from England Handball today. Sport England have announced their latest round of Whole Sport Funding and England Handball has seen its funding trebled to £1.15m over the next four years.
The sport has been able to point to incredible growth which has accelerated since the Olympics. Over 12,000 people in England are now estimated to taking part in handball at least once a week and there has been a 40% increase in schools participation in national competitions.
This funding will support participation and grassroots development and we can be happy that that is an area that looks secure until the next Olympics at least. On the other side of the coin, UK Sport will tomorrow announce its funding for handball at the elite level and it will be a genuine surprise to see any positive news coming our way then.
The England Handball press release is here.
Handball Views 
Brilliant news particularly on the grassroots funding and greatly increased participation. However there is likely to be a bottleneck caused by the relatively few numbers of qualified coaches. Therefore I challenge you, if you are a coach with a good level of English, and a willingness to experience a new way of life, why not come to the UK for a year or two and lead the handball transformation. Handball has gone overnight from a sport that is unknown in the UK to one that is becoming increasingly popular. With your help, we could be increasing the participation rate dramatically and maybe increasing the skills to a level that would allow British athletes to compete on an international stage.