Speaking exclusively to insidethegames, Sparkes said that "£100,000 ($168,000/€121,000) could make all the difference".

He emphasised that the governing body had absolutely no uncommitted contingency funds available.

"I am not allowed to steal some swimming or diving money and reallocate it," he said.

"To be honest, I raided the biscuit-tin to send two teams to [the Commonwealth Championships in] Aberdeen."

The European Championships, due to be held in the Hungarian capital between July 14 and 27, have now emerged as an absolutely critical event in determining the future of a GB team which this week followed up England's double victory in those Commonwealth Championships by beating world champions Spain 9-7 in a world league fixture in Manchester.

Elite performance agency UK Sport, which recently decided to remove water polo's funding having initially awarded the sport £4.54 million ($7.53 million/€5.54 million) to help it prepare for the Rio 2016 Olympics, effectively signalled as much today via a statement in which it said consistent high performance was needed if the sport was to regain funding.

Britian's attentions are now firmly fixed on the European Championships after victory over world champions Spain in Manchester ©Sports Illustrated/Getty Images


"We're always pleased to hear of a British team beating a nation that has won medals at the highest level," said a UK Sport spokesman.

"While we commend this single performance, significant results need to be achieved consistently to confirm medal potential.

"We monitor the performances of all funded and unfunded Olympic and Paralympic sports, to review qualification and medal prospects for Rio and beyond, and formally review our investment decisions, every autumn."

The immediate problem facing the team is that this removal of funding now starts to bite almost straight away, with team manager Graeme Thompson expecting to be made redundant on April 30 and athlete-related payments expected to halt on June 15.

UK Sport is, however, said to be providing £75,000 ($126,000/€91,000) for the team to prepare for, and go to, Budapest.

Even so, it is asking a lot of these athletes to maintain their recent level of performance fuelled by adrenalin and frustration alone, particularly when they are unexpectedly having to rethink their own futures.

Commenting directly on the win over Spain, Sparkes said that it demonstrated "the unpredictability of sports, which often doesn't follow neat curves".

He added: "It reinforces our belief that the strategy adopted by UK Sport in terms of team sports needs further review and we will be seeking to influence this for water polo and the future of all team sports."

The British Swimming chief executive also confided that "the view we have formed is that if the ladies perform with real distinction in Budapest, that is the time to make a very loud noise".

UK Sport stated in February that "water polo was among the sports that were not able to demonstrate they had a realistic chance of performing well within the top eight in Rio 2016 and targeting a medal performance in 2020".

British Swimming decided in March not to appeal UK Sport's withdrawal of funding from water polo, even though it is pursuing an appeal against withdrawal of funding from synchronised swimming.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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