§ Mr. Alasdair MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much financial assistance was made available by(a) the National Lottery, (b) the English Sports Council, (c) the Government, (d) the UK Sports Council and (e) the Football Trust to assist (i) the preparation of the bid to hold the 1996 European football championships, (ii) with the upgrading of stadiums and other facilities for the 1996 European football championships and (iii) with the running costs of the 1996 European football championships. [127698]
§ Kate HoeyFunding for the 1996 European championships was made available as follows:
- (a) No Lottery funding was made available, either for the preparation of the bid or for the running of the championships.
- (b) The English and UK Sports Councils were not in existence until 1997, but the then GB Sports Council contributed £80,000 towards the costs of the cultural programme.
- (c) The Government, through the Association for Business Sponsorship for the Arts and the Sportsmatch scheme, made available a total of £400,000 for the cultural programme which ran alongside the championships in the eight host cities. No other direct Government subvention was made. Much of the expenditure incurred during the running of the tournament, including the costs of additional policing, was met by the local authorities of the eight host cities.
- (d) See (b).
- (e) The Football Trust provided £19 million towards stadia improvements in the eight host cities during the period from 1993 to 1996. That sum was the Trust's contribution to the
442W £72 million spent by the eight host clubs in the five years before the 1996 championships on essential ground safety work following the publication of the Taylor Report. Taking all professional clubs in England into account, the Trust made available £136 million for Taylor-related work over that five-year period. The Trust also contributed a further £500,000 towards the general running costs of the championships.