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UK sports funding for individuals, organisations and teams

Sports council funding

There are four primary bodies that have responsibility for promoting grassroots sport across the four nations of the UK. Each organisation distributes government and National Lottery funding to achieve this goal:

• Sport England
• sportscotland
• Sport Wales
• Sport Northern Ireland

These organisations fund projects that aim to increase participation or improve existing community sports facilities.

Government funding

The government provides most of its funding for grassroots sport through Sport England.

In addition to this, in June 2025 the government announced that major sporting events and grassroots sport across the UK would receive over £900 million as part of its Plan for Change.

In January 2026, the government announced that it was investing £85 million to build and upgrade grassroots sport facilities across the UK in 2026/27, as part of a £400 million boost for grassroots sport facilities across 2025-30. A list of the projects funded by the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2025/26 is available from gov.uk.

The Prime Minister announced £10 million of funding in March 2026, including at least £5 million for cricket and tennis facilities.

National governing body funding

A national governing body (NGB) is an organisation that governs and administers a sport on a national basis. Amongst an NGB’s typical responsibilities are organising competitions and promoting participation.

NGBs might offer very different funding schemes depending on the sport, such as capital grants to improve football stadiums, support for groups offering facilities to people usually under-represented in a sport, and interest-free loans for sports facilities.

A list of all the NGBs recognised by the UK sports councils can be accessed on Sport England’s website.

Funding for disability sports

Specific forms of funding are available for disability sport. Organisations might offer support to purchase specialist equipment for sports such as wheelchair tennis. Individuals and clubs may also be able to apply for more general funding to improve disabled peoples’ access to sport.

Funding for elite sport

UK Sport aims to support all potential Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

Other sources of sports funding

A variety of other organisations also offer funding to individual athletes and young people. These include charities that support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and organisations that fund individuals aiming to compete at the Olympic or Paralympic games.

Buddle – previously known as Club Matters - is an online platform created by Sport England to provide free help to those involved with grassroots clubs. A raising money section of the Buddle site sets out some of the ways that clubs can raise money.