Political interference? 'We will fight, I promise'

When Derek Mapp was appointed chairman of Sport England he was immediately labelled as another New Labour crony, a multi- millionaire party donor who had got the job because he was a pal of John Prescott. After seven months in the [pound]32,000-a-year part- time post, during which he has changed the direction of the Government-funded quango and had a furious spat with his Whitehall bosses over cuts in Lottery funding, the jibes still rankle. Time, he says, to put the record straight.

"Look, I had five interviews, two more than anyone else. My political affiliation was simply in giving a second-hand printing machine to a Labour councillor, a friend, to produce election leaflets. There was no donation as such and it was declared."

He admits a long-standing acquaintance with Prescott and the Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, but says the former is largely through their respective wives. "John wanted somewhere to go to get away from you guys - as usual - and we offered him our house in Majorca, which he accepted and paid me a rent for.

"Whatever people might think, I'm not a caged pigeon of this Government or anyone else. I'm apolitical. There seems to be too much politics coming into sport and I am determined not to allow it to happen while I'm in this job."

So how closely allied is Sport England to the Government? "Well, we are a quango, but most of our money comes from the Lottery and we have Lottery rules about what we should do with it," says the 56- year-old Mapp. "Our Exchequer funding - 35 to 40 per cent - comes ring-fenced by what the Chancellor wants, so because of this Government funding we are required to deliver an agenda that has been written by politicians. My job is to deliver this in the most effective way, but if any interference becomes blatantly political we will fight, I promise you."

Of course, such fights may be unwinnable, as Mapp found when his protests about the decision to divert a further [pound]56 million of Sport England's share of the Lottery to the 2012 Olympics fell on deaf ears.

An angry Mapp called it "a cut too far which seriously endangers the creation of a sporting legacy". He adds: "I felt justified because it affects our ability to deliver as an organisation." He says that Caborn and himself "had a very long conversation" later and Whitehall sources say he made it clear he was was "very pissed off ".

He says: "Sport is the best tool we have to make a difference to the lifestyle agenda based on fitness and health, crime prevention and citizenship. We have undersold the value of community sport. That's my raison d'tre for the next four years, but I need funding to do that."

Ex-publican Mapp built the pub group Tom Cobleigh "in anger" after being made redundant from Mansfield Brewery, and later ran a chain of children's nurseries while becoming the chairman of the East Midlands Development Authority. This grammar school boy and rugby league man from Warrington who also played football has had a lifelong interest in sport.

So how does he see sport "mapping out" under Gordon Brown's regime? "Everyone tells me that he is very pro-sport. He would be missing a major trick if he wasn't because I think sport can achieve many Government agendas, whoever is in power.

"There is empirical evidence that if you can get kids to play sport then they don't commit crime. Everyone knows this, so why don't the Home Office put more money into it? It also makes kids fitter and prevents ill-health, so why don't we spend more health money? Why I am fighting for money when it can achieve the whole of these agendas is a question I ask repeatedly.

"I've set an ambition to get two million more people participating in sport by 2012. I think we'll do it, but I need funding. I've lost [pound]56m but I've set up a commercial department to raise [pound]50m. I'm not giving up, though I'm chairman of Sport England for as long as I'm useful. The day I become a pain in the backside, or people start interfering, is the day I bugger off."

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