UK Sport under fire for ‘discriminatory’ funding cuts as murderball fights to have income restored – Telegraph.co.uk

The Government is being urged to investigate whether the stripping of elite funding from wheelchair rugby indicates a “discriminatory” attitude to Paralympic sport, as the game known as ‘murderball’ fights to have its income restored.

Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby, which was dropped from the Tokyo cycle, has written to Penny Mordaunt, the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, and Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, as the row over UK Sport’s decision to drop wheelchair rugby threatens to spill over into all Olympic and Paralympic funding.

Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, who is speaking in a personal capacity, is among the most vocal critics of UK Sport’s belief that wheelchair rugby falls short of medal potential.

“The more I’ve reflected on the decision to cut wheelchair rugby from funding, the more perverse it seems to me,” Warner told The Daily Telegraph.