England Netball: Sport England to back national programme until 2021
- Published
England beat Uganda 3-0 in their series at the start of December
England Netball are to get financial backing from Sport England until 2021.
The governing body, who agreed a three-year sponsorship deal with partner Vitality in October, will receive 拢2.8 million from next year.
The National Lottery funding will be used to support grassroots netball as well as the senior squad, the Vitality Roses.
In January, the chief executive of England Netball said she feared for the future of the national programme.
But Joanna Adams says this investment will now allow the Roses to continue to play full-time, something she describes as "key for their progression and raising the profile of this wonderful sport".
"The worry of finding this kind of support for our commercial strategy, as we quickly approached 2019, has continued to keep me up at night, but this news means post 2019 it will be less of a challenge for England Netball to continue our upward progression," she added.
The investment by insurers Vitality came after Adams warned the existing Sport England funding of 拢3m, which was supposed to cover the cycle from 2017-2021, would run out by 2019.
But she says this new deal will allow the sport to look forward.
"With the backing of Sport England and our other amazing partners, we can enter the year of the Vitality Netball World Cup with a positive mindset and look forward to what the future holds for netball."
England completed a 3-0 clean sweep in their series against Uganda at the start of December.
The next competition for Tracey Neville's team is in January, when they face world champions Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in a quadrangular series staged in London and Liverpool.