Tuesday 12 May 2015 18:32, UK
Tracey Crouch has been named as the Sports Minister in the new Conservative government.
The 39-year-old, the MP for Chatham and Aylesford since 2010, has been a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee since 2012 and has served as the vice chair of the All Party Group for Women in Sport.
Crouch, an FA-qualified coach and former footballer who manages a girls' football team in Kent, has previously spoken out after being blocked from playing in a Parliamentary football team because she is female.
Her appointment by Prime Minister David Cameron follows that of John Whittingdale on Monday as the Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
Mr Whittingdale has spent a decade as the chair of the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee, three of those working alongside Crouch.
His role on the Select Committee involved scrutinising government spending and policy. The Maldon MP has conducted high-level inquires across sport and sport governance. He has been a vocal critic of UK football governance and said if football does not reform itself, UK legislation is needed.
He has been equally critical of international football governance after he conducted the 2011 inquiry into England’s 2018 World Cup bid and the claims of corruption involving FIFA delegates and the Qatar and Russia bids.
'Controversial'
He called for the 2022 World Cup ballot to be re-run and questioned Qatar’s capability to host the 2022 World Cup. The new minister has even taken on FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who is standing for a controversial fifth term as president this month, saying his position is “almost untenable” following his response to corruption allegations.
The two new ministers will have a busy five-year period. There are a number of high profile sports events in the UK during the next five years; the Rugby World Cup this autumn, the World Athletics Championship in the Olympic Stadium in 2017, the International Paralympic Athletics World Championships and the Cricket World Cup in 2019
Funding for Olympic and Paralympic athletes appears safe as the party promised to continue to support UK Sport funding for elite athletes on their journey to the 2016 Rio Olympics and Paralympics.
The Conservative Party’s manifesto outlined aims to encourage new sports in the UK, by forging greater links with the US National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, with the ultimate ambition of new franchises being based here.
They promised to improve the quality of community sports facilities, working with local authorities, the Football Association and the Premier League to fund investment in artificial football pitches in more than 30 cities across England.
They stated their aim to lift the number of women on national sports governing bodies to at least 25 per cent by 2017, and seek to increase participation in sport by women and girls.
And the Conservative Party has promised to support school sports with £150m-a-year to head teachers for primary schools until 2020.
