BJA accounts

I have been in busy for many years and I still do not understand the minds of accountants. During the year I manage my own accounts in a simple excel programme i.e. Income and expenditure at the end of the year I add them up if the income is bigger then the expenditure then I make a profit. Not that simple I take them to my accountant and he will include so many other factors that my profit becomes a loss even though I have more money in the bank, some years it can be the other way round.

So why do I bring this to the attention of you Combat Practitioners well I have just had the British Judo Associations Financial statement sent me, well two actually as the BJA have a BJA LTD and a BJA Competition & Events Ltd, most is beyond me if I was a keen member I would get my accountant to explain it to me but it would be a waste of money.

What I wanted to know was how many members do they have? How much is spent on wages, how much is spent on the Olympic team (this can be seen clearly on the accounts it was £1567, 024) and how much was spent on legal fees trying to prosecute a top Coach and failing?

If you a BJA member and say what it to do with me well a big bulk of their money come from Government sources i.e. us the Tax payer . Maybe some one out there can explain things to me.

If we send 14 players to the Olympics each player would have cost us £111930.28p and we told we might not even get a medal while a few years ago rumours were of a possible 8 is this good value for money? Has this investment seen a massive improvement in membership?  Should other people have  got the chop?

When I was training for the 1980 Olympics I recollect we only had one Tony Ray on the admin side being paid a salary and on the Coaching side it was Dave Strarbrook and Tony McConnell, and the BJA most successful International period was the 1970’s and 80’s. Oh yes the Coaches were British makes you think  

British judo chairman Densign White had to axe the Team GB elite coaching set-up in order to try and get an Olympic medal

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BRITISH Judo chairman Densign White maintains he had to take a gamble in the quest to land an Olympic medal and axe the Team GB elite coaching set-up less than a year from the London Games.

A fifth-place finish for European bronze medalist Colin Oates was the highlight of an otherwise disappointing showing from the British squad at the recent World Championships in Paris, where the likes of leading contender Euan Burton, ranked in the top six for the half-middleweight division, failed to make the latter stages.

Last month the British Judo Association took the unusual step of changing their key personnel mid-cycle with the departures of performance director Margaret Hicks, head coach Patrick Roux and senior women’s coach Jane Bridge.

German Daniel Lascau, who was world champion in 1991 and competed at the Barcelona Games, today officially started his new role overseeing the BJA’s High Performance Programme.

White admits it was a tough decision to dispatch with the services of staff he had worked with for some time, but felt it necessary under the spotlight of delivering targets on the biggest stage of all next summer.

“I haven’t seen any improvement in our performance in the last two years that shows we could win more than one medal at London 2012,” White said.

“The World Championships target was one to three medals, so not to get any at all was very disappointing.

“I am not sure what we can do that is going to make a dramatic difference, but we have to try something.

“It is never pleasant to tell someone they no longer have a job, but the bigger risk for me is to come out of the London Games with no medals.

“If there is any chance I can change that, I have to take the risk.”

Team GB’s last Olympic medal was silver for Kate Howey in Sydney in 2000.