Sport in the United Kingdom
- A website with details of UK stadia
- An illustrated guide to English football grounds
- An illustrated guide to Scottish football grounds
[
Student sport
Apart from a couple of Oxbridge events, student sport has a very low profile in the United Kingdom. While universities have significant sports facilities, there is no system of sports scholarships. However students who are elite standard competitors are eligible for funding from bodies such as UK Sport on the same basis as anyone else. The university most focused on sports provision is Loughborough University. Budding professionals in the traditionally working class team sports of football and rugby league rarely go to university. Talented youngsters in the more middle class sports of cricket and rugby union are far more likely to attend university, but their sports clubs usually play a greater role in developing their talent than their university coaches. Some sports are attempting to adapt to new conditions in which a far higher proportion of British teenagers attend university than in the past, notably cricket, which has established several university centres of excellence.
[
School sport
Sport is compulsory for all students up to the age of sixteen, but the amount of time devoted to it is often small. There are frequent complaints that state sector schools do too little to encourage sport and a healthy lifestyle. Since the 1980s it has become a cliché to complain about sales of school playing fields for development.
Sports culture is stronger in independent schools in the United Kingdom, and these schools contribute disproportionate numbers of elite competitors in almost all sports with the exceptions of football, rugby league, boxing and perhaps athletics.
In addition to the many of the sports already mentioned, popular sports at junior level include netball and rounders, both of which are played almost entirely by girls. However, in recent times schoolgirls have increasingly played sports which are traditionally male, especially football, but also others such as rugby.
The leading body for physical education in the United Kingdom is the Association for Physical Education.
[
See also
- Sport in England
- Sport in Ireland
- Sport in Scotland
- Sport in Wales
- Sport in the Isle of Man
- Sport in Jersey
- Sport in Guernsey
- Sport in Gibraltar
[
External links
- Association for Physical Education Association for Physical Education afPE Official website
[
Notes
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||||
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.