Hard times (for some) in sport’s big society

SPORTSMEN and women who might have been looking upon Britain’s strategic spending review as a bellwether for the much-dreaded Irish Budget on December 7 have 42 sleepless nights left.

Hidden away in a performance by the UK Chancellor George Osborne which could best be likened to Edward Scissorhands on speed were cuts to the sporting fabric of the next Olympic hosts to send shivers down the spine.

Not to the Olympics themselves, of course. They have been ring-fenced because, in a phrase curiously reminiscent of the 1969 Chicago Transit Authority debut album, “the whole world is watching.”