An ambitious athlete’s dream of becoming a professional sportsman could be jeopardised because of limited funding post-Olympics forcing a skint student to put his hand in his pocket.
Matt Lee, 21, of Doggett Street, Leighton, was part of the Team GB Ambition programme prior to the London 2012 Games, but since then has spoken out about the lack of funding available as he sees his position in the sport progress.
Matt, who plays for Salford HC, has been selected for the GB senior squad for our upcoming Euro 2016 qualifier against Greece at the end of the month.
He said: “I’m looking forward to hopefully getting my second cap for the senior team and gaining some more experience at the high level.
The only problem is British Handball, like many other sports, has limited or no funding post-Olympics for the national squads, all of the selected players have to pay for travel expenses ourselves.
The former Vandyke Upper School student has been playing handball for the past five years and is now studying for his masters in sports physiology at Liverpool John Moores University while remaining incredibly passionate about being able to play his beloved sport professionally at the highest level.
“With my current expenses for my club, plus uni fees, it’s becoming really hard to financially support my ambitions to become a better handball player. I work part time, but like many part-time jobs its long hours and not great pay.
“So I’m trying really hard to find other sources of sponsorship or funding to help cover the travel expenses which I’m really struggling to meet at the moment.”
If you are a business or individual who might be willing to sponsor Matt to help him reach his goal of being part of the next British Olympic handball team, he is contactable by email on matt_jc_lee@ hotmail.co.uk.
He also has a fundraising page that you can access here.