England Netball's Olympic Games Bid

 

 

 

Eboni Beckford Chambers

England and TeamBath's Eboni Beckford Chambers has an online Olympic petition in a bid for Netball to be included in the 2012 Olympic Games in London and is looking to get half a million signatures to back the bid. 

Eboni's FACEBOOK group entitled 'BID TO GET NETBALL IN THE 2012 OLYMPICS' has amassed great numbers since its creation and has been featured in a previous issue of the Netball Magazine. 

Regional and National press has aided the promotion and the numbers of member's keeps growing. 

The Daily Express has publicised much promotion of the FACEBOOK group

 

www.express.co.uk/netball

 

If you're a Facebook user, then enter netball in the Facebook search engine and you will fuind the group listed, just click "join group".

www.facebook.com

 

The Co-operative Backs Netball's Olympic Bid

25th April 2008

www.co-operative.coop

 

The Co-operative Group has announced plans to support England Netball’s bid to make netball an Olympic sport in the 2016 games. Speaking at the inaugural Co-operative Netball Superleague Player of the Year awards at the ICC in Birmingham on April 25th, The Co-operative’s Director of Food Retail Marketing, Debbie Robinson, announced the business’ intentions to encourage its 2.5 million members and customers to support the campaign.

The bid already has the backing of England Netball and Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also indicated that he would like to see the sport included in the London 2012 programme as a showcase event. Ms Robinson said: “Netball is the most popular team sport in the world for women, so in many ways it is unbelievable that it has not achieved Olympic status sooner. “In England alone it is played by over a million women and girls every week, and it is one of the core sports of the Commonwealth Games. And yet, despite being a recognised sport by the IOC, there are currently no plans to include it at either the London games or in 2016. “The inclusion of netball could have far reaching consequences on the health and fitness issues – as well as social problems – facing the UK’s girls and young women. Netball clubs play a vital role in their communities, and the increase in participation that Olympic recognition would bring could have a really positive effect,” concluded Robinson. The next review of the Olympic programme is scheduled for 2009, and The Co-operative hopes that the publicity from this campaign will have an impact on the decision-making process.

Paul Clark, CEO of England Netball, believes the inclusion of netball in the Olympic programme will be the catalyst for increasing and sustaining participation in the game - especially amongst young people, as it will significantly raise the profile of the game and showcase the top players as role models. “This is an exciting time for sport in general and for netball in particular, as the emerging government sports strategy seeks to establish a world class sports system in this country - a system that will seek to attract new and retain existing participants and allow talented athletes to fulfill their potential as netballers. “The government strategy recognises that women and girls are under-represented in sport generally, and possess the highest drop-off rates – and netball is superbly positioned to address all of these issues,” said Clark.

 

 Please join the Group and support the Bid!!

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