UP312 Ed Warner on the future of UK Athletics

What's going on at UK Athletics?The last few weeks have seen a series of stories about the financial plight of the governing body.In the accounts released in December, UKA returned a £1.8million deficit for 2021-22 with reserves falling from £2.2m to £430,000 in the space of a year.Subsequent stories have referenced job losses and most recently the decision to close its Alexandra Park head office in Birmingham.Today's guest is Ed Warner, who was chair of UK Athletics for ten years between 2007 and 2017. Warner recently wrote a blistering critique of the current state of UK Athletics, in his own newsletter, Sport Inc.This was in part a response to a piece by Matt Lawton in The Times, which we reference in the first part of our conversation. That article is here (paywall) Drive To Survive: UK Athletics offering Netflix-style documentary in bid to avoid going bust.Ed Warner's current roles reflect his previous careers in sport and financial services. He's chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and Crystal Palace's Palace for Life Foundation and holds similar roles at HarbourVest Global Private Equity among others.  We talked to Ed at The Kia Oval cricket ground in London during the recent SportsPro Live event, so thanks to Nick Meacham and his team at SportsPro for letting us do that. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.