UK Athletics has been told by Sport England that it has until Christmas to organise internal disputes or it could lose over £40m in lottery funding.

The money was made available to UKA as a form of compensation after the government backed out of building a new national athletics stadium at Picketts Lock, causing the sport to lose the 2005 World Championships, which were due to be hosted in London.

Chief executive, David Moorcroft has already drawn up proposals for distributing the money, which would include; £3m of direct revenue investment in athletics clubs; £3m to be spent on the expansion of coaching education and development; and £5m to refurbish and modernise club tracks.

While much of the sport is in agreement with some of Moorcroft’s plans, the main point of contention is his proposal to introduce a radical new structure which is formed around 12 regional hubs, each managing athletics, from grassroots to elite performance, in its territory.

The plans have outraged the long-established existing regional bodies and the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) has flatly rejected the plans.

Moorcroft penned an open letter in Athletics Weekly, calling for unity, but the schisms in the sport could well not be closed in time to meet Sport England’s deadlines. Moorcroft would then face either losing the £41m, or having to enforce the changes. Both options could carry potentially disastrous repercussions.