British Fencing is repeatedly finding itself in a position where it is owed significant sums of money from athletes (or their parents) as a result of GB trips.

Volunteer Team Managers make every effort to ensure that GB trips are paid for up front and that the sum being asked for is a fair reflection of the expected cost of the trips.

With the best of efforts, this hasn’t always proved possible, resulting in a high workload for both the staff and volunteers in chasing up overdue payments. This has the knock-on effect of delaying the processing of refunds to other athletes/parents and re-imbursements of officials’ expenses.

Therefore as of next season, athletes that have not settled their overdue bills for previous GB trips will no longer be eligible for selection.  Additionally, athletes who have been selected but fail to pay the necessary deposit in time will not be entered for the competition.

We do recognise that fencing internationally becomes expensive; there are already ways that we can provide advice and guidance to help athletes that are struggling financially. If you are in this position please contact your weapon co-ordinator early in the season to give us an opportunity to help.

(* An overdue bill will be considered one which has not been paid within 30 days of notification by BF or one of the authorised Team Managers that an amount is outstanding.)

Please note that the issue of non payments was not a factor in the decision to suspend cadet trips as announced on the 1st May 2014.