The long-awaited report on the current state of Bermuda?s sports clubs will be published before the end of the year, Sports Minister Dale Butler has revealed.

Responding yesterday to Shadow Minister Jon Brunson ? who questioned earlier this week whether there had been any progress on the report commissioned almost three years ago ? Butler denied he had so far failed to get on top of what many believe is the biggest problem facing local sports today.

And he defended the length of time it has taken the much-heralded Clubs Commission ? headed by Rolfe Commissiong ? to act on their mandate of finding solutions to the ever-growing problem of poor club infrastructure.

Finance Minister Paula Cox announced in this year?s budget that $1 million had been set aside for the Commission?s use, and when the report is completed, they will be empowered to assess funding applications from clubs.

?When I first came into the Ministry I made it clear that doing something about the state of the sports clubs was a priority,? Butler said.

?I asked Rolfe Commissiong to be in charge of the Clubs Commission because he has a real passion for the issue and I knew he was well-versed in it. We then went about finding other people from the community to serve.

?We took the decision that we were not going to bring in overseas experts to look at the problem ? we wanted Bermudians to do it ? and the (slow) progress on the report is what can sometimes happen when you ask a group of hard-working Bermudians to serve on a public body.

?We have also not been helped by the lukewarm reception we got from the clubs when we first announced the Commission?s existence. We held a meeting at BAA in November, 2003, when we invited representatives from all the clubs to come along to meet the Commissioners and discuss the way forward. Only five clubs turned up and since that time I understand that a lot of them have not always done their best to co-operate with the Commission.

?I don?t regret the approach we have taken at all ? in fact, I have the utmost respect and admiration for Mr. Commissiong who has just provided me with a first draft of their official report, which I must say is an excellent read and contains a huge amount of information which will be of great use to us going forward.

?I expect the final version to be completed in the next month or two and a Cabinet paper will then be prepared for November. Once it has been discussed by Cabinet, we will then go into overdrive disseminating the report to the media and all the sports clubs.

?It has certainly taken a while, but the process is nearing completion and I?m confident by the end of it we will have a definitive plan of action for our sports clubs.

?Now it?s all very well from Mr. Brunson to come up with fancy sounding slogans like ?National Sports Agenda?, but when we debated his motion in the House of Assembly a while back he was only on his feet for around half an hour. It was a terrible debate. I came prepared to listen and was expecting lots of innovative ideas and suggestions, but there was nothing ? absolutely no meat on the bones.

?But you can do that sort of thing when you are in Opposition and while we have been doing our utmost, the UBP has brought virtually nothing to the table.?

In Wednesday?s Big Interview, Brunson argued that while Government?s $11 million in cricket over four years was laudable, state spending on sport across the board was ?nowhere near enough? ? pointing by way of example to the Bermuda Olympic Association?s ?pitiful? $200,000 annual grant from which they must fund all elite amateur athletes in need of cash.

The Sports Minister, however, said that cricket had not just been rewarded ?for the scale of the achievement? but because it was run by a governing body which was ?organised, efficient and ambitious?.

?A lot of these national governing bodies complain about the lack of funding, but most of them do not help themselves,? he said.

?Of course, we had to invest heavily in cricket after they qualified for the World Cup, but one of the reasons we managed to convince the Finance Minister that they were worthy of that level of investment was because they came to us and gave a first-class presentation. They had a long-term plan and a very clear vision of where they wanted to take the sport and what it was going to take to get there.

?They had all their ducks in a row right from the beginning and we were confident that the money we were giving them would be well-used and always accounted for. I cannot say the same thing about a lot of other sports and as a responsible Government we cannot just hand out money.

?The Ministry also has to get in line with everybody else and as we are all aware there are many other areas such as health and housing which continue to need significant investment. The public purse is not infinite.?