By Dan Holland — February 2, 2012

It has been confirmed that the £40 York Sport membership fee is on the verge of being eradicated.

In the next academic year, sportsmen and women playing for teams at University level will only have to pay a fee to join their club of choice, rather than paying the extra £40 to become a member of York Sport.

YUSU are not including the controversial membership fees in their budget for next year, and the plans are now only waiting to be officially signed off on by the University.

Sam Asfahani, York Sport President, told Nouse that he was very happy to see the fees on the verge of disappearing, something that he and others at YUSU have been trying to accomplish for a number of years, only to see their proposals rebuffed.

Asfahani commented: “We’ve been working really hard over the last few years to get rid of York Sport membership and it’s good to see that we are so close to getting it officially signed off, and that the University is positive towards the change.”

Nouse first revealed in February of last year that the University and York Sport had combined to form a plan that could see membership becoming free by October 2012.

This was after the coalition government’s announcement to rise the tuition fee threshold, with the University of York charging the maximum of £9,000. Increasing the funding for sport and extra-curricular activities has been seen as a way of reducing the financial burden placed on students.

At the time, Asfahani stated that he was “extremely optimistic” that the plans would come to fruition, but it has taken until now to confirm that the membership fee is no longer seen as a necessary source of funding.

In November, it was suggested that the various clubs which do not use University facilities, such as sailing, should not pay for membership, but now the only major charge will be for individual club membership.

This is the latest in a series of positive announcements to come out of York Sport this academic year.

Alongside the opening of the new £11m Sports Village, which is set for 16th July, York Sport will receive £142,000 from Sport England over the next three years, with the University currently applying to receive the first instalment of the grant.

That money has been earmarked to “completely revolutionise college and participation sport, and the way it’s delivered”, with college rugby being moved on campus once the Sports Village is open and more college football leagues being created.

There are also plans to further promote women’s football through more regular matches, and to also give additional funding to other sports such as badminton and squash.

In addition, colleges have this year been given an extra £900 to be spent on sport, money which was previously taken directly from the JCRCs’ YUSU block grant to cover various costs associated with college sport.

That came after the £5 charge to play in college sport was removed last year, a move that Asfahani described as “just the first step on our drive to push college sport forward”.

York Sport was also given £1000 by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to fund two projects as part of the National Union of Students’ ‘Be a Champion’ initiative.