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GREENWICH LEISURE LIMITED - BETTER

GREENWICH LEISURE LIMITED
BETTER

Greenwich Leisure Limited is a non profit distributing co-operative that runs over sixty leisure and fitness centres in eleven London boroughs, Reading and Epsom and Ewell, started in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The trust also runs and manages Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.
On 9 January 2012 it was announced that GLL would be managing the Aquatics Centre and Multi-Use Arena of the London 2012 Olympic Games from 2013 for 10 years.
Greenwich Leisure is a staff-led 'Leisure Trust', structured as an Industrial and Provident Society for the benefit of the community. 
The members of the co-operative and therefore owners of the company are the workers of Greenwich Leisure. Alongside democratically elected members of staff, the trust's board includes representation of other stakeholders, including the local communities, borough councils and trade unions.
In January 2011 Nexus Community and GLL merged in a deal that will see the new group operate more than 100 leisure centres across South East England.
GLL and Nexus have worked in partnership since 1996, most recently in the South Oxfordshire area where GLL has subcontracted the management of seven South Oxfordshire District Council leisure facilities to Nexus.
WIKIPEDIA

This article appears to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of view and removing any inappropriate external links. (May 2012)
The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for companies and organizations. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (May 2012) (this warning refers to the section above - obviously 'slipped in' by GLL publicity department)



Revised GLL Better Logo
Revised GLL Better Logo
Recently Albion London has been appointed to handle the advertising and rebranding of GLL, which operates more than 100 public leisure centres, after a four-way pitch.
Albion will now be responsible for creating a new brand positioning for GLL.
Focus will also be put on GLL's association with the 2012 Olympic Games …

GLL has been re-branded as 'BETTER' - although it's advertising, using this adverb, almost certainly amounts to a breach of the 'Trades Description Act' - hence our suggested revised logos (see above).

Accurately based on the real GLL Better Logo - these graphics are so naïve that they look as if they were designed using Windows 'Paintbrush' rather than a professional graphics program !
Not really a good advert for a supposed leader in leisure and fitness.
The brand name BETTER is also a 'shot in the foot', as Google searches for 'better' will bring up all kinds of unrelated websites and information, whereas 'GLL' or 'Greenwich Leisure Limited' would focus directly on the intended targets.

What a 'Leisure Trust' Means in Practice:

• Leisure services are outsourced to a separate organisation/company.
The Council retains ownership of the facilities, which are leased to the Trust.
• Virtually all the savings come from rate reductions and VAT savings, which are much smaller initially because of the high set up costs.
• Direct democratic control of the service will cease - elected member representation on a trust is limited to less than 20% of the board. Company law requires that Board members must put the interests of the leisure trust before those of the local authority.
• After a year the Trust will usually cease to use council services and will be responsible its own procurement and contracting or corporate and other services.

The Case Against Transfer


Performance of Leisure Trusts

Leisure trusts do not have a very good performance record.

An Audit Commission analysis of 84 inspection reports on local authority sports and leisure services shows that 6% of directly delivered local authority services were excellent compared to 0% of trusts; the comparable figures for good services were 37% compared to 30% of trusts; 60% of trusts were judged to be ‘fair’ compared with 52% of directly provided services; and 0% of the latter were considered poor compared to 10% of trusts.
On the basis of this evidence, Leisure Trusts are not performing as well as local authority in-house services.
The Audit Commission carried out ten Best Value inspections of local authority leisure services where the Trust was established and operational at the time of inspection. 64% of the Trusts received only a fair one star service and one was rated poor, which has since been returned in-house, and the trust disbanded.
Thus 73% of the Trusts had a poor or fair rating, which suggests that there is a large credibility gap between the promotional rhetoric surrounding trusts and operational reality.

Leisure trusts are arms length companies, which are being rebranded as so-called ‘social enterprises’.
As stand-alone organisations, Leisure Trusts are forced to expand and ‘grow the business’ which means winning additional contracts from other local authorities and/or bidding to takeover more council services. 50% of Leisure Trusts have two or more contracts.
Greenwich Leisure has far more than most.
This process leads to the erosion of ‘local’ or ‘community’ provision, as trusts become contractors and have little choice but to become commercial operations, prioritising business values, cost reduction and income generation, thus eroding public service principles and values.
Community ownership is viewed by many as a potential poisoned chalice – more a means of implementing budget cuts by replacing staff with volunteers and hiving off maintenance to local/cheaper alternatives.

Service Integration

Whilst a single purpose organisation has some advantages, there is increasing emphasis on operating integrated and joined-up services.
Leisure is not a stand-alone service but is an essential part of healthy living, children’s services, regeneration, environmental services and parks and countryside provision. Improvements in community well being, the local economy and social justice can only be a reality if the organisational silos, divisions and cultures are removed from within both within local authorities and between other public bodies.
Transferring services to more arms length companies will make the horizontal and vertical integration of services more difficult and lengthy.
It also makes co-location of leisure with schools and libraries more difficult.
For example, the exclusion of education based sport and leisure facilities from the scope of trust contracts has led to fragmented service delivery and a loss of community benefit.
Similarly, neighbourhood management should be focusing on identifying needs, service delivery and community participation rather than using resources on coordinating a plethora of different organisations and contractors with different remits and responsibilities.
The effect on jobs Greenwich Leisure was one of the first leisure trusts to be established in the early 1990s and is widely quoted as being a very successful “innovative staff-led leisure trust.”, however, UNISON branches in London have reported that many of its employment practices and attitudes to trade unions mirror those of private sector mainstream leisure contractors.
The level of trade union organisation in leisure services in local authorities where Greenwich Leisure has contracts is very low.
One contract reported that only 20% of staff who transferred to Greenwich Leisure are still employed by them.
“Being taken over by GLL is just as bad as any private company. They like to portray themselves as being different as they are a “not for profit” organisation but their management style is the same as any hostile, private sector employer.”
“Greenwich Leisure effectively, does not recognise trade unions.
They don’t negotiate about anything…….This is a company which has no respect for TUPE.” (UNISON, London Borough of Newham).
Other leisure trusts have adopted the same approach to creating a casualised workforce, reducing terms and conditions and paying lip service to trade union organisation and facility time.
Private contractors in the leisure sector have a long record of low wages, high use of casual labour and multi-tiered workforces with minimal rights to pensions.
Trusts competing for contracts against these firms inevitably adopt the same policies and practices.
The fact that leisure trusts and private contractors had virtually the same cost per head of population between 2001/02 and 2004/05 and lower than the in-house cost, is indicative of their employment policies given that labour costs account for a high percentage of total costs (Audit Commission, 2006).
Transfer of services out of the local authority inevitably results in a loss of jobs and/or higher unit costs within the Council.
The quality of employment in trusts has a knock-on effect in the local economy.
'The Best Value Code of Practice on Workforce Matters' is supposed to protect the terms and conditions of staff working for contractors on public service contracts, including new starters, and to provide a negotiating framework for branches facing outsourcing, however, there is no evidence that the government, local authorities, private contractors or trade unions are monitoring the Code thus “it is not possible to say whether these measures are successful, either in preventing a two tier workforce or stopping the driving down of pay and conditions” (UNISON, 2008).

Service Improvement

Leisure services staff, including senior management, will transfer to a trust under TUPE or TUPE Plus. If a council’s leisure service has a lacklustre improvement record then transfer to a trust is unlikely to change this situation. The same management team will be responsible for service improvement .
Most trusts pay lip service to staff involvement in service improvement, yet Beacon Councils with a high level of staff engagement with the scheme reported significantly higher levels of proactivity, innovation, improvement and organisational performance compared to councils with lower levels of staff engagement.

Community Participation

A Leisure Trust has no additional skills, resources or commitment to improve community participation compared to a local authority.
It sometimes claimed that a trust has more ‘freedom’ to operate, but there is no evidence that trusts have implemented a level or quality of participation over and above that which has been achieved by local authority leisure services.
Many Councils have been innovative in establishing new methods to engage service users and community organisations in leisure services.
Participation structures and methods of engagement must be coordinated – service users and community organisations are already critical of disjointed and overlapping consultation with a plethora of different bodies. The Audit Commission has been highly critical of some leisure trusts for a lack of formal consultation with users and sports clubs, for example, Bristol, Merton, and Stockport.

Democratic Accountability

It is often claimed that trusts ‘engage with the community through direct representation’ but this is a distortion of democratic accountability.
Trusts are required to operate as stand alone organisations, independent from the democratic structures of the council.
The council loses a significant degree of control over the delivery of leisure services.
Company law requires all Board members to act in the interest of the trust, (not the councli or local community) over and above their other responsibilities and interests.
They are also bound by commercial confidentiality.
Furthermore, the vast majority of community and business Board members are unelected and ‘represent’ either themselves or a particular user group.
A trust should be subject to the Council’s scrutiny procedures but ensuring rigorous assessment of arms length companies is difficult enough let alone whether and how recommendations are implemented.
If a trust has financial problems, Councillors will have limited influence over the strategies adopted. These will almost inevitably affect service delivery and staff and implementation of corporate policies and priorities get watered down.

Increased Risks

The risks are real and are retained by the Council:
- Financial and organisational failure could result in liquidation of the trust.
- Savings may evaporate and the trust could require increased subsidy by the Council.
- Job losses and wage cuts could occur as the trust struggles with the challenge of stand alone management and company governance and changes in the leisure market.
- Leisure services performance could fail to improve.
- The trust may win leisure service contracts in other authorities but they could impose additional performance and financial pressures.
- If there is little or no substantive change in the level and quality of participation and user involvement this could lead to disillusion and low staff morale.

A long-term vision for the integration of leisure services with other public services, improved democratic accountability with wider user/staff participation is needed in place of short-term budget savings.




STOP PRERSS

More than 1,600 members of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre have been barred from using some of the facilities during the Olympics while the Brazilians use it as a training base – and will not be refunded.

The Olympic pool and all racquet facilities will be out of action between July 16 and August 22 as the Brazilian Olympic squad are using the centre as their base during the games.

Regular users of the centre, run by GLL, have been told they will not be refunded and instead told to share the smaller swimming pool with others during the busy summer holidays or travel to Ealing or London Fields, east London – GLL’s only other centres with 50m pools.


click below to


FOCUS ON 

Story of an Olympian - Tom Daley




TOM DALEY
'MY   STORY'

'Courage is the thing.
All goes if courage goes.'
                                                                 J M Barrie
(quote from Tom Daley's  'My story')


for everything that you always wanted to know about Peter Pan and J M Barrie - see



Penguin Books   - Synopsis

Enter the enthralling world of Olympian Tom Daley.

Tom had hearts in mouths when he dived at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where he won two gold medals.
He is one of Britain's gleaming hopes for gold at the London 2012 Olympics, but there is also a heartbreaking and inspiring story of a young athlete coping with the death of his father whilst under the glare of the world's media spotlight.

In this, Tom's first official memoir, he offers unprecedented access to the pressures, challenges and fascinating experiences of a world-class Olympian.
From his day-to-day schedule, to his hobbies and family life, to sharing his hopes and dreams in the build up to the London Olympics, this book offers a unique chance to get close to Tom.
Featuring exclusive photography and published simultaneously as a hardback and enhanced e-book, this will be the ultimate book for the 2012 Olympics.

Or so Penguin Books would tell us - however...

Interestingly, this first book by the young British diver Tom Daley, started out priced at £16:99, and within a week or so had plummeted to £7:46 (a drop of 54%).
How long will we have to wait before they are giving the book away ?



(if you want to buy a copy at the full price go to http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780718158071,00.html,
or get the lower price at
as at 30the June 2012)

A typical comment posted on the internet regarding Tom's autobiography -
posted by Jazzy242
    
'He is beautiful. but his autobiography will be, - I went diving , I was good at diving, I continued diving, I got even better, I went to the Olympics, I'm still really good at diving.'

Although the photos are good - the text could be a little more interesting - and a little more revealing.
Apparently Georgina Rodgers, Jonnathan Harris and Dan Bunyard (editor) all had a hand in producing the final text.
It is difficult to judge if the text has been deliberately 'dumbed-down' - possibly in consideration of the projected readership - or if Tom really writes in the style we find throughout the book.
Unfortunately, as it is presented, it gives every indication of being an elaborately extended version of a school essay, possibly entitled 'What I did on my holidays' - but in this case, 'What I did in my life'.

Debbie and Robert Daley
While it is his story - it's odd that we learn nothing about his parents before he was born - how they met - although we do get a nice wedding photo.
But we don't really find out about how Tom coped with growing up - what life was like for him as a young boy.
And nothing is put in context.

Plymouth - Devon - England
It's as if Plymouth existed in a void, and all the significant events occurring in the world just bypassed the Daley family.
No mention is made of significant events in the outside world (that is the world outside the Daley family, Plymouth and the international diving circuit).
No mention is made of political events, war, the economy, cultural and technological developments etc.
Now while these things would not impinge on a very young lad, they must have some significance for a teenager (and Tom has been a teenager for a significant number of years).
We are told nothing of Tom's views about politics, the 'state of the world', global warming, the economy, the arts and much else.
We are told about Tom's musical taste - by way of a 'play list' - and its all very bland and predictable.
And who 'dresses' Tom now ?
As for fashion we find out that he initially bought his cloths from 'Next' - quite normal and reasonable for a handsome teenage boy - and then there is a significant slip.

He states that 'later Burberry started dressing me' - note the word 'dressing'.
Now what ordinary teenager would say that ?
Perhaps, 'I get my clothes from Burberry', or,'I buy my clothes from Burberry'.
But of course Burberry is supplying him with 'freebies' - and Tom is already talking like an 'A List' celebrity, and not the cute 'boy next door', which is an image that the remainder of the book, and most of Tom's publicity  tries to project.
Incidentally, Burberry casual shirts start at £195 - and what 18 year old can afford that - apart from Mr Daley !

David Hockney


There is another significant slip.
While practically no mention is made of anything of cultural significance, so that we seem to be aimlessly wandering through a world of diving competitions, Coca-Cola and Big Macs, there is suddenly a reference to the artist David Hockney.
So is Tom a little deeper than he is letting on ?






 Olympia '36
Tom Daley diving
And yes - there is a lot in the book about diving (incidentally, diving only became popular after the release of Leni Riefenstahl's documentary depicting the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games) - and much of it is rather technical - but how many people are interested in Tom because of his expertise as a 10 meter board Olympic diver.
Most people are interested in Tom because he's cute - or at least he was cute. Now he's just 'sexy - and he know's it'.

I you check the Google searches about Tom they are not about the scores for his latest dives.
Ninety percent of Google searches for Tom are 'Tom Daley Bulge', or 'Tom Daley Speedos', along with a good smattering of 'Tom Daley Penis', and 'Tom Daley Nude'.

Tom Daley - Adidas
Now Tom, despite being abnormally reticent about talking or writing about sex, hasn't been backward in 'cashing in' on his obvious sexual allure - even when he was quite young.
So why doesn't Tom, in this 'first official memoir', tell us the real reason why he nearly always wears Speedos that are two sizes too small for him - unless he is posing for Adidas, when they are always generously cut - (presumably Adidas are more prudish than Speedo).
(And of course Tom does well from Adidas by fronting their 'Ice Dive' range of male grooming products - gracing their advertisements with his usual 'outstretched arms' pose, with the obligatory Union Flag, in generously cut - but still very brief - Adidas trunks. I wonder if Tom actually uses the stuff)


Adidas Ice Dive Deoderant, rather like Tom's autobiography 'My Story' is now (July 2012 - Olympic Month) retailing at 50% of its original price.
This probably indicates that Professional Sports Group has been over estimating Tom's popularity and selling power.
With regard to the Adidas grooming range, they seem not to have realised that the majority of Tom's followers (gay men and pubescent teenage girls) do not use such products.
Gay men use 'up market', 'designer' products, while teenage girls do NOT use male grooming aids !).
This raises the question of just how professional are the Professional Sports Group, and their CEO. Jamie Cunningham ?
Maybe Adidas has wasted a lot of money on their rather 'creaky', self concious video ads - see below.




So - if you want to be a great athlete, have a great body, and be seriously rich and famous - just splash on some Adidas !

First look at Adidas 2012 Olympic Games Team GB 'Speedos'



Not very flattering - white at rear makes Tom's backside look big, and the silly little white triangle at the front ruins the shape of Tom's infamous 'bulge'.
(click to enlarge images)


Adidas 2012 Olympic Games Advert
http://www.adidas.co.uk/

Tom Daley and Tonia Couch
supposedly posing in a photo-booth - note the Union Jack
Adidas 2012 Olympic Games Advert
http://www.adidas.co.uk/


Yes - it is Tom, but it's really amazing what Photoshop can do for your cheek-bones ! 
Tonia is Tom's girl friend. That's not 'girl-friend' as in romantic relationship, but rather girl friend as a 'mate'.
Tom and Tonia are mates because Tom, it seems, hasn't got a boy who's a 'mate' - which is strange, because boys of his age nearly always have a mate - unless they are 'gay' in which case, paradoxically, they go around with girls - 'makes you think, don't it' - as Stewie would say.



Tom Daley
Adidas Portrait 2012


Wrapping himself in the Union Jack !
    
(actually the Union Flag - a jack is square)
Tom is obsessed with the Union Jack - Union Jack memorabilia clutters his window-sill, he sleeps under a Union Jack duvet, with Union Jack pillows - and of course his Adidas cosmetic range has Union Jacks emblazoned on it, along with the Union Jack cover of his autobiography.
Now there's nothing wrong with patriotism, - even the BNP has hijacked the Union Flag - but it does make you wonder ...


Tom Daley - tiny Speedos
Equally, it is likely that most readers would be very eager to know why Tom suddenly decided to stop removing his body hair.
(Some have speculated that 'his people' advised him to do this to help dampen down the endless rumours on the internet that he was 'gay'.)
Cheryl Cole

Incidentally, much of the hype that Tom gives out about 'fancying' Cheryl Cole is designed to play down the 'gay' rumours - after all she is 29 and he is 18 so it would seem to be an unlikely 'coupling'.

"I've fancied her since The X Factor. She is just so sexy and my type...Our date would definitely be in Plymouth and I would take her for a hot-air balloon ride that ended with a BBQ on the beach in the sunset. It's not very glamorous, but I think she might like a change." - can you believe that ?

Tom Daley and his Monkee
And the speculation that Tom is 'gay' is not without foundation.
While, on meeting him,  he is a somewhat disconcertingly pleasant and amenable, he is also strangely androgynous and 'fey' - not in his appearance - but in his manner.
And then there's the question of an eighteen year old boy having a 'lucky' monkee !

But enough has been said about Tom's oddly undefined sexuality - there are other matters.

Jamie Cunningham
CEO Professional Sports Group
Tom refers to his 'agents' at Professional Sports Group  - Michela Chiappa, Charlotte Hallam and Jamie Cunningham - who 'organise his life' and help everything 'move forward'.
It would be interesting to know who these people are, and what is in it - financially - for them.
Equally, it would be interesting to know just how much of what Tom says, does and even writes originates with him - in other words - what degree of autonomy does he have.
It seems obvious that his 'agents' are very well aware that if Tom is not successful at the Olympics then public interest is likely to decline markedly - and it is undoubtedly for that reason that his 'first official memoir', plus the recent 'Fabulous Magazine' photo-shoot were timed to occur prior to Tom's appearance at the Games.

Tom Daley -
with body hair and muscles
Young Tom Daley
a practically naked
under-age boy.
One of the oddest things about the Tom Daley phenomena when he was young was the way it was made acceptable for the general public to 'ogle' a practically naked under-age boy.
In any other situation such activity would be immediately associated with paedophilia but, because Tom was a cute diver, it was apparently ok.
Google any other young diver and there are very few results.
Google Tom Daley and there are pages and pages of results.
Agreed he is a remarkably talented and successful diver, but if one is honest it is obvious that the muscles, the face and the tiny speedos are the reason why he is so popular.

Tom Daley
the photo shoot for Fabulous Magazine
Tom Dalet
threatening, aggressive
sexuality
And now that as he has 'come of age' the new image of Thomas Daley is blatantly sexual ('Fabulous Magazine' photo-shoot), although, strangely, not so revealing (less flesh on display).
However, the sexuality that Tom now displays is no longer the cute, smiling and unthreatening young boy.




There is, however, another side to Tom which is rarely shown.
Like all of us, he is not always charming, cute and amenable - there is a darker side to him - and not just the darker side evident in the Fabulous Magazine photo-shoot.
We don't know what brought on the gesture on the left - perhaps it was just a signalled order for 'Fab Lollies' after the competition.
The other, a glance over the shoulder, (see right) is enough to freeze the blood in the veins.


If you don't know what a 'Fab Lollie' is - well here's one. Tom Tweets a lot about these appalling examples of the confectioner's 'art' and pretends he's 'addicted' to them - but, with a 'six-pack' like Tom's that's very unlikely. - Probably just another example of 'viral advertising' for Nestle.
Of course Sigi (Sigmund Freud to you) would say they're 'phallic' - but we think that they'd be too cold !

Daniel Radcliffe - Nude
Now, it seems, Tom's 'mentors' at Professional Sports Group require Tom to project a strangely threatening sexuality, which is almost aggressive and, in many ways, orientated to the adult, 'gay' audience.


And one can reasonably speculate that it is only a matter of time before Tom is required to do a 'Harry Potter' and, like Daniel Radcliffe, pose nude - if the money is right.

And what does Tom feel about all of this ?
The book does not tell us, in fact, apart from a harrowing account of the death of his father (complete with some questionable, and possibly inappropriate, photos of Robert Daley during his final illness), it tells us very little about the personality of this young man.



A rare photo of Tom Daley Training
And what about Tom's training and diet.
There are plenty of reference to Tom's predilection for 'junk food', but nothing is said about the vitamins, amino acids and other supplements that are required to maintain his obvious level of fitness.
We are told nothing about the secrets behind his superb physique.
In all the endless information about diving competitions, training and preparation, there is no mention of how Tom trains in the gym - and no one develops a perfectly toned and muscled body like Tom Daley without arduous resistance training - so why is it kept so 'hush-hush' ?

And perhaps the least appealing aspect of the memoir is the section about Blake Aldridge at Bejing - an episode neither forgotten nor forgiven.

And by how much does Tom benefit from all this publicity that his 'agents' so carefully 'organise' for him ?


So in the end Tom's first memoir answers very few of the many of the questions that so many of us are asking about this 'diving superstar', who is now turning into a 'celebrity', and a 'pin up boy' for the 'gay' community.


and I wonder how much my signed copy is worth now ?



MORE REFLECTIONS ON THE 'DALEY PHENOMENON'

'My Story'
Tom Daley's Autobiography
'My Story' Book Launch
Waterstones
As publicity stunts go, the launch of Olympic diving hopeful Tom Daley’s autobiography will hardly go down as the most subtle of affairs.
In a crowded 'Waterstones' book-store in London’s Piccadilly, a miniature diving board was erected 2ft off the ground on which the teenage 'pin-up' posed wearing only a pair of Adidas swimming trunks so minuscule that the fact they stayed on seemed to defy most of the laws of science.
It was, it goes without saying, a display designed to make a splash - if a somewhat tacky splash.
And certainly, the 18-year-old diver is a marketing man’s dream.
His tanned, boy-band good looks and Colgate smile have made him the official dreamboat of 'Team GB', and won him an adoring legion of fans.

By way of gauging his popularity, almost 290,000 followers regularly log on to read the often hourly Tweets their heart-throb posts about his life on his official Twitter page (how can he be bothered to Tweet hourly ?).
Such hero worship is, of course, manna from heaven for the Abu Dhabi based businessmen who control the money-spinning career of clean-cut Tom, who is one of our genuine hopes for gold at London 2012.
But out of the swimming pool, other major opportunities are in the offing, including an upcoming BBC TV show, not to mention his plans to start a career as a presenter.





Jamie Cunningham
and the Abu Dhabi based businessmen 
Jamie Cunningham
CEO Professional Sports Group
Tom is good at everything he does,’ his manager Jamie Cunningham told me. ‘He’s the best he can be — that’s his mindset. Everyone who works with him or interviews him says “God, he’s so good” because he isThere are certain top sports people who are also major media stars and perform to the best of their ability. Tom’s profile is high. There’s a lot of interest.’ - Well he would say that !
No wonder the tills of 'Brand Daley' are already ringing.
His ‘life story’, released to coincide with his 18th birthday, is said to have netted him a £300,000 advance.

Tom Daley
advertising for Nestle
A 'present' for Tom
Meanwhile, his handlers are confidently preparing for their young Plymouth-born charge to earn another £500,000 in the coming months through sponsorship deals with the likes of BMW, Adidas (see above) and Nestle, as well as highly lucrative personal appearance fees.
It is all the sort of fuss you might expect if he had actually won the Olympic gold. But, then, his image-makers are hardly going to turn up the chance to exploit his ever-growing popularity.
Team GB
2012 London Olympic Games
However, even as the cash begins to roll in, there are already concerns that the money men — who are fast turning the immensely likeable Tom into one of the country’s most profitable young sports stars — may be putting at risk his chances of glory at the Games, and it has already caused a bitter row with the youngster’s bosses at Team GB.
Abu Dhabi
Coat of Arms
Meanwhile, Tom’s touchy managers at the Professional Sports Group, who are based in the Gulf state, have become so sensitive to claims of cashing in that they have attempted to ban the media from questioning the diver about his well-paid sidelines.
Others who are raking in big money from (not for) the teenager have taken a distinctly cloak-and-dagger approach to inquiries about how much his outside work interests may be affecting his training.
When how many personal appearances they have lined up for him in the coming weeks, the chilly response was - 
We do not discuss them. They are closed corporate events and not advertised.’ With that the phone was slammed down.
Why all the secrecy ? - Could it be something to do with the simmering row between those pulling the strings of Tom’s business affairs and his worried bosses at Team GB?
Significantly, following a string of poor performances, the situation became so explosive that the British team’s diving performance director went public with his damning verdict that Tom — who started diving aged seven — is risking throwing away his lifelong ambition of winning gold in pursuit of money and fame.

Anna Kournikova
Alexei Evangulov
To emphasise the point, Alexei Evangulov, a Russian former Olympic diver, compared Daley to Anna Kournikova, the tennis player who has become more famous for her blonde good looks and pop star boyfriend, Enrique Inglesias, than for her prowess on the court.
Daley’s boss also scathingly pointed out that the Chinese diver, Qui Bo, who is above Daley in the world rankings and favourite for Olympic gold in the 10m platform event, had been training three times harder than his British rival.
I am angry because nobody will listen to me,’ a furious Evangulov said at the time. ‘If Tom stopped all his media work now, I might be able to get him up to the third-best diver. I don’t mind what he does if he gets the medal. He can become a rock star.’

David Sparkes
His dire warning was echoed by David Sparkes, the chief executive of British Swimming, who sent out his own plea for the teenager to ‘knuckle down’.

Matthew Mitcham
He doesn’t want to regret for ever that he didn’t give it everything that he had,’ said a clearly exasperated Sparkes.
‘It’s impossible to win medals just on talent alone, you have got to work hard.’
Even one of Daley’s competitors for 2012 gold, Australian Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham, broke ranks earlier this year to accuse the youngster of trying to ‘have his cake and eat it’.
The row has led to a public war of words between Tom and his management team at the Professional Sports Group on one side, and the sport’s hierarchy on the other, and Tom’s manager Jamie Cunningham bizarrely attempted to blame the dispute on the fact English is not Evangulov’s first language.
It was a storm in a teacup,’ he said.
Suffice to say, it is not the way they see it at Team GB.
Funeral of Robert Daley
A likely explanation for Tom going after the cash seems to centre round the loss of his father, and Tom, for quite understandable reasons, feels he must provide financially for his receptionist mother Debbie and younger brothers Will, 15, and 12-year-old Ben.

Tom Daley and Debbie Daley
In his newly published book, 'My Story' (see above), he reveals: ‘Now, I feel really responsible towards my mum and I want to look after everyone - I feel it’s my job to make sure we have enough money, and I have to keep diving for that.’
And he certainly cannot be blamed, of course, if publishers Penguin are prepared to throw six-figure sums at him to write his memoirs — even if he was the ridiculously tender age of just 16 when the deal was signed.
But inevitably, his growing public profile and media commitments have steadily been taking up more and more of his time away from the pool.
Recfently the highly personable Tom once again on the book-signing circuit in London and his home town, Plymouth, where he and his family live in a modest, but smart semi.
The previous week, he was doing the rounds of the TV sofas and radio stations.

Tom Daley and Chris Moyles
Tom Daley - ITV This Morning
He spent his birthday being interviewed first by TV presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on ITV’s This Morning, and later appeared on the BBC’s One Show.
He was also booked on Radio 1’s Chris Moyles Show.





Tom Daley Photo-Shoot
Fabulous Magazine
And then there was a rather tacky photographs of him in a wet T-shirt in Fabulous magazine.
The accompanying headline said: ‘Sexy and we know it ! Woah ! We blinked when Tom Daley just totally grew up. So how’s the Olympian enjoying his new heart-throb status ? He’s lapping it up ?.?.?.
Tom Daley Photo-Shoot
Fabulous Magazine
And that’s not the only magazine cover he’s graced recently, having appeared on the front of Style a fortnight ago in a white shirt pulled open to the waist.
On the inside pages, he took his latest step in emulating David Beckham’s crossover from sport to fashion, modelling among other outfits a £1,200 Prada blazer and £210 Gucci sunglasses in a glossy magazine photo-shoot.
This week, he also appears in the celebrity magazine Heat, in which the ‘dishy Olympic diver’ is pictured reclining on a red sofa by the sea wearing only swimming trunks (yet again).
He’s also been promoting his new smart phone app, Tom Daley Dive 2012, which lets gamers — for a fee — control an animated version of him on a high diving board.

Tom Daley
Advertising for Adidas
He also has his own on-line TV station, which highlights money-making tie-ins with Adidas — which sponsors his trunks and makes his own brand of body wash, deodorant and aftershave called Ice Dive (see abobe) — and BMW, which gave him a sporty black and white Mini for his birthday last month.
Clearly, Tom isn’t averse to the limelight.
Last year he also did a shoot with the supermodel Kate Moss for Italian Vogue.
Blake Aldridge
But you have to wonder just how the sixth-former at the private Plymouth College — who became a household name at the age of just 14 when he and partner Blake Aldridge came eighth in the 10m synchro event at the Beijing Olympics — manages to fit in his training into his hectic schedule.
I am told his most recent fashion spread — which saw him shirtless with a brunette model draped seductively over him — was photographed at the end of April, the day after yet another photo-shoot for Adidas.
They were sandwiched between two major diving championships.
In the meantime, he was — until a few weeks ago — being followed around by a BBC TV crew for the fly-on-the-wall documentary about his life, which is due to be aired before the Olympics begin next month.
Tonia Couch
He is also fast displaying an enviable head for business, which sees him drop in not-so-subtle plugs for his sponsors, alongside the constant Tweets about his alcohol-free nights out with school friends or pretty blonde 23-year-old Tonia Couch, his fellow Team GB diver (despite rumours they are an item, he denies they are dating).

I'm Sexy and I Know It'
Youtube Video
And earlier this year, the sporting prodigy — who was once a victim of classroom bullies at his former Devon state school — starred with Team GB team-mates in a lip-synching spoof video of electro-pop hit 'Sexy And I Know It', which has had close to a million hits on YouTube.
That said, the rollicking he received from his Olympic bosses seems to have been the wake-up call he and his business advisers needed.
In the weeks since the row went public, there has been a marked turnaround in his form.

Tom Daley
European Championships in Holland  
Last month, Daley won gold at the European Championships in Holland after coming first at the World Series in the 10m platform event, in Mexico in April (though, significantly, world number one Qui Bo did not compete).
His 'team' says he is in ‘lockdown’ mode, meaning that he is devoting all his time to preparing for the Games.
The British diver’s manager told me last week that he had turned down a major TV advert in order to devote time to training, which sees him spend four hours in the pool, six days a week.
Nonetheless, plans are already well under-way to boost his image — and earning potential — still further.
Tom is 18 and he has more control over what he’s going to do from now on. It is something he is very involved with because he is a bright human being,’ Jamie Cunningham has said.
Let’s just hope that the milking of ‘Brand Daley’ doesn’t rob this talented young lad of his chance of winning gold.






THE BOY NEXT DOOR

Tom Daley has insisted that he is no different from anybody else of his age.
Tom has revealed that the success he has enjoyed so far has not changed him as a person.
"Last night I actually baby-sat and dog-sat for a couple of my neighbours," he told me. "I'm just a normal person, I do what everyone else does.
I go to the shops and go in town, just whatever really. It's just general downtime."

Now - either Tom is fooling himself, and maybe really believes this (unlikely), or he is, like a naive teenager, trying to fool us.
After all, do people give you watches (£2500), gold jewellery, cars (£50,000 odd), clothes and probably crates of Adidas deodorant etc - just for being who we are ?


For example - Keith White of Michale Spiers Jewellers, Plymouth, has chosen to give Tom Daley the 'Omega Seamaster Diver 300' watch, worth £2500.00, as worn by James Bond - (good product placement) in recognition of his outstanding achievement in the recent World Championships held in Rome, where Tom made history by claiming Britain’s first ever world championship individual diving gold medal.
Keith also presented Tom’s team mates Tonia Couch and Brooke Graddon with stunning Gucci bracelets, and the trio’s coach Andy Banks with a Mont Blanc pen.
The gifts came a short time after Tom’s achievements in the Beijing Olympics, where he finished 8th in the world, after which Mr White designed and made a solid gold Olympic signet ring for Tom (see right) to mark the occasion.

Very nice, but isn't a little suspect for an adult man to give a teenage boy a gold ring, with all the possible implications that such a gift involves. And you would have thought that Robert Daley (Tom's father - who was still alive at the time) would have vetoed such a gift, particularly as Tom was under eighteen - after all, there are those rumours.
On his own web-page Tom is very coy when he answers a question about 'the ring he always wears'. he simply says it was 'Made for me by a local jewellers' - no mention of it being a gift from a man !
And, of course, no mention of the 'Omega Seamaster Diver 300' watch, worth £2500.00 - given by the same man.

But like Tom says, they are 'just normal people !'


_________________________________________________

Tom Daley & The Media: A Statement by Jamie Cunningham, CEO Professional Sports Group
February 15, 2012

“Diving, family and school have always been the priority for Tom. This is 90% of his life. As an elite 17 year old athlete, this was agreed between Tom, his family and British Diving. The rest of his life falls into the remaining 10%. A small percentage of this is corporate and media work.
We have always worked closely with British Diving - including Alexei Evangulov and Tom’s coach Andy Banks - to ensure that any media work takes place around diving, family and school. We also work closely with the media to ensure that over 70% of his interviews and appearances take place in Plymouth - not London.
The media interest in Tom is hardly surprising given his age, his sport, his success to date and the fact that it is a London Olympics. The comparisons with China may be relevant from a sporting perspective, but are less valid from a cultural and human one.  We turn down over 95% of media and commercial approaches for Tom. We only work with a small team of sponsors - namely Adidas, BMW, Nestle and Penguin - and ensure that any media is either necessary or – very occasionally - fun, given Tom’s interest and studies in both photography and media. When Tom does any media work, it is usually high profile because of public interest, his character and the fact that we do not provide regular media access to Tom.
Tom has been working incredibly hard this Winter on his training. The good news is that he has managed to finish most of his A-level work early (completing his Photography A-Level with an A* in one year) and there is now limited school work until after the Games.
We fully agree that British public expectation is too high around Tom. Qui Bo from China is very much the Gold medal favourite. In tennis terms, he is Novak Djokovic, the man to beat following an unbeaten 2011. Qui Bo may yet become the greatest diver of all time. However we are all very focused on ensuring that Tom has every chance for success in London this Summer and we are confident that the plan which was agreed with British Diving, Tom’s sponsors and the media in late July 2011, following a difficult first half of 2011 for obvious reasons, is 100% on track. We look forward to continuing to work with Alexei, Andy and all the team at British Diving on this plan.”

Jamie Cunningham, CEO Professional Sports Group



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for  new  photos of Tom
from the very beginning
see

and