Angling Trust Competitions Financial Statement 2025

Update from Steve Fitzpatrick, Angling Trust Head of Competitions & Team England

The 2025 match season was an incredibly busy one once again, with the Angling Trust Competitions team delivering 12 National Championships alongside more than a dozen domestic competitions and supporting over 40 England teams.

In fact, we were the driving force behind over 200 qualifiers, finals, and one-off events across coarse, sea, and game disciplines in 2025 – our most ever!

Despite an already packed calendar of events we introduced several new offerings to our members in 2025 with the launch of the Club SuperCup, the Carp Challenge, Mersey Basin, Species Hunt, and acquired the British Carp Angling Championships as a partnership event to begin in 2026.

We also partnered with England’s official groundbait sponsor, Sensas, to help support the Sensas International Challenge for the first time – our largest international-rules competition which also enabled the winning team to represent the nation at the World Club Championships alongside the Division 1 National winners.

From the published finances, you’ll see that our Nationals returned a small surplus of money.

This overall surplus is due to the superb support of anglers buying tickets, smarter working, and negotiating with fisheries, clubs, and owners of our HQ/draw/presentation locations on costs.

I can confirm that all surplus created is, and will continue to be, reinvested back into match fishing – that’s how a non-profit organisation such as the Angling Trust operates.

This surplus will be used to make contributions to supporting the work we do across our entire portfolio ensuring we are able to run a diverse mix of competitions and talent pathways each year. The surplus also goes a fraction of the way towards the entry fees of England teams fishing in international events relevant to the Nationals.

It also helps us to purchase vital kit such as weighing equipment, peg markers and signage, replace aging and damaged trophies, and cover some of the resources needed by the Competitions Team to deliver events.

As I mention each year in my summary report, there’s always a balancing act to be performed. While we strive to reduce peg fees and HQ costs to ensure more prize money can be paid out, we also have a responsibility to do this without being detrimental to the member clubs and fisheries who provide the support and locations for our matches.

One factor I also highlight each year on the publication of our finances is the transparency around pools – as you can see in the statements, 100 per cent of pools money paid in is paid back out again.

It’s also important to remember that these financial statements do not include any contribution to staff salaries or company overheads – they are funded in a different way.

For clarity, the Cadet, Junior, and Youth Nationals, and the Masters and Veterans Nationals which take place at the same time on the same venues are recorded together.

Thank you for your support in 2025, we look forward to meeting you on the bank this year.

You can view the full report here: National Angling Championships Financial Report 2025