Adsa sporting fiddle?

Having spent a fortune in Asda last week I was given an Asda Sporting Chance voucher. The idea of the scheme is that the voucher can be used to obtain free sports taster sessions for children and hopefully inspire thousands of children throughout the UK to get involved with sport.

With so many couch potatoes amongst our kids who's only experience of sport is through doing it on gaming consoles this sounds like a brilliant idea for which the supermarket should be heartily congratulated.

But having looked at the voucher website www.asda-sportingchance.co.uk I was a bit confused.

Almost three quarters of the free sessions available with the voucher in Wales are free swimming sessions. Free swimming for kids is available for all Welsh children courtesy of the National Assembly, without an Asda voucher.

Is Asda trying to claim the credit for an Assembly initiative? Are the local councils trying to get paid twice for their free swimming sessions by getting cash from the store and the government? Is WAG trying to offload some of the costs of the scheme onto the private sector? Or is something else going on?

Whatever the answer Sporting Chance doesn't seem to be all it is cracked up to be and seems to have a whiff of a con about it somehow.