THE appointment of Sir Clive Woodward to try to propel Great Britain to fourth place in the 2012 Olympic medals table has caused some concern among the country’s top coaches and officials.

The Times surveyed most of the 35 governing bodies of Olympic sports yesterday and found that, although many welcomed the move by the British Olympic Association (BOA) to install Woodward as director of elite performance, others questioned exactly what his role would entail and how he would fit into the existing structure.

John Steele, the chief executive of UK Sport, which will fund the preparations of the London team with taxpayers’ money, pointed to the problem when he said: “What we all need to avoid is any confusion over responsibilities and we look forward to working with Clive to ensure this does not occur.”

UK Sport has its own performance director in Liz Nicholl, who oversees the high-level performances in the Olympic disciplines, and there are clearly fears that the appointment will overlap their responsibilities. The BOA has also said that Woodward will not be responsible for the pre-Olympic holding camps, where competitors undergo their final preparations.

David Sparkes, the chief executive of British Swimming, said: “It is a challenging role and we need to be clear what this role is and how it affects us. Many other sports are saying that.

“He can bring some interesting additional knowledge and skills, but it is the performance directors for swimming and diving who are in charge and it is they who will deliver success or failure. We need absolute clarity so that there is no misunderstanding about the roles of the BOA, UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport.”

Gary Hall, national performance director for taekwondo, said: “I think the appointment is very good for the BOA. However, I have yet to receive any correspondence on what his full brief will be and only when I know that will I know how he will be able to help.”

Stuart Horsepool, the performance manager for speed skating, said: “It is quite exciting. He will be dealing with disciplines which are very different, but also similar in that they all require supreme sporting performance. It will be tough for him with 2008 [the Beijing Olympics] so close.”

Shaun Morley, the national performance director for wrestling, added: “Obviously Sir Clive has a huge background in elite performance. However, I need to know exactly what his role would be. My sport has some way to go to achieving Olympic success.”

Richard Yule, the chief executive of the English Table Tennis Association, said: “He obviously has expertise that could help the BOA, but whether he can help individual coaches remains to be seen. As far as I know he has no experience of racquet sports, which is a very specific area, so we have no idea whether he will be able to help us or not. But we will be happy to work with him to see what he has to offer.”

Two leading officials said that they hoped that Woodward would be able to help them to get additional funding. Andy Croucher, the team manager of the Britain luge team, said: “We have Adam Rosen, who was sixteenth at the Olympic Games, and we are still waiting for a decision on whether he will get any further financial support.” Mark Goodson, secretary general of the British Biathlon Union, said: “This is a very positive move for UK sport overall. He will be of considerable value if he can trigger any funding for us in winter sports.”

Among those who were unequivocally delighted was John Anderson, the performance director for canoeing. He said: “What an outstanding and inspirational appointment.”

• Additional reporting by Kevin Eason, Kaveh Solhekol and Craig Lord