I T is gratifying to see a dozen Scots on the World Class Performance funding programme announced earlier this week - 12 out of 132.

Less edifying, however, has been the torrent of innuendo and speculation on the unofficial Scottish athletics website.

Since the sport shut down its own bulletin board some years ago - a sensible move given the hours the chief executive was spending attempting to respond to those posting on it - the unofficial site which replaced it has become the only alternative forum.

Contributions range from imminent good sense to ill-informed speculation by conspiracy theorists (often hiding behind pseudonyms). But, following the funding announcement, there has been an explosion from the latter, apropos the richly deserved inclusion of Fife high jumper Allan Smith. He set a lifetime best of 2.26 metres (second best ever by a Scot) to win bronze at the European Under-23 Championships in Finland, and has won every title available coming through the age groups - testimony to the talents of Glasgow coach Bryan Roy.

The unofficial forum claims Smith was put under pressure - by financial inducements - to join UK events coach Fayyaz Ahmed at Loughborough. Smith, who confirmed on Twitter that he moves south today, has been considering the move for months. He tweeted that the unofficial site should be "burned" and that it was "embarrassing".

Little wonder. This thread on the site has been hi-jacked by nationalists amid erroneous claims that Smith is receiving some £25,000. It will be about half that.

Most disturbing of all, perhaps, is that with other athletes the conspiracy theorists would have been bang on the money. We know of several instances of interference, including some where athletes have left coaches they like and respect because they can't afford to reject the money. Their funding would be jeopardised by public comment (a breach of Lottery contracts), but high-profile coaches have told me of free accommodation offered as an inducement to move. I know of competitors who have been persuaded to do so, and who, having failed to improve, quit the sport; of competitors who have refused inducements, staying loyal at the cost of thousands in Lottery support; and of coaches who have quit, disillusioned.

Olympic and Commonwealth weightlifter Peter Kirkbride twice declined an invitation to quit his coach and leave Scotland to receive greater funding. In taekwondo, world No.1 Aaron Cook was omitted from London 2012 because he would not switch to his sport's approved coach; and several Scottish badminton players have quit the GB set-up, opting for coaching in Scotland despite reduced Lottery support. They believe the England alternative ill-serves their careers.

It is a flawed sport which does not value its coaches, and despite efforts to heighten their profile, UK Athletics struggles to give appropriate recognition. Coaches who have spent years, unpaid, in rearing champions are understandably resentful when a UKA coach is parachuted in to relieve them of their athlete.

Roger Harkins, coach of multiple championship 400m medallist Lee McConnell, confirmed yesterday that he had been obliged to summon a senior UKA official to the Scottish Institute of Sport to intervene when a member of their staff raised issues which threatened to compromise McConnell's career. The individual in question was instructed to let well alone. Yet she had been applying UK funding policy.

A culture of threats and intimidation has emerged since Lottery funding came on stream. One Scotland and peripheral GB internationalist, now retired, was told to report for physiological testing on a day she had university pharmacy lectures. This on pain of exclusion from a warm-weather training programme. Being successful does not guarantee immunity. Witness taekwondo's Cook. And since London 2012, UKA has tried to force Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis to quit the regime that made her successful and move from Sheffield to Loughborough with her coach, Tony Minichiello. She refused; her coach has not been reappointed, and was obliged to put together an independent package to continue working with her.

The Lottery system has been compromised by its obsession with medals and no longer fulfils its original ethos of nurturing potential. One coach critic likened it to "little better than the former East German regime, but without the pills".

Instead of being an award system, it has become a reward system. A competitor has to have made the grade already to qualify. Even fifth in this year's world 400m hurdles final did not get Scotland's Commonwealth silver-medal hurdler Eilidh Child on to support this week. She was named thanks to being part of the GB 4 x 400m quartet which medalled in Moscow.

The current Scottish head coach, Stephen Maguire, has made it clear that his brief is to up-skill and educate coaches, and not coach athletes. This avoids creating a disincentive for coaches - the fear they will be relieved of athletes they have mentored for years.

It is interesting to note that last week sportscotland launched a commendable initiative to facilitate athletes approaching retirement into coaching. Yet it is hardly encouraging to know the fruit of their success could be to be relieved of a competitor they have nurtured to world class.

And another thing . . .

Every member of Scottish Squash and Racketball was invited yesterday by the sport's chief executive, John Dunlop, to write to the First Minister seeking his intervention in their long-running dispute with Glasgow 2014.

The organisers have refused to meet SSRL, who claim the squash plan for 2014 is a waste of money. Dunlop writes that "some serious governance issues" may be at work. "No doubt these will be addressed after the fact, however by that time the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity may have been missed."

He invites members to write to the First Minister: FirstMinister@scotland.gsi.gov.uk, and suggests that those who know Mr Salmond give him "an urgent call."