Conservative MP Hugh Robertson to be confirmed as new sports minister

• Tory MP spent six years as shadow sports minister
• Hugh Robertson's brief will include London Olympics

Hugh Robertson's brief as sports minister will include overseeing the 2012 Olympics and assessing which sporting events should be protected for free-to-air television. Photograph: Nils Jorgensen / Rex Features

Sports politics Owen Gibson

Hugh Robertson, who championed West Ham's cause in moving to the Olympic Stadium and has pushed for a more cohesive legacy from the 2012 Games while in opposition, loos set be confirmed soon as the new sports minister.

The Tory MP, who held the shadow role for six years, is well-versed in the minutiae of the debates concerning the Olympics and the future of sport. He will face a challenging period when funding for sport inevitably comes under pressure, as preparations for the 2012 Games and plans for its legacy enter a crucial phase.

It was confirmed on Wednesday that Jeremy Hunt had been appointed culture secretary, adding responsibility for the Olympics to oversight of sport, media and the arts in a reintegrated department. Robertson will report to Hunt across a brief that will include sport and the 2012 Olympics.

Under the previous government, London 2012 had been carved out as the responsibility of Tessa Jowell, the former culture secretary who played a key role in landing the Games, as Olympics minister. Sport had been the responsibility of Gerry Sutcliffe.

Hunt, mindful of looming public spending cuts, refused to ring-fence the £9.3bn of public funding committed to the Olympics when challenged by the BBC, but that budget is not expected to be at risk in any spending review. The Olympic Delivery Authority, responsible for £8.1bn of the total budget, and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog), which raises its own £2bn budget from the private sector and ticket sales, have been careful to build a cross-party consensus since the Games were awarded in 2005.

The Tories have previously called for a better strategy to maximise the sports participation legacy of the 2012 Olympics, vowing to restore lottery funding to its original "four pillars" – the arts, sport, heritage and charities – and said they would move Sport England, UK Sport and the Youth Sport Trust into the same building to save money.

Hunt and Robertson also face a potentially controversial decision over the future of the so-called "crown jewels" list of sporting events protected for free-to- air television. A previous government review recommended a significant expansion of the list to include the Ashes series and international football qualifiers, but Robertson has said he is minded to shorten it and instead require sports to commit a certain percentage of income to grassroots sport.

Although funding for elite and grassroots sport is committed until 2013, there are expected to be cuts in Treasury funding after that as all government departments are pushed to look for big savings. In a sports manifesto published shortly before the election, the Tories also promised to "enable football fans to get involved in owning their clubs by reforming the football governance arrangements to allow co-operative ownership models to be established by supporters".

Robertson has spoken previously of giving the football authorities only a few months to overhaul their governance structures or face the possibility of an independent regulator, although it remains to be seen how high up the priority list that will be in the early months of the new coalition government. As in other departments, it remains to be seen which elements of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat manifestos survive the transition into the new coalition.

Hunt and Robertson will be expected to act quickly to show they are behind England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. The new prime minister, David Cameron, included a video message to be shown as the bid book is handed in to Fifa today and this morning called the president of football's world governing body, Sepp Blatter, to emphasise his support.

The FA chairman, Lord Triesman, is keen for Cameron to invite Blatter to the UK after this year's World Cup, ahead of a visit by Fifa inspectors in August and the final vote in December.

The London mayor, Boris Johnson, yesterday called for Jowell to remain involved in the 2012 Games. It is likely that she will be offered a role, given her enthusiasm and experience, perhaps within Locog. The Olympic board now features four high-profile Tories in Hunt, Lord Coe, Lord Moynihan and Johnson.