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Britain’s Ministry of Defence has taken the contract away from the charity, which has recruited, selected, supported and trained Team UK since Harry founded the first games in 2014 as a way of helping a generation of soldiers, sailors and airmen and women injured in Afghanistan and Iraq to use adaptive sports to rebuild their lives. The MoD took the decision to dump Help for Heroes after the charity said it wanted to evaluate whether the Invictus Games were still providing value for money for members of the public who support the charity through donations after the next competition in Dusseldorf in 2023.

It also wanted to reduce its potential liability if there was a funding shortfall and share costs more evenly with the two other partners behind the British team, the defence ministry and the Royal British Legion. But it insisted it had wanted to continue to prepare the British team and remained supportive of Invictus.

Instead the MoD decided to award the contract wholly to the Royal British Legion for the next five years, much to the “disappointment” of staff at Help for Heroes, which has assisted 25,000 wounded and injured military personnel and veterans since it was founded in 2007 by Bryn and Emma Parry after they visited soldiers at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham.

Lis Skeet, Services Director at Help for Heroes, said: “Help for Heroes is incredibly proud to have trained, supported and delivered Team UK for the past five Invictus Games.

However, following extensive discussions, it has been decided by the MOD that the Royal British Legion will lead the end-to-end delivery of Team UK to the Invictus Games for the next five years and will also be the main funder of the programme.

“Unfortunately, therefore, we will no longer be directly involved in Invictus Team UK. We want to emphasise that this was not a decision we made ourselves.”

Harry, 37, who is patron of the Invictus Games Foundation, has not spoken publicly about the decision and is not believed to have been involved in the decision, taken during the last games in The Hague last month. But the foundation has vowed to continue working with Help for Heroes on other projects.

A spokesman for the foundation said: “This was a decision taken by the UK Ministry of Defence following proposals for the team structure moving forward, and not a matter for the Invictus Games Foundation.

“Across our participating nations, we work alongside many military organisations and charities to support international wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans, including our programmes beyond the games, and will continue to do so with Help for Heroes.”

MoD officials insisted signing up the Royal British Legion to prepare Team UK for the next five years would put the British preparations on a sounder financial footing.

An MOD spokeswoman said: “The Royal British Legion was able to offer secure funding, more personnel to support the team and a commitment to supporting Team UK into the future. We therefore felt this would be the best choice for Team UK. Our priority is always to ensure Team UK and our wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans get the best experience.

She added: “We remain enormously grateful for all the work Help For Heroes has done to take Team UK to the Invictus Games and continue to work with them to support the Armed Forces community.”

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