The news was announced by sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe in a presentation at Leeds Met campus.

"Behind every great athlete is a great coach and we want to ensure that we have the best sports coaches and coaching system in the world by 2016," said Sutcliffe. "The UK Centre for Coaching Excellence will be vital in helping us realise that ambition.

"We want to develop a more professional approach in the UK with coaching becoming a real career option for people like it is in the US."

The sports faculty at Leeds Met, also known as Carnegie, will work in partnership with sports coach UK and has already received start-up funding of £600,000 from UK Sport and Sport England. It will be linked to the National Skills Academy and is also being backed by sportscotland, Sports Council for Wales and Sport Northern Ireland.

Chancellor of Leeds Met, Brendan Foster, said: "Finally an organisation is being set up that proudly and firmly places coaching in its rightful place at the centre of British sport. It is a demonstration of real foresight to now formalise the organisation whose mission is to produce great coaches and, in turn, increase the chances of Britain's success in the increasingly competitive arena of world sport."