IT is one of the world's most popular card games, played by millions of people around the world.

Yet bridge is at the centre of a fierce debate that will shape its future - and threatens to tear it apart.

Around 300,000 people in Britain regularly play bridge and the organisation dedicated to promoting the game, the English Bridge Union (EBU), is arguing that it should be considered a sport.

The EBU took legal action following Sport England’s refusal to recognise the card game as a sport.

Lawyers for the EBU said officials want a judicial review to ''determine'' whether Sport England, the government body which distributes lottery funding, had acted lawfully in ''adopting a policy that prevents it recognising sports that it does not consider to be 'physical'.''

EBU officials say recognition that bridge is a sport will have ''beneficial consequences'' for the game.

An EBU spokesman said: ''Sport England refused to recognise bridge as a sport, a position which the EBU believes to be inconsistent with both the wishes of Parliament, and the opinion of significant international sporting organisations.

''When ruling on what constituted a sport in the 2011 Charities Act, Parliament specifically included 'mind sports', stating that sport comprised 'activities which promote health involving physical or mental skill or exertion'.''

If bridge was granted recognition by Sport England, it will give the EBU the ability to take part in European and international competitions and apply for grants set aside for sports.

The spokesman added: ''If bridge were to be recognised as a sport in England then EBU would be able to invest in a number of projects to teach bridge to people of all ages and to ensure that facilities are improved.''

But bridge players in Hampshire disagree with the EBU and say that their beloved game is not a sport.

Mike Rogerson, 79, organises bridge clubs in Eastleigh and West End and said he feels there should be a physical element for an activity to be considered a sport.

Mr Rogerson, of St Helens Road, Hedge End, said: “I have been involved in bridge for 50 years and I am of the opinion that for it to qualify as a sport there has to be a bit of physicality to it.

“If bridge is categorised as a sport then the funds we would have access to would be beneficial, so I’m not against that.

“But our club does not really need the funds, what we are struggling with is that there are so many other distractions apart from bridge.

“People can go online and they can sit in their armchairs and play bridge on their computers instead of coming to the club.”

Mr Rogerson’s views are echoed by fellow bridge player Derrick Binns.

At a packed out bridge meeting in West End’s St James Church, he said: “The biggest problem if bridge became a sport is that no one in this room can pass the drugs test because of our prescriptions.

“Bridge is two different games, the club level like this and the national players. What the EBU want is to get all the money to send their national teams abroad, but they won’t be doing anything for us.

“It will only help the upper echelons of bridge.”

The 78-year-old from Chessel Crescent, Bitterne added: “I think they are probably wasting their money as a sport is when you are doing something physical.”

And his wife Pamela, 70, agrees: “It’s not a sport, the only physical activity here is moving from table to table.

“A sport is when you are up and running and we have not done that in quite some time.

“If it is recognised as a sport I do not think it will make the slightest difference, it is only going to make a difference to the bigger players.”

And Dennis Hoey,.63, from Eastleigh, said: “Bridge is not a physical exertion but you do have to concentrate for three hours straight and you have to maintain that all the way through the game.

“I know the EPU is doing it for tax breaks and to be able to support the national teams, but it’s not going to affect the game at club level.”

History of bridge

The card game can trace its history back to England in the early 1500s when bridge prototypes were played in many different forms under names such as trump, ruff, swabblers and whisk.

Bridge became popular in America in the early 1890s and was reintroduced to England around this time.

The first game of bridge as we know it to be played in England was believed to be played at London’s Portland Club in 1894 after Lord Brougham insisted on played it, claiming he had learned the game from army officers in India.

But in 1932, Frank J. Nathan claimed he played in the first English game of Bridge in two years earlier in 1892 at St. George's Club, London.

The modern form of bridge, known as contract bridge, was invented by the American billionaire Harold Vanderbilt in the 1920s, when he developed a scoring system for the game.

Since then, bridge has become incredibly popular, even amongst famous faces including Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In fact, the game is a particular favourite amongst politicians in the UK as every year the House of Commons and the House of Lords play a match against each other.

The House of Commons were last year’s winners but since 1975 when the two parliamentary houses began competing, the Lords have won more matches, leading the Commons 21-19.

Rules of bridge

Bridge is played by four players in two pairs with each pair working against the other by winning as many tricks as possible.

the entire deck is dealt out and the first player lays down a card and then the next player has to play a card of the same suit if they have one in their hand.

After all four players have played a card, the player who put the highest card down of the same suit as the card that lead wins the trick.

If a suit is said to be the ‘trump’ then the highest card of that suit wins the trick, even if it is not the suit that has lead.

The trump is decided by the ‘declarer’, who is chosen through a bidding process of stating how many tricks you think you will win in this round.

The person who outbids everyone else becomes the declarer, and must win the amount of tricks they said they would win.

Their partner becomes the ‘dummy’ and shows their hand to the rest of the players. The declarer then plays the dummy’s hand, as well as their own, when it is the dummy’s turn.

Bridge facts

• In 1929, US housewife Myrtle Bennett shot and killed her husband over his bidding and play of a hand but was later acquitted on the grounds of self defence.

• Mrs Anthony Fly, from Arkansas, USA, filed a petition for divorce on the grounds that her husband refused to make up a four at bridge.

• Bill Gates, founder of the Microsoft corporation, competed in the North American Mixed Team championship in 2000 and is still a very keen bridge player.

• James Bond played the game in Ian Flemming’s book ‘Moonraker’.

• The odds of four players each holding all thirteen cards in each suit are 2,235,197,406,895,366,368,301, 559,999 to one.