There is a concern amongst many across a range of different sports that those given the power to speak, have lost their voice. The impact of that silence could well be spreading farther than many realise.
Many sports administrations are being run by regimes that dictate. Yet all are supposed to be there to safeguard the sport, and listen to the concerns of the masses playing the game at all levels, not just the elite level, and act in the best interests of all.
Structures are in place that are supposed to give the masses a voice. In Australia we have local bodies that represent the sport in each state. These bodies are then supposed to represent the wishes of those from that state at a national level. As we have seen with Rugby Union and Football the system is currently broken. Clubs and players feeling that they have not been consulted, and that their wishes are not being represented by those with the power to vote, who have in fact voted in an opposite way. The same is true with many sports at a world level.
So do the following statements represent the current leadership in the sport you love? Is there a suppression of any opposition to what is put forward? Is there a strong regimentation of the sport? Is there no chance to appeal decisions, are they simply dictated and you are expected to accept and follow? Often these edicts pronounced with a rider that states ‘after an extensive consultative process,’ or similar. Yet request the findings of that consultative process and you will be refused.
If you answered ‘Yes’ to the previous three questions it may do to read the definition of Facism. Facsim is described as “a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc.”
Now that is a very inflammatory word. It is a very inflammatory political system, and one that led to war in the last century. It is therefore a very strong term to refer to a sporting organisation. Yet across more and more sports you hear people referring to the leadership as ‘a dictatorship,’ so is it really that unreasonable?
If that is not the case then why are so many people in sport so afraid to speak up?
Currently we hear of media being threatened with, or actually having media accreditation withdrawn because they wrote something that the governing body failed to like. This writer has suffered a similar fate, and been prevented work in one country even though what he wrote was 100% true. Is that really the way the sporting world should operate? After all its only a game!
Why will clubs not challenge the sports administrators? Why will State and National Associations not challenge national and International decisions? Why is there such a fear to stand up and be heard?
‘There will be consequences,’ is the frequent reply. ‘I cannot put my club in jeopardy,’ ‘I cannot put the national team in jeopardy,’ are the excuses used to explain that silence. Often though that silence has in fact already been bought with promises of a reward for not rocking the boat. A home cup tie, or a home draw in an international competition. A free ticket to a dinner, or match, a place on a sub committee or even the Board. So is that ‘fear’ real? Is it a fear of losing the ‘perks’ being received that results in silence. Or is it simply that silence suits those with the power to speak up?
There is an acronym for the word FEAR that is appropriate, and no doubt these people utter it regularly so that they can sleep at night False Evidence Appearing Real.
“Fear is the lengthened shadow of ignorance” wrote American author Arnold Glasow. If you have your facts, and you know you are right what do you have to fear? In a sporting world the key to success is a team in which everyone pulls in the same direction. So why is it when it comes to the administration of the sport itself it is so hard to have everyone pull in the same direction?
Why do people sign up for things that they know will not be good for their club and the game? Take the NPL here in Western Australia, almost every club in the NPL is struggling financially. ECU Joondalup had to have an outsider come in and pay off their outstanding debts to be able to participate this year, Floreat Athena had a public appeal last year in order to be able to continue to operate. These are only two clubs who have publicly admitted they were in trouble. Almost every other club is in a similar position. Few did a proper business analysis when it came to entering the NPL. They also entered a competition without having everything in place. Football West failed to answer key questions in terms of the sharing of sponsorship revenues, the marketing of the league, prize money and other key issues, yet all signed up because there was a fear of missing out. Now they are all paying a very heavy price. Pressure was certainly brought to bear on some key clubs and individuals, but the fear of missing out over rode the fear of making the wrong decision. Vanity took over.
The NPL clubs are not alone, there are plenty of other examples not just in Australia but across the globe where those entrusted to do what was best for the sport or their club betrayed that trust, and put their own ego and vanity ahead of what was the best and right decision. If they lacked the moral strength to stand up and do that, then clearly the wrong person is at the helm. Which again highlights how the election system is broken.
This is certainly not a new phenomenon. Those of us old enough to remember when the iron curtain existed can recall the systematic doping that was being carried out by many of the Eastern bloc countries. Yet in that era try and find any evidence of those programs being denounced at the time. What was done by the world’s sporting powers to try and prevent it? Why was an East German athlete never caught doping at the Olympics during that era?
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall the Stasi and East German Sports Medicine files revealed over 400 athletes had been given specific performance enhancing drugs. Dr Werner Franke presented a 20 volume report to the Bundestag, the German parliament, in 1995 that revealed what he described as “one of the largest Pharmacological experiments in history.” Yet the IOC and other world sporting bodies despite this evidence and admission by many of the athletes have still not expunged their names from the record books and re-distributed the medals they won illegally. The reason given is that they were never caught!
Ironically in 1977 when shot putter Ilona Slupianek was found to have taken Nandrolone at the European Athletic Championships and disqualified it was the East Germans who then embarked on one of the most stringent drug testing programs in the world at the time. One that world bodies have since emulated. However the aim was very different. The policy called ‘Aureiskontrolle’ or ‘departure control,’ saw the East Germans test there own athletes before they left the country. If they tested positive, they stayed at home. The aim being to make sure that none of their athletes would be caught again.
Throughout the sixtes and seventies those with the power to act remained silent. So why are we surprised that the same is happening today? The problem is that silence is having a huge impact throughout all sport at the lower levels.
Does that poor behaviour at the top give everyone else permission to behave badly? Is that why the respect for officials is in some sports at an all time low? Is that why according to Kick It Out, a leading UK organization that works to tackle discrimination in professional and grassroots football is “worse now than it was five years ago.” Racism, according to Kick It Out remains the most common form of discrimination and in a report on CNN revealed that it has risen “alarmingly” in the past five years, with reports increasing by 43%. Yet the powers that be remain mute. When they do act the punishments are pathetic.
So why are the people elected to represent the masses, not just the elite, not speaking up? Why are they so inactive when it comes to addressing issues that concern all sports fans? Surely they are not that out of touch?
Has that silence been bought? Have they put their status ahead of the sport that they are supposed to be safeguarding? If they are not speaking up should they be voted out?
For things to change that shift in thinking needs to come from those at the lowest tier, for they in most cases elect those higher up the tree. Will those people speak up? If not why not? That is the most compelling question.
Is their silence really driven by fear?
