Sporting competition is normally at its fiercest on the field of play but for the next two weeks that element of playing on the edge and giving no quarter is being played out with just as much zeal in the corridors of power.
Earlier this week we revealed the candidates for the five officer positions and seven executive committee places that will be charged with salvaging or nurturing the reputation of the Olympic Council of Ireland.
This is not a vote of players or the people. It is one to be played out in a small electorate consisting of the sporting bodies affiliated to the Council.
Presidential candidate Bernard O’Byrne was asking tough but pertinent questions of the incumbent council from when the news broke of Pat Hickey’s arrest. He followed through by putting his hand up to stand for President and now faces Willie O’Brien from Archery who has been acting President since August and Sarah Keane who headed up the Crisis Sub-Committee that was flagged as being from a reforming side of what remained of the current Committee.
In an incendiary letter sent to all sporting bodies this week O’Byrne has claimed that a small cabal of sports was attempting to carve up the control of the council through mutual support of candidates for the different positions.
It’s not a subtle attempt to form a grouping. The Irish Ice Hockey Association is one of the nominees for William O’Brien for President, Dermot Henihan for Secretary and William Kennedy for Treasurer. Archery Ireland and Irish Amateur Wrestling have joined them for O’Brien and Kennedy’s nominations.
Neither has O’Brien denied that discussions have taken place. He says it is all part of an electioneering process but whether it will go down well with the remaining sports who may feel they have been sidelined by an attempt to sail on with a broadly similar crew to that which is in place at present is open to doubt.
O’Byrne takes aim at the fact that both O’Brien and Keane were in place through the troubled times where serious governance issues arose but were not seemingly challenged for a variety of reasons.
Keane though would be seen by most as being from the side that advocates greater change and there is a possibility that the reform vote may be split leaving a well organised O’Brien to secure a four year term, if that is permitted under recommendations from Deloitte that all candidates have said they will either study closely or implement immediately once a new Committee is formed.
Tactical voting is always important in a democracy. We are writing on the day of Donald trumps inauguration. He won the Presidency without ever having persuaded the East or West Coast voters that he was credible but focusing intently on the numbers that would get him over the line.
The winning candidates in the Olympic election will have done the same, whether through meetings in dark corners, in plain and open site or by persuading enough of their peers that they are the right person for the job.
The stakes are high with Government and Sport Ireland looking on with interest at home and the International Olympic Committee taking a keen interest from further afield.
To the general public there is an element of soap opera about it all. Their greater interest lies in whether Leinster can beat Castres, whether Diego Coast will go to China or whether Dublin GAA is just too darned powerful. They are important matters, but so too is the governance of the sports that give us so much pleasure. We deserve an informed election. we should know what the candidates stand for and what they will do if elected. There is no obligation on them to make that public but there is something of a moral duty to do so.
Fair play to O’Byrne who has at least done that. Here is the letter.
