It is a thankless enough task being an administrator. Yes there is the odd ticket to some of the world’s great sporting occasions and yes, there are the odd perks of working in a job everybody else thinks would be better than theirs, but when you have to step in to administer, then woe betide anyone with a thin skin.
Without them the glamour side of sport would not happen but going toe to toe with a sporting organisation can be a bruising encounter.
Sport Ireland has found itself in the middle of two instances over the past ten days that would have tested the patience of Job, and which have played out in a merciless glare of publicity.
Boxing
When the Irish Amateur Boxing Association set off on a road to reform post Rio it looked as though a running unease over governance and management within the sport was being consigned to history.
The departure of Billy Walsh to the US in 2015, less than a year out from the Olympics had brought relations with Sport Ireland low and the failure to come through with medals and heroics at the Olympics prompted a closer look within from those at the head of the sport.
In the week before Christmas, John Treacy was a special guest at the publication of a new strategy for boxing, outlining a future where decision making was more in line with how other sports in receipt of public monies would accept as the norm.
It was crafted with the cooperation of the sport by Lisa Clancy once of the HSE and the GAA and Sarah O’Shea once of the FAI. They knew their way around what needed to be done.
Performance
The appointment of Bernard Dunne as High Performance manager was widely acclaimed and while the Sport Ireland Grant was reduced after Rio it still stood tall among the sports to whom Government funding is distributed.
There were a few more rounds for CEO Fergal Carruth and Chairman Joe Crystle to navigate though, and the punch landed from within by five members of their own Board nominating an alternative Chairman was one that knocked them back on their heels.
The Minister of State for Sport Patrick O’Donovan stepped away from his part in Leo Varadkar’s campaign for the leadership of Fine Gael to land a few jabs himself and, while not interfering in the role of Sport Ireland, he did state a pretty certain case that reforms had to be completed or state support would be at risk.
Treacy was left to lace up his own gloves and make things plain to the sport that if a deadline of June 30th for the implementation of key elements of reform was not met that the 25 per cent of Sport Ireland’s grant to boxing for 2017 which had not yet been paid over would be witheld.
Ringwork
He has learned some deft ringwork in his years at the helm of what was the Irish Sports Council and is now Sport Ireland.
The money paid to individual boxers under the carding scheme would not be affected, just the money need to administer the sport.
Some said that this money was not needed anyway and that the sport could carry on unaffected but it has always done a good line in grandstanding and this is a fight that will be hammered out and a resolution found.
Waiting in the wings all that time was the brewing story of the failed drugs test involving Kerry GAA.
Sport Ireland is not only holding the purse strings you see but it is also policing the ethics of sport and the unwavering adherence to a strong anti doping code.
The ins and outs of Brendan O’Sullivan’s inadvertent use of a banned substance was batted to and fro between Dr Una May, the Head of Sport Ireland’s anti doping unit and Eamon Fitzmaurice looking to defend his man but also raising questions about handling of information and leaks to the media.
It was a complex case but when it comes to a question of pass or fail the testing is pretty black and white.
Education
The education that Sport Ireland carries out with athletes, sporting bodies, nutritionsists and managers is strong and highly regarded but ultimately the responsibility for what you put into your body rests with you as an athlete.
Sport Ireland applies the rules and while the process does need to be handled in a way that is beyond reproach in terms of fairness, there should be no blurred lines when it comes to enforcement.
A tough couple of weeks then for those entrusted with the distribution of money and the policing of fairness. They are getting through it though by keeping looking straight ahead and putting one foot in front of the other.
That ability served John Treacy well as a World Championship Cross Country runner. He’s not lost it as an adminstrator.
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