Davis's exclusion leads to opening of Atlanta wounds

THE differences between BLE vice president Nick Davis and the leadership of the Olympic Council of Ireland resurfaced this week following Davis's exclusion as a candidate from tomorrow night's election of the OCI's new executive committee.

BLE have already sought legal advice concerning the decision to exclude Davis from the list of candidates and have written to the OCI asking that his name be added immediately.

However, it remains unclear whether the Council will agree to this request and there is a possibility that an injunction will be sought by BLE to delay the a.g.m. until the matter 15 resolved.

Under the rules of the OCI, delegates from an affiliated organisation can be put forward for election to any of the 10 positions on the executive committee. These delegates must be named one week before the a.g.m. while nominations for the various elections must be received one month ahead of the proposed vote.

In Davis's case, his nomination went in on time, but it was submitted several days before his status as a BLE delegate was confirmed. It is on this basis that he has, so far at least, been omitted from the list of candidates.

When BLE became aware of the problem they wrote to the OCI asking that Davis's name be added to the list by noon yesterday. Although an interim reply was received informing BLE that the OCI was now seeking legal advice on the matter, no indication of how the OCI intended to proceed was given. BLE officers will now meet this morning to discuss the matter.

International secretary Christy Wall has made it clear, however, that the decision to proceed with legal action will be left to Davis himself.

"We're certainly upset about the way things have been done because it seems that Nick is being excluded on the basis of a technicality, and while one rule can be interpreted as going against him there is another that appears to back his case.

"We certainly feel that he has a case, but while obviously we would support him, we will be leaving the final decision about what to do down to him," said Wall, who is a candidate for the position of honorary general secretary with the OCI.

Davis says, given that the OCI have thus far refused to allow his candidature to go forward, a further meeting with the BLE's legal advisers will go ahead this morning. He is reluctant, however, to initiate a situation whereby the OCI ends up being involved in a legal battle with one of its affiliates.

"We'd be reluctant to seek any sort of injunction because we'd be injuncting ourselves. We are members of this organisation, which makes the avenue of legal proceedings a little awkward to go down, although on the other hand it makes the circumstances which are forcing us to consider that avenue all the more frustrating," he says.

"The problem is that the OCI is insisting running its a.g.m as if it was simply a limited company when, in fact, it shouldn't operate like that. A lot of sports organisations in the country are registered as limited companies for obvious reasons, but they still manage to run their meetings as if they are a sports body.

"To go forward for election with the BLE you simply have to be a member of the organisation, straight and simple, and most other bodies would have similar systems in place, but here is an organisation which is supposed to be run for the good of its members which has unnecessary rules place that make it harder for members to participate."

Nobody from the OCI could be contacted last night to comment on this new dispute which follows the well documented difficulties in Atlanta over the athletes' gear.

If included, Davis's name would join 16 others from 15 sports on the ballot paper for five positions. Whether all of these will allow their names to go forward remains doubtful. Several of the candidates, including former FAI president Louis Kilcoyne, Shay McDonald of the gymnastics association and the Irish Amateur Swimming Association's Ray Kendal, are also among the candidates for the OCI's officerships tomorrow night.

One man who has already withdrawn from the race is Richard Burrows of the Irish Sailing Association while Brendan Foreman is expected to withdraw from the election for the position of honorary treasurer to concentrate on his attempt to become first vice president a post currently held by Kilcoyne who is seeking re election.

Kilcoyne may be somewhat vulnerable this time around, although he has been nominated to retain his position by 10 of the OCI's affiliated sports bodies including the FAI.

In the other contests for the main positions, Shay McDonald and Pat McQuaid (cycling) are standing for the office of second vice president, Dermot Sherlock (boxing) and Christy Wall are seeking the secretary's job and Peadar Casey (rowing), Foreman (athletics), Kendal (swimming) and Brendan O'Connell (canoeing) have all been nominated for the position of treasurer.

Meanwhile, BLE received some good news yesterday with the announcement that its kit sponsors, Asics, have agreed to renew their sponsorship deal with the association until the Sydney Olympics in 2000.