ANYONE interested in Irish sport cannot be but worried about the unedifying disputes and wrangles going on in several of our most prominent sporting bodies. Not so long ago the Football Association of Ireland was riven by internal disputes and financial problems.
More recently the entire ethos of amateur rugby has been abandoned while disputes about its future may end up in the courts. The Irish Amateur Boxing Association is already halfway down the Dublin quays on its way to the Four Courts, while the Irish Amateur Swimming Association has had problems in regard to allegations of sexual misconduct.
The Golfing Union of Ireland has been worried by regular attempts by many individuals to take part in an unsporting and dishonest manipulation of handicaps. There have been suspicions and murmurings about drug taking in many sports. A few moments of sheer madness and mayhem sullied the image of the All-Ireland football final replay.
Most serious of all, however, is the bickering within the Olympic Council of Ireland which has been going on for a considerable time, culminating in a rebuke by the International Olympic Council during the Olympic Games in Atlanta when there was a scandalous public row between the controlling body for Irish athletics, BLE, and the OCI. That dispute centred on a clothing sponsorship squabble that led to our top athlete, Sonia O'Sullivan, stripping in a tunnel leading to the track before a vital race.
The OCI needs to sort out its problems for the sake of the good name of Irish sport. There was little sign of such a happening at last weekend's a.g.m. of the OCI when an attempt was made to overthrow outgoing president Pat Hickey. Even though it failed on a vote of 27-9 - a comfortable margin by any reckoning - the fact that a challenge took place in the first place is indicative of the malaise within the council. The dispute may yet become even more deep-seated.
At the end of a meeting, from which the media was barred at short notice, it emerged that three of the top medal-winning associations in the history of the OCI are not represented on the 10-strong executive committee for the next four years.
Athletics, boxing and swimming are, with sailing, the only sports which have won Olympic medals in the history of the Irish Olympic movement and are not, any more, directly represented in the inner sanctum of the OCI.
That is an unacceptable situation. One fears for the future of Olympic sport in Ireland that this can be the case. Sports such as volleyball and fencing, neither of which were represented by competitors at the Atlanta Games, have managed to gain representation while the president represents judo. By any yardstick, that situation, with all due respects to these Olympic disciplines, is farcical.
The president of the OCI explains this ridiculous situation by pointing out that 27 different disciplines are affiliated to the OCI and that there are only 10 seats on the executive. He says that when people are elected to this body they cease to represent their own particular sport and become all things to all sports.
We have, therefore, to believe that the fencing representative or the volleyball representative will be sufficiently au fait with matters concerning athletics and boxing, for instance, to argue their case when matters pertaining to these sports arise.
BLE is already seriously disaffected. They believe that they have been treated badly in the last few months.
It is all very well for Pat Hickey to describe Atlanta as "our best Olympics ever". He has to accept that when everything is taken into account there are also reasons to describe Atlanta as our most controversial Games ever as well. He contributed to the controversy and bitterness.
Now that he is returned in charge, he owes it to himself, to the Olympic movement as a whole, and to those with whom he is not on the best of terms, to mend the fences and to get on with the work of making Sydney a better and more harmonious Olympics for the Irish team.
