Sports Governing Bodies

[zolayes 14,489]

NO ,,not about FIFA but English Sport.

We can now see the utter shambles the English Rugby Union have produced. Incompetence of the highest order.

I know most here will not be concerned with this situation but to me it highlights the wider spread malaise in governing

sport at the National level .

In the sport most dear to the hearts of English :football.

The F A have a history of bad decision making going back to an arrogant refusal to joint in the World Cup until the 50s.

A refusal to allow our clubs into the early European cup tournament . Of course Chelsea would have played in that competition.

So we were denied a special place in history by small minded administrators.

The debacle of our World Cup bid . We may blame the corruption of Blatter and FIFA but the FA must also take blame.

The building of the new Wembley ..late in completion massively over cost and how how many attempts did they take to

get the pitch correct. The Welsh built the Millenium stadium for a fraction of the cost and in much less time.

Now to playing matters ,,,One WC win and that was at home ,,aided by extreme good fortune ,,,No Euro championship

something managed by Greece and Denmark.

Would we have more managed by Brian Clough ,,we shall never ,,he wasn't acceptable to the amateurs running

the FA at the time.

Now to coaching in 1998 Howard Wilkinson was appointed as Technical director in charge of coaching . From his analysis

of games he observed that most goals were scored after a maximum of 4 passes ...This stroke of inspiration was passed on

to a generation of English coaches as the bible to success. My theory is he developed his ideas from watching under 10

football where a big boy at the back ,,booted it long to a big boy up front ,,who scored in the full size goal.

He certainly can't have watched Continental sides.

Enough about the FA

Now for the LTA ..The Lawn Tennis Association ,,rulers of our middle class summer game.

Millions in profit from the annual Wimbledon Championships . Money ploughed back into coaching.

With what effect ,,,No British Champion since 1937 I think . One world ranked player -Murray - who got there despite the LTA

needing to go to Spain to get coaching.

Finally to another of my sporting loves -Golf.

In many ways this other middle class game is better run .

The R and A ..Royal Ancient at least has moved to open up the sport to young people with excellent subsidised coaching.

many clubs have followed suit making a once expensive sport much cheaper for young people . The result - English (sorry

British ) golfers dominating the world rankings. Sadly the R &A lose out through their attitude to women in golf.

Well that's my moan over .

I would be interested to read other's views ,particularly our overseas members.

Look forward to reading MadMax on the running of Indian cricket .And our American friends on their sports in general

and possibly the fiasco with the NBA

[Madmax 9,219]

Look forward to reading MadMax on the running of Indian cricket

Aha a lot of moans about that one. Where do I start?

Selection panel - The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) follows an archaic policy of appointing national team selectors according to 'zones' - Northern, Western, Eastern, Southern, Central. There have been cases where undeserving players have got called up to the team purely on the insistence of his respective zone representative.

Power struggles - There is a lot of politics involved in the inside functioning of the BCCI. It's not uncommon to find MPs and ex-ministers to be heading state-level associations under the body. Often these men have no knowledge or experience in running the game. For example recently, in the Mumbai Cricket Association (my hometown) elections, a disgraced ex-minister won the presidential race beating a much loved former legend Dilip Vengsarkar (who remains the only overseas batsman to have registered 3 tons at Lords).

Transparency - BCCI under Indian Tax laws is not required to publish it's financial accounts, supposedly because it carries on the purpose of 'promoting a charitable activity'. Recently the national sports minister tried to bring it under the purview of a proposed National Sports Bill, which was vehemently opposed by the board.

Conflicts of interest - This one is too huge to list. The most blatant is that the team owner of the Chennai IPL team also holds the position of the Secretary of the BCCI. The Chennai team has won 2 out of 4 IPL seasons and 1 out of 3 Champions League trophies, with crucial matches often being played only at Chennai. There have been murmurs of the owner using his Board position to smoothen his team's ride.

IPL scams - The IPL attracts all sorts of shady people - touts, fixers, tax evaders, money launderers, you name it.

[zolayes 14,489]

thanks Max .quite a few problems there ..

to our USA members ,,seems the NBA will finally take off in December ,,,any thoughts?

[Fulham Broadway 16,393]

Not a governing body as such -but should be given more prominence -could have saved Gary Speed

http://www.sportingchanceclinic.com/