Politics or no politics, sports is the loser -

Last Monday we warned about the serious consequences that were imminent unless Sri Lanka’s sports authorities moved quickly to change the sports law. It was no secret that the threat of an international ban on Sri Lanka was very real.

Then by Friday, we learned how the Sports Minister had taken swift action by asking the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to send down an official to assist the ministry with the process of amending the current sports law of the country. This was the direct result of the impasse between the minister and the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka after the IOC gave six months to change the law.

The IOC was concerned that Sri Lanka’s sports law contravened the Olympic Charter and had allowed politics to interfere excessively in sports.

Politics and politicians are obviously a very popular target of critics whenever something goes wrong. The involvement of politics in sports in particular is a much maligned subject and there is little doubt that politicians have interfered in sports to various degrees for a plethora of reasons.

Sri Lankans have seen how, quite contrary to the word “interim”, interim committees appointed by sports ministers ran cricket for nearly ten years. The reason is clear. Cricket is the richest and most popular game and there are obvious benefits in being involved in its administration. Then, we have seen how cricket stardom has been manipulated and how some players have used their popularity to parachute into politics and rule the people. We have also seen how the kith and kin of politicians get into national teams using their power at the expense of the truly talented and the truly deserving. We have also seen how friends and henchmen of politicians get into sports administration, a subject which is alien to most of them. They have no qualification to be there other than their connection to the politician. We have also seen how politicians themselves get into sports administration, though they hardly have any qualification other than the influence and the power they wield.

These things have happened outrageously in the open and it is not difficult to understand the reason for sports fans to be angry with politicians’ love affair with sports.But, are politicians the only bane of sports? Certainly not, if we consider the examples from our country in the recent past. We have seen how people abused their positions  and created dictatorships in certain sports bodies while milking them to fill their pockets with millions of dollars. We have seen the same officials controlling sports bodies for decades. Just as in politics, we have seen people falling over each other to get into sports bodies.

Most of our sports administrators are no better than politicians. But unfortunately there is no cure for this disease.

Today, people only see the perks in holding office at sports associations. They see the opportunity to make money, go on all-expenses-paid foreign tours and be powerful. Hardly anyone sees the responsibility to promote the sport providing facilities to the underprivileged sportsmen and develop them. In short, they don’t understand the need to contribute something positive for sports.

Thus, we see a valid point in the Sports Minister’s allegations over the NOC’s reluctance carry out an audit and maintain transparency. We feel that all sports administrators should be accountable, but to whom? The answer is not to vest the Sports Minister with the authority to control sports. But obviously there should be some authority to control all sports associations and their administrators who are running amok.

When sports administrators were abusing their power and controlling measures were required, the authority to administer sports was handed over to the Sports Minister – a politician. Now with international regulations requiring politicians away from sports administration, the cure has become worse than the disease.

The situation elsewhere in the world is no different. Any international sports body, whether it is the IOC, FIFA, ICC or any other, elects its officials through a vote. So, the Sri Lankan representative’s vote is extremely valuable to them. It is unlikely that any international body would take action against its member in Sri Lanka and lose that vote. To make the situation worse sports has increasingly become commercialised, making sports governance worth billions of dollars.

Whether Sri Lanka will change its sports law as required by the IOC is still a mystery. Even if it happens, there is still no guarantee that sports will be better off. It is a conundrum not easy to solve.