It’s election time in Lankan sport

While the regional politicians are gearing up for next month’s Provincial Council elections in Central and North Central Provinces, Sri Lanka’s sports officials are busy, trying to woo votes for the respective local sports bodies.

According to the National Sports Law, all National Sports Associations (NSAs) must hold their annual general meetings (AGMs) and conduct elections for the year 2009/10 on or before March 31, 2009. Hence, most sports officials experience a hectic time in the first quarter of each year, making desperate attempts to retain their places.

The National Sports Law does not permit an official to hold any top rank of a NSA for more than two successive years, unless they obtain permission from the Sports Minister. Those who are not fortunate to get the green light from the Sports Minister indulge in ‘musical chairs’.

These ‘musical chair’ games are unfamiliar to most ordinary citizens. Its not so for those who are in the sports arena and who follows them. If a top official fails to get prior approval from the Sports Minister to seek re-election for a same post after two successive terms at office, that person could still remain in the Ex-co of that particular NSA due to a loophole in the National Sports Law.

smart officials

All what these smart officials have to do is to inter-change their positions in contesting the elections. For example, a President of a NSA fails to get the Sports Ministry approval to contest after two successive terms in the top seat, that person could seek re-election to the Ex-co as Secretary, Vice President, Treasurer or even as a committee member. There have been instances where some officials change NSAs to remain in the ‘sports business’.

During the past two decades, we have notices several sports officials greedily hanging on at several NSAs. All what they do is to switch from one post to another once in two years so that they even don’t need the ratification of the Sports Minister.

One wonders why these sports officials are making such determined efforts to serve sports governing bodies. It is no secret as to how many of these sports officials have made their respective sports a way of living.

Foreign tours, financial and no-financial benefits and side businesses associated with the respective sport are some of the main privileges for which most of these officials are fighting for. Even for those who do not expect any of these, they could still use their reputation and image as a NSA official to boost their private businesses.

We are not accusing the entire lot of sports officials here of all those charges. There are a handful of dedicated and devoted sports officials who still hold such positions for their genuine willingness to serve the sport they love.

But a well over a three fourth of our sports officials belong to the notorious category I have mentioned before. Even those genuine NSA officials are finding it hard to survive due to new trends that have emerged in local sports administration.

In the good old days, holding a position at a NSA was an honour. Those officials came forward purely to make a contribution to the sport they have played and loved. But it has turned out to be a totally different scenario with the injection of professionalism and lucrative sponsorships to sport.

Even for the sports which could not woo much sponsorship deals, some officials could sill make use of their positions and good office to strengthen their private business relations.

Under the circumstances, the few remaining genuine sports officials are gradually being displaced. In most sports bodies, there are organised groups or ‘teams’ of officials who run this ‘sports mafia’.

They do not allow any ‘outsiders’ to step into sports administration. One could be one of the greatest sporting stars that Sri Lanka has ever produced but that alone won’t help that person to step into sports administration.

pathetic situation

Unless that sports star of yesteryear gets the blessings of a particular ‘team’ or group officials who commands the sports administration mafia here, that person could hardy get elected to any of the top posts of a NSA. That alone depicts the pathetic situation in our sports administration.

On the other hand, this is the time that most of our sports administrators give loads of promises to strengthen their vote bases. But once they are elected, most of them are only interested in their personal glory, instead of producing sports stars to bring glory to our country. No wonder the overall standards if our sport is deteriorating fast with this type of officials.

One should not get offended by our above remarks as we still find few honest, humble and dedicated officials who merely work for personal satisfaction and with the intension of promoting their respective sport.

But their efforts often steal the limelight as there are ‘smarter’ officials who are capable of even manipulating a section of the media and even fooling some officials at the Sports Ministry.

That is precisely why I said that the sports administration mafia here is a well organised one.

voting rights

The member clubs, associations and affiliated bodies who have voting rights at the NSAs will have a big responsibility in electing the right men for the right job. If they don’t caste their votes wisely, it is their sports which would be heading for a gloomy future with opportunist sports officials.

It is high time we get rid of notorious officials and reinstate the art of gentlemen sports administration.