Statements from the Top

Geez I despair at sports administration in this country sometimes. The news that Kiwis Rugby League coach Brian McLennan is off to Leeds and has quit his NZ post shows that the broom swept through NZRL HQ has not exactly cleaned up the office.

It really was a simple situation. McLennan wanted to coach both Leeds and the Kiwis. Even Leeds were happy for him to do so. But oh no, NZRL digs its toes in and insists the Kiwis coach has to live in NZ to do the job. So Brian, rather unsurprisingly, says sayonara.

But what intrigues me about this story is the reported assurances McLennan was given in May by NZRL Chairman Andrew Chalmers that he could juggle both jobs. Obviously that is no longer the case. While there is obviously more to this story that what has been printed, it points to a problem that a lot of sport Head Honcho's have - they think they can make decisions or promises when they really don't have the authority to do so. Basically if it is in McLennan's contract that he must reside in NZ to coach the Kiwis, not even the Board Chairman can give an assurance to the contrary unless he has been given the green light to do so by the body empowered to make such a decision - which I would guess in this case is the full NZRL Board.

Here's another one from a much bigger Head Honcho - IOC President Jacques Rogge. In the press today is a headline screaming Rugby is a step closer to the Olympics, with Rogge quoted as saying "It's closer than ever" after Rugby has been included as a sport in the 2011 Pan American Games, being held in that rugby hotspot of Mexico.

Now, anyone who knows anything about the process of choosing sports for the Olympic Games program knows the ultimate decision-making body is the full IOC Assembly. Not Mr Rogge. Not even his Executive Committee. And it wasn't so long ago (2005 to be precise) that Rugby had a crack at getting into the Olympics and failed. So even though the IOC have changed the threshold for a sport to be chosen for an Olympics Games from 66% to 50% acceptance from the IOC Assembly, the reality is only 2-3 new sports have a chance of being included at any future Olympics and Rugby is still down the pecking order - behind (at least) softball and baseball which got voted out in 2005 by the slimmest of margins (1 and 3 votes).

So to say Rugby is "closer than ever" is a little misleading. And another example of a Head Honcho perhaps speaking outside of his powers. With the possible exception of Sepp Blatter, most leaders of sporting organisations do not have dictatorial powers and cannot make unilateral decisions, although quite a few think they can. Something 'Bluey' McLennan has learnt the hard way.