By Michael Benjamin

THERE was a time when sports was regarded merely as worthwhile leisure activity with health-related bonuses. This has changed over the years and sports has since been transformed to serious business with superb health and financial bonuses.
Indeed, sports have the ability to lift the ghetto youth from among the proletariat, thus becoming millionaires while building character.

Unfortunately, the competitive nature of sports has created an unpalatable phenomenon and athletes worldwide have tainted the arena with illicit drugs to gain that winning edge.
This, coupled with corrupt officials, has cast a dark veil over sports and has seen corruption watchdogs around the world sniffing in every nook and cranny to detect and eliminate both scourges.

Anti-doping bodies have demonstrated utter impatience and zero tolerance with guilty officials and athletes alike, and have petitioned the respective world governing sports bodies to weed out such behaviors in order to clean up the respective disciplines, thus establishing a platform for youngsters worldwide to realize their true potential and magnify their earnings, devoid of such blights.

Football, undoubtedly one of the most popular disciplines, has had more than its fair share of scandals in the past and fingers were pointed at powerful officials, some with the secure belief that they enjoyed enough immunity to slip past the stringent scrutiny.
Take Sepp Blatter, for example; he incisively ruled the roost as President of the world governing football federation (FIFA), even amidst whispers of corruption among the top echelon of the executive structure. Blatter served for 17 years as former FIFA boss, Joao Havelange’s top deputy, and after a close vote with Swedish rival, Lennart Johansson, ascended the power seat, following Havelange’s resignation in 1998.

The FIFA Presidency is a hot seat and Blatter inherited charges of corruption and was himself accused of contributing to such practices; he astutely brushed aside those allegations. The general consensus, after an inquiry, was that Blatter’s methods might have been clumsy, precipitated by an internal need for clarification. The report concluded that the findings of an internal probe did not lead to ethical or criminal misconduct.
The closest Blatter came to being sanctioned occurred when one of his top Lieutenant’s, General Secretary, Michel Zen Ruffinen, joined with other executive members and submitted a dossier, citing Blatter for malfeasance, conflict of interest and misuse of powers.

Blatter managed to pull the proverbial rabbit out of his hat and employed a confidentiality clause that protected him, and other executives, who were eventually exonerated. Conversely, Ruffinen ended up being the casualty and he was forced to ignominiously vacate his portfolio. Blatter tightened his hold of the coveted post when he defeated African challenger, Issa Hayatou in the 2002 Annual General Meeting.

As though fate was intent on dealing him a cruel hand, Blatter was next hit by the collapse of FIFA’s marketing partner, Sports Company, International Sports and Leisure (ISL), which claimed bankruptcy with a debt of over US$100 million. The wily Blatter survived and countered his detractors by releasing FIFA’ first code of ethics in 2004.

Two years later, in 2006, FIFA Vice President and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation President, Jack Warner, was roped in, in a massive fraud involving the resale of tickets to the World Cup in Germany through a travel company controlled by his family. Blatter jumped to the defense of his trusted lieutenant, merely expressing disapproval of the act. Accusations of flawed world cup bids, bribery and financial mismanagement had become alarmingly commonplace and surfaced again in the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The scandal hit the Caribbean in 2011 when Warner convened a meeting with Caribbean soccer bosses and FIFA presidential aspirant, Mohamed bin Hamam of Qatar.
It was at this meeting that several officials of the territorial Federations were accused of accepting bribes for votes; one of them, Bahamian, Fred Lunn, proved to be incorrigible; he accepted his envelope containing $US40, 000, recorded the transaction and subsequently returned the money. His testimony helped to sink his other corrupt collegues.
While Blatter remained unscathed, more than three dozen of his officials of various Federations were either expelled or suspended by FIFA.

Closer to home, GFF President, Colin Klass, was cited and received harsh sanctions following investigations that proved to be a death knell for Klass, who has since been totally ousted from the sport.

Meanwhile, the football empire was dismantled with even bigwig, Jack Warner, being cited for impropriety. Blatter remained as slippery as an eel, being accused of much wrongdoing but skillfully managing to extricate himself from ‘corrupt’ accusations.
Time eventually caught up with him and in a May 2015 raid in Zurich, he was roped in along with 14 officials and other executives of FIFA’s executive committee; he later caved in and offered his resignation. He was later placed before the FIFA ethics committee, found guilty of ethics violations and debarred from taking part in any soccer-related activity for 8 years.

Recently, President of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA), Dr. Chin Kuo Wu was served with a provisional and immediate suspension of duties after 11 members complained to the AIBA Disciplinary Commission of violations of AIBA’s statutes and codes.
These accusations are certainly not new, as in the past Dr. Wu had been accused of assuming unilateral stances to keep his detractors in check. Members of the Caribbean Territorial Associations have had cause to complain of Wu’s dogmatic, unilateral decisions.
The now defunct Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association yearly tournament had served as a unifying force among Caricom member states and had great benefits for pugilists of this territory. Dr. Wu then enacted draconian policies which proved burdensome to many countries in these parts and the tournament suffered an ignominious death.

President of the Barbados Amateur Boxing Association (BABA), Anthony Jones, had uttered disgust at Wu’s strategies that frustrated the organizers of the tournament who naturally threw in the towel. Love for the sport encouraged the heads of the Caribbean Associations to huddle and after discussions the Caribbean Development Tournament (CDT) was born. Unfortunately, the tournament failed to receive the wholehearted blessings of AIBA and the territorial associations were forced to enact strange measures and pooled resources to make it a reality.

One of the measures was that each country attending Caribbean-organized tournaments would have to contribute a fraction of the expenses to subsidize the cost of accommodation and meals. The hardworking Barbadian, Kathy Harper Hall, was the lynchpin in the maintenance of Caricom unity through the organized tournaments, but could not be expected to carry the entire burden. It was then that the heads of the territorial associations came up with the Development tournament in Barbados, with Guyana clinching inaugural honours.

Meanwhile, GBA President, Steve Ninvalle, has earned a prestigious spot on the AIBA executive committee and is now in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to attend a specially-convened meeting to discuss the matter and state the position taken by his regional colleagues.

This follows a recent meeting held in Guyana where regional heads had thoroughly discussed the issue before arriving at a collective decision on the way forward. Ninvalle would be attending the Dubai forum with a clearly outlined mandate. It would be interesting to know what that mandate is and how the situation would flesh out. Whichever way it goes, one thing is certain; amateur boxing will benefit even if Wu ends up as the casualty.

There is now a new dispensation in sports and every individual, regardless of rank, will be held responsible and brought to bear. The world has become intolerant of sports executives that are corrupt and unconscionable. The sooner this message is driven home, the better it will be for all concerned.