Gladwell's Line - World Sailing changes tack after IOC windshift

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 21 May 2016 Over the past year, we've given the International Sailing Federation (now re-badged as World Sailing) a bit of stick. Every blow well earned over issues such as the pollution at Rio, the Israeli exclusion abomination plus a few more.

But now World Sailing is getting it right.

The dictate from the International Olympic Committee has been out for a few months. It is their 'strategic roadmap' Agenda 2020 - developed to ring the changes at the Olympic Games, and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan.

As well the IOC is instituting a number of governance changes which are required to be picked up by the various International Federations, including World Sailing. While there are some changes to names of parts of the organisation to make it look more corporate, the world sailing body has also adopted a policy of transparency which is a very welcome move.

Hopefully, that policy of transparency will be pushed down into other controlling bodies in the sport, such as the national federations and organisations like the America's Cup who seem to believe that confidentiality is the best way to keep issues out of the gaze of fans and media.

A key issue being the appointment of the Arbitration Panel for the 35th America's Cup of which nothing has been announced. Certainly it is a key body for the event - and given the ructions that marked the last America's Cup one would have thought that transparency would have been a foregone conclusion. But no.

And what of the issues set down to be heard by the Arbitration Panel - such as the canceling of the agreement to hold the Qualifiers in Auckland - will that be conducted behind closed doors by a panel of three who are nameless?

We have seen in New Zealand the stupidity of trying to conceal such processes and then issuing a media statement with the outcome - decision and penalty.

Of course, that only adds to the media and intrigue. Like the Hurricanes rugby team holding a closed-door hearing into a Protocol breach after six players broke a curfew by 18 minutes and were suspended. Then it turned out the team management had tried to keep the whole incident quiet, and that it had happened two weeks earlier. Of course, the announcement of the suspensions launched a major story - which ran for days over the suspensions, but more so over the half-witted decision to try the cover-up of the Hearing and what it was about.

Other incidents, which happen the whole time in professional sport, were handled quickly, openly and transparently and while there was a bit of media excitement it was mostly over in a day, and everyone moved on. Nothing to see here.

So hopefully World Sailing's intention to better the governance objectives of the IOC will be pushed down into other areas of sports administration who will be all the better for the same disinfectant of transparency.

But Agenda 2020 as well as positioning the IOC and its sports away from the stench of the FIFAs, will also ring changes in the sports of the Summer Olympics as the IOC seeks to make changes and have a lot more say in what Events are actually in its #1 property.

For Sailing, that means changes in classes, complete equality in gender participation, and a move to give the Olympics more appeal to youth. Whether competitor numbers reduce still further is yet to be seen, and the actions of some sailing nations in rejecting Olympic places just 80 or so days out from the Rio regatta doesn't exactly convey the impression that the places earned 20 months ago have any real value. And that is just inviting a reduction in places for the sport.

As the situation stands today Oceania - which includes Australia and New Zealand and the countries of the SW Pacific - have elected not to fill a total of 18 places in the 2016 Olympic regatta. A new single athlete sport such as Surfing - which is on the IOC wish-list could blot those up spots in a flash, and maybe take a few more from Sailing's obviously over-full bag of marbles.

Maybe some thought should be given to the bigger picture, beyond Rio 2016, by those residing in the Antipodes.

Equalisation of participation by gender will on current numbers (380 total sailing athletes) mean that in Sailing, the male numbers will reduce by 27 and the female sailing athlete numbers increase by the same.

Some of the changes rung by ISAF/World Sailing in 2012 to the Olympic Regatta look to be very astute calls in the light of the prescriptions of Agenda 2020. But more change will be needed. And more significantly it does not seem that World Sailing will have the level of control over outcomes that it has previously enjoyed. Which means that silly choices, made for political reasons, will not go unpunished.

Our sport can only be the better for these moves.