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Former Essendon coach James Hird says sport has become dominated by power and greed as governing bodies try to silence dissent.
Hird has reflected on 2015, a year in which he lost his job and says he hopes 2016 will be the ‘year of facts’.
Speaking on ABC NewsRadio’s ‘The Ticket’ program earlier today Hird was part of a panel discussing some of sports highs and lows.
Addressing the corruption scandal plaguing soccer’s world governing body FIFA, Hird raises concerns about the direction of sports administration.
While Hird said he sees greater commercialisation, richer TV rights and more money for players as a positive, he also sees a growing and dangerous autocracy.
“With that centralisation has come power and greed and when the wrong sort of people have power, they turn the sport a certain way,” he said.
“I think a lot of what’s happened with FIFA and around global sport, and even here in Australia, is that the centralisation of the commercial positioning, in particular, has meant that more power has gone to these governing bodies.”
With that centralisation has come power and greed and when the wrong sort of people have power, they turn the sport a certain way.
Hird says there is increasing attempt to shut down questions about the ‘ultimate power’ of organisations like FIFA.
“There are very good sporting bodies across the world but certainly there are examples here in this country where the centralization of everything has meant that it’s very hard for anyone to speak out against the governing body.”
One team that did speak out during 2015 was the Matildas – ranked inside the top ten women’s football teams in the world.
After reaching the quarter finals of the World Cup earlier this year, and with the support of the Professional Footballers Association, the Matildas took on football’s national body demanding – and forcing – a better pay deal from the FFA.
Hird said the Matildas should be applauded.
“I think it’s very hard for an athlete… to actually speak their mind because with strong sporting organizations, they do manage to have the media on their side, and also there are certain rules that you have to abide by if you want to play in that sport,” he said.
“If the threat (of not being able to play) is put to you, then most people are silent, but the people who do stand up, I think it’s to be commended.”
Hird laments “unacceptable” Goodes reaction
Hird reflected on what he considers one of the low points in sport in 2015 – the booing of indigenous Sydney Swans player, Adam Goodes.
Dual Brownlow medalist and AFL premiership winner and former Australian of the year, Goodes walked away from the game amidst claims of racism.
I think Adam [Goodes] had every right, and I think everyone had every right, to be very disappointed in the reaction of the crowd.
Hird says after efforts to improve race relations in the AFL the Goodes affair came as a shock.
“I think Adam had every right, and I think everyone had every right, to be very disappointed in the reaction of the crowd,” Hird said.
“But I thought the commentary was probably the most disappointing, at first from people in power, because it’s unacceptable [behaviour] and it should have been talked about as unacceptable from day one.”
Hird returned to coaching in 2015 after being suspended for his involvement in Essendon’s controversial supplements program.
He had been outed for 12 months for ‘conduct prejudicing the game’.
Hird has always maintained his innocence and says he was relieved to come back to coaching but after a disappointing season he walked away from the game.
He says 2015 did not bring the success he was hoping for but he is pleased that the 34 past and present Essendon players were cleared of doping charges by the AFL’s own tribunal.
“That was probably the most positive thing to come out of this whole saga for us – that initially our players were cleared,” Hird says.
Although in another twist, that finding is now under appeal by the World Anti Doping Authority.
Hird is hoping 2016 will bring a final resolution.
“I think it’s about the facts. Instead of PR and manipulation it’s about the facts in everything,” he said.
“If we just try and brush it under the carpet and look on the field again, then we’ll always be hiding something, so put everything on the table and confront it and let’s move on.”
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