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HRDC99

Listed below are comments made by HRDC99 between Wednesday, 7th January 2009 and Tuesday, 7th July 2009.

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Body of evidence 12:14pm on 07 Jul 2009 Money drives sport. Money (by and large) comes from TV revenue, sponsorship and advertising. These revenues are all driven by viewers and spectators and the reality is that male sports deliver these viewers and spectators in much greater numbers than female sports. This interest is what drives the coverage.

Now, the reasons for the significantly greater interest in male sports may well stem from historical or cultural biases that also produce the irrelevant arguments over differences in the quality of the sports or visual spectacles.

The challenge is for women's sports to drive interest in their games and create fans of their games. By increasing the numbers of fans and followers of their games, they will drive media coverage.

If you look at Golf and Tennis, these are two areas across the world where there is considerable interest and coverage in the women's tours. This has been achieved by marketing, development and promotion.

Other areas where this has been achieved in individual countries would the WNBA and women's soccer. These sports have made huge progress but still have work to do.

Virtually all of the main sports played by either men or women have significant numbers of female participants, it is up to the sports themselves to drive their own sport forward and not for governments to legislate on or quangos to complain about coverage.
Body of evidence 08:17am on 07 Jul 2009 Coverage is in direct response to interest from the public. The reality is that the public as a whole are more interested in male sports and the coverage reflects this.
Have officials turned a blind eye to Burger? 1:14pm on 30 Jun 2009 I don't normally have much sympathy for a referee but I do have some sympathy for Bryce Lawrence.

The referee or the linesmen have to be absolutely 100% sure when taking a decision like that. In deciding on a red card, they would have effectively ended the game as a contest as, by sending Burger off, the game would be over for the Springboks and the series levelled.

That is no small matter to decide.

You would have to be absolutely certain when taking a decision such as that and I am sure that we would all expect the referee to only give a red card (and finish the game off) if he was totally certain.

Lawrence was clearly 90-95% sure but that's just not enough.

Burger has been punished subsequently and, in my opinion, let off a little lightly. The citing commissioner is there to ensure that serious infringements are dealt with and offenders punished.
Quartet face relegation nail-biter 7:10pm on 22 May 2009 I used to have a huge amount of affection for Newcastle United with them being my (and many others) "second team" but that has disappeared over recent years.

I deplored their behaviour towards Sam Allardyce. He is clearly a decent manager and they would never be in the position that they are now, if the Geordie fans had not turned on him. Apparently, his style of football wasn't good enough. Well, how's Newcastle's style of football been since he left?

Then onto Keegan. I can understand their affection for Kevin Keegan as a person but as a manager? He is clearly a wonderful motivator, but tactically inept and was so far out of touch with the game it was ridiculous.

Joe Kinnear. Staggered when I saw his appointment. A competent manager 10 years ago. But now? Unbelievable.

Finally, Alan Shearer. To be fair, he has made improvements but then they were so bad before, he could hardly have made it worse.

I think Middlesborough are down and I hope that Newcastle join them. I think the whole place needs a massive clear out - owners, managers and players. It should also be the reality check that Newcastle fans need.

There is no divine right to be in the Premier League and there are plenty of clubs in lower leagues whose fans thought exactly the same thing.

Football is all about results. Nothing else matters. Perhaps this season, whether they survive or not, will mean that this lesson is taken on board in Newcastle.
Blatter blunders while Wada walks the beat 5:34pm on 13 May 2009 Wordsaretheanswer

You may possibly be right about rugby players but a far more dominant factor would have resulted from the transition from being amateur to professional with the application of much more sophisticated conditioning and nutrition.
Blatter blunders while Wada walks the beat 3:03pm on 13 May 2009 Ventoux

I'd have to disagree with you there. I do not believe that all sports require the same strategy. Each should be free to decide the priorities to focus upon.

Football has no responsibility to cycling nor vice versa.

Perhaps, cycling does get bad press especially related to drug abuse, but, as you point out, there are other factors that cause disillusionment amongst the fan base.
Blatter blunders while Wada walks the beat 1:47pm on 13 May 2009 Ventoux

I agree that just because there have not been many cases in a particular sport that does not inherently mean that there is no problem within that sport. The will of the sporting authorities to test makes a massive difference - look at Baseball, for example.

I have to say I am not particularly concerned over the athletes' health over the use of drugs. No-one forces them to take these substances and few that take drugs would be able to claim that they were unaware that they were running risks in doing so.

What concerns me more is the fraud that are perpretated on the public.

The success and the rewards that go with it that are enjoyed by these athletes and the betrayal of trust from their supporters and the public.

I believe that in athletics and other sports the use of drugs is far more significant in determining success and failure. This, therefore, determines the respect, affection, adulation and rewards enjoyed as a result of success. For these sports, it is critical for their very survival to address the problem of drugs, as the erosion of public confidence in the athletes' successes destroys the very fabric of their sport.

If the public loses trust, they will lose interest, if they lose interest, the sport loses followers, supporters and participants, if they lose followers, supporters and participants, they will lose advertisers and sponsors, if they lose sponsors, they lose money and funding. If they lose all of these things, the sport is all but lost.

In sports where the use of drugs is significantly less likely (not impossible, I grant you) in determining success, I question the need to have such stringent regulations.

Football has much bigger problems to address than drugs compared to athletics and cycling and I firmly believe that the focus of the authorities should be elsewhere.

The lack of respect for officials, the crippling debts being run up by clubs, the endemic cheating - shirt-pulling, diving etc, racism and hooliganism are all far more important to football that drugs.

There will clearly be a financial cost to football for such testing regimes and I believe that any such funds could and should be put to better use elsewhere for the benefit of the game and societies as a whole.

People know that taking drugs is wrong. Sadly, many people think that diving, shirt-pulling, abusing referees, vile chanting and taunting of the opposition is still acceptable.

Football has much more important issues to address than drugs. Issues that affect society as a whole, all around the world.
Blatter blunders while Wada walks the beat 12:56pm on 13 May 2009 I think that there are real differences between sports that have had significant drugs problems such as athletics, weight-lifting and cycling and other sports such as football and rugby.

Where a sport is very significantly measured in absolute terms such as an individual's speed or power and the line between success and failure are often incredibly small margins, you will always have people seeking to gain an unfair advantage. In these sports, the advantages gained from taking banned substances make a very material difference to the individual's success or failure.

In other sports, this line between success and failure is governed is far less determined by "simple" factors such as speed or power but by individual skill as well as so many other factors such as team mates, referees and their assistants, playing surfaces, even the influence of the crowd.

In such cases, do we really need to impose exactly the same restrictions on the participants?

In addition to this, with retrospective testing, is it so important to have such a testing infrastructure and regime?

I think the battle against drugs in sport is a war that cannot be won; battles may be won, but never the war.
Why majors define a player's stature 06:39am on 09 Apr 2009 Majors are clearly a massively important measure in a golfer's career but you miss out one other measure by which a golfer can elevate himself:

The Ryder Cup
Pietersen's gamble too far 2:20pm on 07 Jan 2009 Whilst Andrew Strauss is the easy option, is he the best? With Ian Bell's poor form, I think Rob Key as captain and No. 3 would be a better bet.

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