Athletics: No easy answers for Britain's most successful Olympic sport

SIXTY or so members of Midland athletic clubs assembled in a Birmingham conference centre this week to discuss a new structure for a sport whose main administrative body went bust last October.

As they signed in at the reception desk, a couple of delegates explained that the meeting was about the future of British athletics. "Oh yes?" the receptionist replied. "Have you got some money with you?"

As a jest, it came uncomfortably close to the truth of the matter. The funds which once poured into the domestic sport from the coffers of television and commercial sponsors have dwindled in recent years, while the sport's running costs have remained at the same level. Result, as Mr Micawber would have said, misery.

In retrospect, the financial collapse of the British Athletic Federation last autumn had a grinding inevitability about it, although the swiftness of the final decline caught many people out - not least the freshly installed chief executive, Dave Moorcroft.

Having accepted the ride which had thrown his predecessor, Peter Radford, from the saddle, Britain's former world 5,000 metres record holder suddenly found his mount dying underneath him.

Moorcroft, whose sincerity and integrity shine like a good deed in a naughty world, has unsheathed his sword, rallied his depleted forces, and moved forward on foot.

With the voluntary assistance of an international management firm, whose female representative (both modestly prefer to remain anonymous) shared Wednesday's presentation, he has constructed a tentative working model for a sport which has been in the grip of the blazer brigade for almost a century.

The stakes are high. If British athletics is able to agree upon a streamlined administration, disencumbered of unwieldy councils and committees, then increased grant levels from the National Lottery and the Sports Council will be made available.

But as Moorcroft acknowledges, if the curmudgeons turn round and say "No go", then he is not in a position to insist. This has to be revolution through consensus.

The Sports Council observer present at what was the first of several planned "roadshows" responded cautiously when asked to quantify his organisation's financial commitment within a new structure. He spoke of robustness, sustainability and accountability; with the greatest of these being accountability.

As the assembled clubmen and women scratched their chins, rustled their notes and - in one case - nodded off, the proposals were outlined at length, with the accompanying projection of multitudinous flow charts and bullet points.

If an instrument for measuring earnestness had been present at the front of the room, it would have flickered off the scale.

"We tried to think of a way that we could condense all this down to five minutes," Moorcroft admitted with a grin. "And we couldn't."

After an hour and a half's bombardment with information, one or two members of the rank and file picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and dutifully lobbed forward their questions.

Some bounced wide, or were fended off with a firmly applied phrase from the international management lexicon. A personal favourite - "The need for functionality was felt to be the most important driver there."

One question, however, rolled threateningly towards the planners with pin removed. It came from a club athlete who said that for the vast majority of competitors in this country, nothing fundamental had changed since October, with training nights and coaching carrying on as usual. "Why," he asked, "do we need all this?"

Had the question been asked of the International Amateur Athletic Federation's president, Primo Nebiolo, it would doubtless have received the kind of treatment meted out to press enquiries before last year's World Championships.

Pressed on details of the IAAF's decision to reduce punishments for drug offences, the autocratic Italian eventually responded: "I regret to tell you I do not remember. I'm tired of discussing the doping problem."

The response elicited by the club athlete lacked Nebiolo's succinctness, but it was as energetic as a willing sheepdog.

The management consultant promised that the plans for development of the sport at grass roots would change the life of the average club. There would be "better coaching education, general information, medical advice and support for athletes", who would all benefit from closer links between clubs and newly formed, smaller regions, operating under a slimmed-down, but (eye on Sports Council observer) accountable UK policy and support unit...

Moorcroft said that if no viable structure was in place within a year to generate grants, detrimental effects would start to be felt increasingly throughout the sport.

For Britain's most successful Olympic sport, there are no easy answers and no short cuts - dogged progress is the name of the game at the moment.

A blank piece of paper can be the scariest thing in the world. Whether Moorcroft can re-draft the design of British athletics will depend upon the co-operation he receives from the hitherto jealous guardians of geographical power bases. It comes down to a matter of faith.