Javelins out for Crawford Report

It turned into a battle between elite and grassroots, Olympic and professional, victory and participation, archery and footy, and a very straightforward verbal assault from Coatsey to Crawford, saying he “just doesn’t get it”. David Crawford was chosen by the government to lead a panel to compile a report on the future of Australian sport, including sports funding. A director of BHP Billiton and previously chairman of Fosters Group, he was most well known in the sporting world for his independent reviews of the AFL and soccer, which was credited with establishing the “new football” structure that has seen Australia qualify for its second consecutive World Cup.

However, there was criticism that past and present members of the panel are footy-centric including Mark Bouris, board member of Sydney Roosters Rugby League Club, Sam Mostyn the AFL’s first female Commissioner, and Colin Carter chairman of the AFL Foundation. The only Olympic sport member is Pamela Tye, President of Hockey Australia.

The most controversial element of the report was the assertion that Australia should stop trying to punch above its weight, and be satisfied with being in the top 10 in the Olympics medal tallies. While the report favours maintaining the current level of funding, it says it should be refocussed on popular sports – partly because of the level of participation and the consequent help in fighting obesity. Cricket was mentioned in the report as receiving less money than archery, although it had 100 times more participants.

But critics say that popular sports are by and large professional – such as the football codes and cricket – and they should not receive too much government funding, whereas elite Olympic sports like archery would not survive without it. Swimming seems to fall into both camps – being both an Olympic sport and popular. However, water polo was singled out as a sport that receives too much money – more than the popular (and professional) sports of golf, tennis and lawn bowls combined.

Australian Olympic Organisation president, John Coates, said that aiming for only a top 10 spot was “unAustralian”. He also said that professional sports get their revenue through the turnstiles of venues that were paid for by the public purse.

It has been reported that the AOC may consider legal action over what they consider errors in the report and bias towards the AFL in particular.

The Australian Leisure Facilities Association (ALFA) has welcomed the report.

The report identified some sports as being particularly Australian and deserving of special consideration with funding. These include swimming, surfing and surf lifesaving, tennis, cricket, cycling, the football codes, netball, golf, hockey and basketball.

For a link to the full report, click here.