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Industry :: p43
Travis Tygart, USADA CEO, told the Sports Law Conference
what steps they took to verify the evidence
against Lance Armstorng and the extent of the UCI
campaign against them.
Skins chairman Jaimie Fuller was
one of the speakers at the I Play
Fair Sports Law Conference in Cape
Town, where he explained how the
Pure Sport #ChooseTheRightTrack
campaign was promoting better governance
in sport.
Especially, after he read the evidence.
“I was waiting for the proper sponsors to
step in and do something.” When none spoke
up, Fuller realised that it was up to him to do
something. “I had this naive perspective that
people in responsible roles are primarily there
to administer a sport.”
In response, Fuller and other concerned people
founded Change Cycling Now (CCN) in December
2012, which played an active role in
the bruising election campaign that resulted
in McQuaid and friends being ousted from running
the UCI in September 2013.
CCN, for example, helped fund court cases —
inter alia of Irish journalist Pat Krimmage, who
was sued for libel by McQuaid — and started
a magazine, Abnormal, to present an alternative
view to the attacks from the McQuaidcamp.
Skins’ marketing budget contributed,
although Fuller tried to keep the brand’s involvement
at a minimum.
“When we were forming CCN, there was no
Skins visible, because I was very sensitive to
keeping the brand out,” says Fuller. “There
were whispers that it was just a publicity stunt
to sell Skins, but this (the campaign) was so
important that I didn’t want to devalue it by
accusations of commercialisation.”
It created tension between him and the Skins
management team who were not so convinced
that this corporate responsibility initiative
(CSI) justified the use of marketing funds,
Fuller admits.
Despite continuously being told that “you’ll
never get anything done. The system is too
big” McQuaid was denied a third term as president
by a mere three votes.
“There is no question that the UCI will
change. The reality of what the new guys are
trying to put in place is enormous,” says Fuller.
“This is a chance to take the sport with the
worst reputation and change it over a period.”
He believes cycling can become an example
for other sport.
He demonstrated that
even a relatively small
sponsor can change the
well-entrenched leadership
of a powerful federation,
like the UCI
Responsibility brands
Since then, Fuller became a regular speaker
at international conferences on sport governance
— for example, before coming to Cape
Town last year he spoke at the 8th Play the
Game Conference in Aarhus, Denmark, on Why
corporate sponsors should engage in sports
governance.
There was growing concern from sponsors
at this conference about being aligned to international
federations who are just grabbing
more power, says Fuller. He believes there are
ways that sponsors can work together to exert
their financial clout in order to keep federations
on the right track, and is working on a
plan to set this in motion.
Sport brands are especially vulnerable when
they associate themselves with unethical federations,
he believes. While the reputations of
big brands like Sony or Coca-Cola would not
really be affected if the reputation of the federation
they are associated is tarnished, the
damage to a sports brand could be enormous.
Sponsor dollars are being reduced all over
the world — it is becoming harder for all federations
to get sponsorships — and therefore
sponsors should demand to see how the federation
is conducting its business and spend
their money, he argues.
Brands aligning themselves to a sport federation
should consider this a CSI initiative, rather
than marketing exercise, and therefore play an
active role to ensure that they are associated
with a clean and wholesome product, Fuller
told delegates at the Sports Law Conference.
In a follow-up newsletter he wrote: I believe
sponsors can no longer pay for the exposure a
sponsorship package will give them and then
calmly sit back and simply wait for the association
to benefit their business. There’s no
point in operating commercially if you’re not
prepared to stand up for every athlete and
sports fan who wants to watch, or take part,
in a fair contest.
Pure Sport
After leaving Cape Town, Fuller and Ben Johnson
— the Canadian 100m world champion
who was stripped of his titles when he tested
positive in the Seoul Olympics in 1988 — spoke
at a Sport versus Crime conference in Dubai.
There, more than 50 participants from 25
countries discussed how to create sport without
crime, and how sport can combat crime.
This was part of the Skins Pure Sport campaign,
aimed at improving sport governance
and empowering athletes to stay clean and
honest. This time, Skins is fully on board.
Because Johnson’s disgrace was such a
memorable occurrence, Fuller last year chose
him to accompany him on a tour to the UK,
Canada, US, Australia and Japan to promote
anti-doping, ending in Seoul on the 25th anniversary
of the historical event.
Apart from the fact that he knew that Johnson
would have much more impact than some
clean-cut kid preaching anti-doping, they also
wanted to get the message across that after
25 years, nothing much had changed to help
athletes overcome the temptation of doping
to enhance their performance. If anything, it
is worse than before, Johnson said.
Dubbed the #ChooseTheRightTrack initiative,
Johnson participated because he was
part of the problem, and therefore wanted to
be part of the solution.
“I spent five weeks with Johnson and I’m
very proud of that campaign,” says Fuller. “I
hope in ten years’ time he will look back and
say I made a change for good.”
2014 March :: Sports Trader