Hope for future Games

Press, 29 July 1986, Page 1

Hope for future Games

By

ROBIN CHARTERIS

. in Edinburgh The Commonwealth Games Federation will ask the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Sir Shridath Ramphal, to step into the Games’ boycott row in an effort to secure the future of the Commonwealth Games movement. In a move in which the federation’s president, the Duke of Edinburgh, was instrumental, Sir Shridath will be requested to approach all heads of Commonwealth governments and obtain their confirmation that future Games will be safe from boycott action. The federation’s acknowledgement that politics and sport are intertwined and that political action is necessary to settle decisions that affect sport is seen as a breakthrough in sports administration.

Its actions have been greeted with enthusiasm by the chairman of the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, Mr Joe McMenamin, and the Mayor of Auckland, Dame Catherine Tizard, both of whom are in Edinburgh. Mr McMenamin, who sat through the long discussion, said the Auckland Games “now look better than ever.” No action would be taken over the missing teams, the federation decided. Such a move would not work, Mr Heatly told a press conference. It was not the athletes or the sports administrators who had caused the boycotts.