Coates vows to end rancour, bring sporting bodies together

AOC president John Coates has signalled that his top priority is to close the fault lines in Australian sport.

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has signalled that his top priority is to close the fault lines in Australian sport, as his bitter AOC election campaign against former Hockeyroo Danielle Roche reaches its conclusion today.

Mr Coates also acknowledged that the AOC brand and “some of our reputations have clearly been damaged” by the stoush.

In his final interview before today’s annual general meeting in Sydney, Mr Coates outlined to The Weekend Australian his pitch to AOC members, including that:

He would reach out to rival, Australian Sports Commission chairman and business heavy­weight John Wylie, if he wins, saying: “We’re all grown-ups.”

He believed he was “well positioned” but did “not take anything for granted” and would be “very disappointed” if he lost, a result he maintained would spell the end of his international Olympic administration career.

He was confident of the ongoing support of major AOC sponsor Qantas, despite public criticism by the company’s chairman, Leigh Clifford, that Mr Coates had a “hidden agenda”.

He planned to “establish new guidelines for the conduct of (AOC) elections in the future” to eliminate the venom of this year’s campaign.

It was time for him to “have a go” at the federal government over what he saw as an inadequate share of funding for sport — possibly in concert with Mr Wylie.

2032 — and not 2028 — was looming as the most likely date for Brisbane and southeast Queensland to bid for the Olympics.

He planned to launch a formal program if he won to help struggling former Olympians, and let them know “we are still their family”.

Insiders say a decision late on Thursday by the AOC Athletes Commission, which has two votes in today’s election, is believed to have swung other sports to Mr Coates’s favour. However, some supporters of both camps say the result is too close to call.

On the subject of Mr Wylie, Mr Coates said he would reach out. “Absolutely, that will happen,” he said. “I’m heading off to three days of meetings in Lausanne (at the IOC headquarters) on Tuesday, then I’m back the following week. So it will be after that.”

Mr Coates compared the pair’s bitter battle in the lead-up to today’s election to the rough and tumble of corporate takeovers that Mr Wylie had engaged in as a top investment bankers.

The pair refused to shake hands during a heated exchange at the Nitro athletics meeting in Melbourne in February, with the AOC boss later reportedly saying: “I don’t shake hands with c...s.”

Mr Coates said the Nitro exchange was “in the context of an election campaign”, and could be mended in a less flammable ­environment.

“It was in the context of a discussion about those he had asked to stand against him,” he said. “We’re all grown-ups. I’m sure he’s done the same in corporate takeovers in the past.”

He also proposed to work closely with Mr Wylie’s ASC. “Our sports feel very ill at ease when their principal source of funding, the ASC, and the body that’s responsible for the teams for which they prepare athletes, the AOC, are not getting on. I get that.”

As for changing his tough management style? “I’ve always said it as it is, and that has brought a lot of financial rewards to the AOC and Australian sport,” he said. “I’m not going to change my ways there. That would be silly.”

Mr Coates admitted he was not proud of one letter in which he told an employee undergoing cancer treatment to “get out in the real world” because the AOC was not a “sheltered workshop”.

“That’s something I should not have said,” he said. “I’m mindful of that. I’ll be more careful of the things I write (in future).”

Mr Coates acknowledged the AOC brand had been damaged.

Mr Clifford has been one board member to pipe up against Mr Coates. The AOC boss insisted all was fine with Mr Clifford’s company. “Qantas is absolutely on the verge of being signed,” he said. “There’s no indication that’s at any risk. Qantas regards us and the Qantas Wallabies as their two best sporting associations.”

What of Mr Clifford’s comments? “(They were made) in the context of an election campaign.”

He called for voting reform, given the rancorous AOC campaign. “We need to establish some guidelines for the conduct of elections in the future,” he said.

“Not to inhibit in any way the democratic process, not at all, but I think the members of the ­national sporting bodies have ­really had enough of the emails they’re getting from Danni and myself, and having to meet us ­individually.”

He called for a separate meeting a fortnight before an AGM, where candidates could pitch and be quizzed on their platforms.

If he wins, a major focus will be a possible Brisbane and southeast Queensland 2032 Olympic bid. It had originally been thought Brisbane might bid for 2028, but with two strong bids for the 2024 Olympics from Paris and Los Angeles, Mr Coates is leading discussions with the two cities to award 2024 to one, and 2028 to the other.

Mr Coates has proposed former Mean Machine gold medallist Mark Stockwell head the bid. It was thought Mr Stockwell might decline, given his comments in The Australian yesterday that Mr Coates and Mr Wylie were “as bad as each other”. Mr Coates said yesterday: “I was chatting with him this morning. He’s very happy to work with us.”

Mr Coates claimed another priority was to help past athletes. “We’re already in discussions with BeyondBlue,” he said. “We’ve had some very high-­profile Olympians who have struggled. In the past, we would just quietly help some. But I wouldn’t suggest we’ve been catching everyone, so we need to make sure we do.”

Mr Coates reiterated that a loss today would spell the end of his IOC ­career.