Sports Minister weary of NOC’s snubs

Minister of Tourism, Sports and Culture Ces Mc Kie is fed up of the snubs shown by the hierarchy of the National Olympic Committee towards his Ministry’s initiative, and plans to take his concerns to Cabinet.{{more}}

Mc Kie vented his feelings last Saturday at the Murray’s Heights Hotel at the hosting of tripartite meeting of sports.

Expressing his concerns about the continued absence of representation from the NOC at such a forum, Mc Kie declared: “We contacted the National Olympic Committee to present at last tripartite and this tripartite and the Manager of the (National) Sports Council (Cecil Charles) advised me a couple days ago that the National Olympic Committee said that they are not coming…Could you imagine an umbrella organization in this country did not attend the last one saying they didn’t know”.

Mc Kie said that he was told by the president of the NOC Trevor Bailey that he was unaware of last Saturday’s meeting.

“I want to be bold enough to put it on the table today because I have seen certain trends over the last couple of years that suggest that the National Olympic Committee …that they think that they are an administration unto themselves and don’t need to work with the government or the ministry … The ministry is completely sidelined,” Mc Kie lamented.

Mc Kie contended: “It is disrespect for the ministry of this country …. I am going to take this matter to the Cabinet of this country, because you cannot have an important body like that, which we rely on to put on capacity building workshops and training programmes … We cannot do without them, but we cannot allow the National Olympic Committee to continue in the way it is going”.

Mc Kie listed his snubbing at the Queen’s Baton Relay held here recently and the anniversary commemorative dinner of the National Olympic Committee two years ago at the Methodist Church Hall, in which he did not receive an invitation to speak, as examples of the strained relations.

He noted that in some countries governments have moved in and closed down the operations of such National Olympic Committees, once the relationship between the two entities gets irreparable. (RT)