Athletics in the UK: The Rise and Fall of the BAF

10 The battle for BAF – the first steps meeting took the debate a little further but revealed the need for a more organised campaign. Accordingly, Roger Simons, on behalf of his British League club, Shaftesbury Harriers, submitted a motion to the Southern Counties AAA (a constituent part of the AAA) that there should be a single UK governing body. This was the first tentative step into the constitutional corridors of power but the proposal was ruled out of order on technical grounds at the body’s June 1982 AGM. However, an informal vote at the same meeting showed a large majority in favour of the Shaftesbury-BAL proposal. The 1982 summer season generated much press comment about the need to rationalise the amateur-professional status of athletes and, finally, at its Congress in Athens prior to the European Championships, the IAAF approved a proposal (presented by Britain’s Andy Norman) that athletes’ earnings would be legitimised provided that the monies were held in trust funds until they retired from the sport. The sport was moving on and John Rodda, athletics correspondent of the Guardian newspaper, wrote that “ It is more urgent than ever to have one controlling body in Britain ”. Despite the setback at the Southern Counties AGM, it was obvious that real progress could be made only by harnessing the formal constitutional procedures of the sport, particularly those of the AAA which was the most influential of the governing bodies. Indeed, the AAA was, in practice, even more powerful than the BAAB as it not only had a virtually inbuilt voting majority there but also organised, in competition with the BAAB, increasingly profitable televised events. There was certainly tension (bordering on open warfare) between the AAA and the BAAB which did not augur well for a co-operative approach of the countries of the UK to form themselves into a single entity but the proponents had no choice but to start with the most influential body, the AAA, as it was here, unlike the BAAB, that the clubs could vote. Accordingly, a formal motion was presented to the AAA to be placed on the agenda of the 1982 AGM to be held in London on 6 th November 1982. I formally proposed the motion on behalf of my club (Cardiff AAC) and it was seconded by Roger Simons on behalf of Shaftesbury Harriers. It was essential to comply strictly with the technical requirements of the AAA’s constitution and in this Roger and I were greatly assisted by the expertise of solicitor David Jeacock.