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

18 The Turner Committee process, the structure of the new body that it recommended and the possible ways in which the new body could be created. A limited liability company was proposed, with all clubs of the UK having voting powers at General Meetings. The managing council would be based on representation from the four home countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) plus the chairmen of various standing committees (Coaching, International, Development and so on) and certain of the professional staff. There should be an executive of the senior professional directors under a chief executive. The new roles of the national associations were discussed as were the possible terms on which a secession of the Welsh AAA from the AAA could be negotiated. Special interest groups such as cross country, leagues, international athletes, and others, including the role of women, were all addressed. The financial implications and potential opportunities were laid out at length. Three possible ways of setting up the new body were considered. Firstly, the AAA could expand itself to embrace the rest of the UK under a new name and corporate constitution. This had been suggested by the BAL and offered some potential benefit as the AAA was already incorporated as a limited liability company, but was rejected as having too much of the flavour of an AAA take-over. Alternatively, the BAAB could be turned into a limited company with a drastically revised constitution and there was some merit in this as the BAAB was the existing member of the IAAF. However, despite the important role that it played, the BAAB was criticised for being undemocratic and out of touch (clubs could attend AGMs but not vote and David Bedford had memorably, even though perhaps unfairly, described the organisation as “ a Sunday afternoon‟s women‟s knitting society” ) and it was decided that the best plan would be to create an entirely new entity. The BAAB would be wound up and the AAA would restrict itself exclusively to England (and, hopefully, merge with the Women’s AAA). The report was formally presented by Mike Turner and Barry Willis to the influential Finance and General Purposes Committee of the AAA on 26 November 1983; which was too late for its inclusion in the business of the 1983 Annual General Meeting, which had been the target date. This was actually no bad thing as, instead, the report could be the centre of attention at a specially convened General Meeting (EGM) and not submerged in the general business of an AGM.