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

28 THE McALLISTER PLAN Arthur McAllister, a died in the wool Yorkshire man, had held many of the senior positions in British athletics and had been chairman of the AAA’s General Committee until 1986 when he stepped up to become President, handing over the chairmanship to Midlander Bill Ferguson. In his younger days, McAllister had been a competent and effective administrator but, later, became more and more focused on his Northern, and especially, English roots. By profession he had spent most of his life teaching individuals with what are now called special needs; Arthur, as everybody, would have called them handicapped. With his background, he probably felt uncomfortable as athletics evolved more commercially and was on the brink of becoming an openly professional sport as this would have clashed with his amateur instincts. This led to occasional flashes of temper when, with a barely concealed sneer, he would refer to some of his colleagues as “ only businessmen ”, implying, unfairly, that they were only interested in the money in sport and not the sport itself. Nevertheless, Arthur McAllister was generally liked and respected for what he had done for his sport and undoubtedly worked sincerely and hard to achieve what he saw as the best outcome. Having been asked by the BAAB to do so, Arthur McAllister did indeed produce his draft BAF constitution as promised. This was presented to the respective meetings of the AAA and BAAB in May 1988 and whereas the BAAB rather docilely largely went along the proposals (not surprising, considering the number of votes held by the AAA), there was trouble brewing within the AAA itself. A split had opened up over the composition of the managing council where McAllister (as Evans and Turner before) had proposed a seat for the (yet to be established) purely English Association, with nine representatives. His first draft gave these 9 representatives two votes each but this was watered down in the final proposal so that these nine would wield 15 votes, more than all the others combined. This would have given the English absolute control and, of itself, would be controversial enough,