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

93 A poisoned chalice? who seek, for whatever reason, to influence these discussions to the disadvantage of the Federation. The internal battle that has been fought behind my back was a disgrace to British Athletics and one which members should be ashamed of”. In January 1997, Steve Gledhill, who had done an excellent job for the federation, resigned as Director of Finance and, two weeks later, Radford also announced his resignation. The last straw for Radford had been these attempts by those that he regarded as his own colleagues to undermine his negotiating position on behalf of the BAF with commercial partners. He came to the conclusion that as he could no longer trust some of the very people to whom he was answerable, he had to leave. He described it as feeling like a rugby player, with the ball in his hands, racing for the line, only to be tackled by players on his own side. The resignations and subsequent departures of Radford and Gledhill placed unwanted pressures on the Officers and other honorary members of the management board, which they struggled to cope with. It fell to chairman Ken Rickhuss, an engineer and successful businessman, along with his fellow officers, to try to pick up the pieces. At its meeting on 15 March 1997, the Council set in train the process to recruit a replacement for Radford, aiming to have the successful candidate (reverting to the title Chief Executive) in place by 1 st September. During this critical period, the Honorary Treasurer, Martin Evanson, who had been re-elected at the March AGM, had not attended any meetings of the management board since January, nor had any significant involvement in the federation’s finances, and this came to a head at the May meeting when the board decided to ask him to resign, which he did. Before leaving on the 31 March, Steve Gledhill had informed the management board that, in the absence of new income sources and drastic cost savings, the federation was heading for a loss of £1.2 million in the year to 30 September 1997; which would wipe out the reserves and result in an overall deficit of some £500,000. At this point the federation would be insolvent and unable to continue unless a recovery plan based on assured income sources were in place.