Pitching the flag.

With the less than pleasant after-taste of the machinations of FIFA still fresh, it was sad to read of the also less than pleasant machinations of the IOC as the draconian conditions imposed on London as host city were made public. Both are self-elected bodies wielding unreasonable and seemingly unaccountable power.

It is bad enough that you can’t wear your favourite T-shirt if it carries any branding, that 700 limos with peak capped chauffeurs must be available to whisk dignitaries around in the style which they assume is their right regardless of commuter agonies and that the French language takes precedence over English.

Even more demeaning is the condition, accepted, that the Union Jack must be smaller than the Olympic flag. This is an overt flexing of corporate power and glorified global branding. It is not a reflection of the astonishing spirit of the Games.

Fortunately the essential spirit seems to survive most things, even the less than glorious phase in the history of the IOC in 1936. Hopefully for London’s sake that spirit will overcome the conditions and cost of 2012!

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2018. No leadership. No insight. No hope.

England were never going to win this pitch. They never had a prayer and anyone who followed things from the start knew this. As did the media who, nevertheless, enjoyed raising the temperature with a ‘we was robbed by the bunging-corrupt-lieing-cheating-FIFA story. At least it kept the snow off the front pages. Here are two real reasons why we lost. Lack of leadership. Lack of insight.

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Think what you will about the preening Sebb Blatter but recognise that he and his cronies, like the IOC, are all powerful. They are not impressed by titles and are used to world leaders grovelling. Obama early in his presidency lost prestige pitching for Chicago to host 2012. The same goes for the ill-advised Cameron. The patent lack of clear leadership from England’s bid, at its conspicuous worst with Lord Triesman and his pillow talk, was a fatal own goal.

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Compare this with the Russian bid. Whoever was nominally leading their delegation, the real leadership was one man, Putin. From the outset FIFA knew with total certainty who they were dealing with and who would and could deliver. (No client in any pitch appoints where leadership is lacking!) Seb Coe was clearly the leader of London’s Olympic bid.

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The Dave, David and William charm team complains that it is unfair, “our technical bid was the best”. They forget that Paris, who were the technically superior bid for 2012, lost because they lacked insight into what really mattered to the IOC, a need to be seen as good guys inspiring the world’s youth. London played to this.(See last post).

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The FA’s lack of strategic insight was neatly expressed by Jeff Powell in the Daily Mail: “Not until it was so late that the doomsday clock was chiming did it dawn on any of them that what FIFA really wanted was to bestow its greatest gift not upon the rich, smug and famous but on a region in need of those five star facilities….and in so doing open up a vast new frontier for the global game.”

The steppes of Russia were always going to have more allure than football crowded England.

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Great pitch. False promise.

It was a great pitch. Against the odds the bid team brilliantly lead by Seb Coe beat off the strong Paris bid. To win they did many things right. Tony Blair and David Beckam added to the celebrity quotient, something that flatters the inflated egos of the IOC members. They put together a powerful pitch, rehearsed to the nth degree performed superbly.

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However to win they knew they needed, as Coe put it, to make “an emotional connection”. What would counter the rational superiority of the Paris bid? The answer was an overtly emotional appeal that infused the bid and was best dramatised in a moving film of young kids around the world with the voice over, “To make an athlete takes millions of children around the world inspired to choose sport.”

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The IOC bought it because it made them feel good, even though they knew that no previous Games had increased participation. Our politicians had the legacy soundbite they needed as they systematically started syphoning money away from grass root sport to ensure we could meet the ridiculous staging demands imposed by the IOC.

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I have no doubt the Bid team believed this time it would be different. Unfortunately they, and we, the parents, coaches, teachers, volunteers, had underestimated the political cynicism when it comes to sport that really matters, sport for children. Des Kelly in the Daily Mail : “It’s about the fact that everyday participation in sport gives children self-esteem, raises confidence levels and reduces anti-social behavior”.

Children, apart from the few natural competitors, are not inspired by the Olympic Games. Their inspiration comes from the everyday effort and example of the volunteers, PE teachers and the like. All of this is now threatened by Mr Goves. Promises, promises.

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“PAINT A MOOD”.

On BBC2 yesterday evening, in ‘JFK-The Making of Modern Politics’, Andrew Marr discussed the 1960 presidential campaign. Most of us know about the famous television debate when the unshaven, sweating Nixon lost the viewer vote. However there was much more to a campaign that started out with Kennedy as the rank outsider, known to less than half the population.

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To win he pioneered ideas now common to most political campaigns. He put style ahead of substance, he portrayed his enviable life style, he spent huge amounts of money and he was ruthless when needed. All this worked for him. But perhaps the most telling of Marr’s observations was this. He said that JFK knew how to “paint a mood”.

He did not get bogged down in detail and policy statements. When he met voters he talked to them as individuals, he listened to them and above all created a sense of promise that anything seemed possible. “His vigour, his vibrancy and his cheerful optimism made them feel hopeful, energised, enthused and… interested”.

Next time, paint a mood!

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Seeking the iconic image?

Being vane goes with the territory for most politicians but David Cameron’s appointment of his pet snapper as a Government employee, along with the rest of his vanity team, smacks of desparation. Or has power already started corrupting? Whatever, he needs more than well lit, retouched photographs to join the image elite.

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