Clothing rift back on track yet again

Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), repeated yesterday that all Irish athletes in the Sydney Games next year must wear the team clothing of the OCI's official sponsors, adidas, in and out of competition.

In a statement which will fuel the continuing rift with BLE on the clothing issue, he said athletes and officials selected for the Games would have to sign a form agreeing to abide by the requirements of the OCI.

Then, to the thinly-veiled surprise of some of those present at a press briefing in Dublin, he disclosed that Patsy McGonigle, nominated by BLE to manage the track and field team in Sydney, had already signed and returned the form to them.

If this hinted at an unexpected breakthrough in the deadlocked discussions with the athletics federation, who insist that they are legally contracted to wear the clothing of Asics, their official sponsors, we were soon disillusioned.

Commenting on the situation, Chris Wall, BLE's international secretary, said: "In the wake of the recent controversy over the gear to be used in the European Youth Olympics, we decided to park the Sydney issue and return to it at a later date. That is the official policy of the board.

"Following legal advice, Patsy McGoningle was given permission to sign the agreement. We hasten to add, however, that this is an individual case. It should not be construed as a precedent for the rest of the athletics party going to Sydney."

Hickey earlier said that he had taken every precaution to avoid another confrontation with BLE. The adidas deal is worth almost £600,000 to the OCI, and before it was concluded he had approached both Asics and the Government with a view to clothing the official Olympic party, thus heading off further trouble with the athletics body.

In each instance, the response was negative, so they proceeded to conclude a deal with adidas which, he said, was good for the Olympic movement in Ireland. Acknowledging that the IAAF congress in Seville next week, would restate the IAAF's primacy in all matters dealing with international athletics, Hickey said: "Whatever comes out of that congress is meaningless. The Olympic Games are held in accordance with the charter of the International Olympic Committee. And the IOC alone has the authority to decide the type of clothing athletes may or may not wear."

The feeling was that we'd been over this ground many times before Now, barring an amicable commercial agreement between the two sportswear manufacturers involved, it looks as if another winter of discontent beckons.

Elsewhere, the OCI president stressed that only A qualifying standards will be accepted for the athletics and swimming championships in Australia. He conceded that the OCI would be willing to talk with athletes who came exceptionally close to achieving A marks.

Dermot Sherlock said it was expected that the size of the squad going to Sydney would not differ much from that in Atlanta three years ago when there were 78 Irish competitors involved.