Why are sporting boards so secretive?

Paul McNamee is claiming that while he might have lost the battle, he has won the war.

The support for McNamee's divide-and-conquer approach to displacing long-time Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard was supposedly so strong it has forced a change in thinking within the local game's administration.

It wasn't strong enough to win the election. Pollard remains in the No.1 courtside box.

And whether McNamee can accurately say he had enough votes to force a seachange in Australian tennis cannot be proven. Maybe the ball was in. Maybe it was out. But you can't be serious about manner in which it was achieved.

The result of the vote remains a secret. McNamee could well have been beaten by the casting vote of Pollard himself. But the details are under lock and key with an accountancy firm. We'll never know.

Why not? Tennis Australia is a body owned by the people, not some private group of hobnobs who have a regular gig scoffing strawberries and cream at Wimbledon. We have a right to know.

Each year, TA goes to the State and Federal governments seeking tax-payer funds for new courts, new junior programs and new coaches. Delegates from every State association vote on the presidential election. Those delegates are decided by thousands of local players and officials. Yet none of those participants and taxpayers are permitted to know the level of support for the person they have put in charge of their interests.

It is becoming a trend at top-level sport. The WA Football Commission's elections are similarly suspicious. The WAFC has recently called for applications for its board. Candidates are later put to WA football's stakeholders, West Coast, Fremantle, WAFL, and country and amateur associations for a vote.

What happens in between is done in secrecy and raises concerns about the legitimacy of the process.

Applicants for the post are culled by the existing WAFC board. The commissioners then put up to the stakeholders those people they want to join them in the Subiaco Oval corporate box for AFL matches. But the WAFC tries to keep the identities of the candidates a secret.

The public, the people for whom they are running the game, apparently shouldn't know who was willing to put their hand up to hold WA football's power.

And why should we? After all, we're only the most important element in sport.

--

Get the flak jacket. Put on the protective head gear and get a shield to protect an already thick skin. A bold statement that is set to infuriate a vocal minority among the sporting fraternity is about to be made.

Australia can't host a World Cup by 2022.

There. It has been said.

The opinion is based, not on a policy of soccer-bashing as many will accuse, but on our country.

We're not big enough. We don't have big enough airports, sufficient hotel beds, the personnel and, most significantly of all, the venues to do it. It would be outstanding to be proved wrong. But the world can't take that chance.

--

The Arthur Tunstall (official of the week)
Adrian Anderson (AFL): So the AFL wants to get players to become umpires and pay them $25,000 a year to learn. First of all the league would have to teach them the rules. But maybe to add some excitement to the games they could get Barry Hall to become a whistleblower. Now, that would be fun.

Cobb and Co. coach of the week
Andy Moles (NZ cricket): There is one sure way to be sacked in sport - lose the respect of your players. Moles did. And with players having so much control on their codes there is only one place for a coach to go in that situation. Out the door.

The Big Blunder (presented by the makers of the aluminium bat)
Caroline Wozniacki (tennis): Sometimes messages can be lost in translation. Wozniacki probably did the right thing by pulling out of a match when injury was obviously going to prevent her from continuing in a tournament. But next time she should tell her father to keep quiet.

Toughen up Princess prize
America's Cup field: Australia has lost interest in the America's Cup. After perusing all the legal to-ing and fro-ing over the next challenge, it's no wonder why.