Irish Eyes Aren't Smiling As Aussies Target the Irish Bobsleigh Spot

Australia and Ireland share a common bond. We both have a deep antipathy for our former British colonial rulers—although, admittedly, Australia has somewhat fewer reasons to be pissed off with them.

That friendly relationship is being sorely tested, however, over a bitter wrangle that has erupted over the exclusion of the Aussie two-woman bobsleigh team from the Vancouver Winter Games. As is the way with Olympic qualification, the background is unnecessarily complicated and could easily be avoided with a spirit of compromise.

In a nutshell, Ireland beat Australia for the 20th and last available slot at the games, however, when the Austrian team withdrew the Irish were then the 19th qualifier, the Aussies assumed they would fill the final position.

While that appeared to be a logical decision, logic is apparently not something that the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (FIBT) is altogether comfortable with. Instead of offering the vacant spot to the next best qualifier, the FIBT offered the spot to Japan, the best Asian qualifier.

The Aussies argue, understandably, that as the best team in Oceania, they deserve to have the same opportunity afforded to them. The Court of Arbitration for Sport now has the delightful task of deciding the way forward.

But what, I hear you ask, has this got to do with the Irish? If the FIBT stick to their bloody-minded policy of restricting the competition field to 20 entrants and the CAS upholds Australia’s appeal, then Ireland are the ones likely to miss out to make way for Japan and the Aussies—a manifestly unjust decision.

While the CAS decision will be unlikely to spark an international incident between Ireland and Australia, it would be yet another occasion in which an Irish team misses out on competing at the highest level for reasons other than being beaten fairly on the sports field. The memory of the Thierry Henry "Hand of Frog" incident is still very raw.

The easy compromise is to allow 21 teams to compete at the Games. It’s obvious, it punishes no-one, it’s easy to do and there is no way in hell that it will ever happen. It just doesn’t ever work out that way.