Q+A Interview With NZ Commonwealth Games Federation CEO

TVNZ’s Political Programme, Q+A interviewed NZ Commonwealth games Federation CEO, Michael Hooper this morning (9am NZT). Below are points of interest from the interview and the full transcript.

Points of interest:

- Commonwealth Games Federation places blame for chaos firmly on Indian and Delhi authorities, says it has been sounding alarm bells for two years

- Not completing sporting venues until December was “ridiculous”… “renewed deadlines came and went… absolute exasperation from our perspective”

- Responding to criticism by NZOC head Barry Maister, Hooper says local committees were fully informed of the problems, including worries about the Games village

- CGF’s constitution says it is the “authority of last resort”. But Hooper insists “We’re at the mercy” of the Delhi and Indian governments, “they consistently failed to meet deadlines… You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”

- The host city, Delhi, is “responsible for delivering all the promises it made. At the moment, unfortunately, those promises haven’t been met and they certainly haven’t been met on time. We hope that things will change in the next few days. It’s very much a day by day situation”

- Hooper says it would have been worse if he hadn’t been in Delhi for months “pushing and challenging” Indian administrators, won’t accept his head will roll

- Further problems throughout the Games “inevitable”

- Hooper has “absolutely no idea” how many tickets have been sold… “it isn’t high on my priority list at the moment”; says visitors are “nice to have, not necessary to have”

- The delays, controversy and security fears have “deterred a lot of people from coming”

- Hooper criticises India’s Sports Minister for saying the Games will come together at the last minute like a Monsoon Wedding: “It’s very concerning that some people take that attitude... A lot of time was squandered here”

- Hooper optimistic sport will take over now and hopes for world and commonwealth records by athletes

The interview has been transcribed below. The full length video interviews and panel discussions from this morning’s Q+A can also be seen on tvnz.co.nz at, http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news

Q+A is repeated on TVNZ 7 at 9.10pm on Sunday nights and 10.10am and 2.10pm on Mondays.

MICHAEL HOOPER interviewed by PAUL HOLMES

PAUL So, Michael Hooper, how did it get to this?

MICHAEL HOOPER – Commonwealth Games Federation Well, I think it’s just been a very unfortunate set of circumstances. The Federation has been pushing the organising committee and all other stakeholders for a very very long time now and throwing up alarm bells for the last two years. The main problem I believe that’s led to a lot of this is the delays in delivering the Games venues by the various government agencies responsible for doing that. We have, since 18 months back, stressing very strongly and very publicly our concerns about the delays in the delivery of the venues. Mr Fennell, our president, in December said he was quite distressed to see further delays incurred. All the venues were supposed to be delivered, Paul, by the end of December, which would have been plenty of time for all final touches and things to be done. Other than that, swimming was supposed to be in March. Everything got shifted out time and time again. Renewed deadlines came and went. New reasons for delays kept coming up. Absolutely exasperation from our perspective. We often had our co-Comm chairman expressing the same point, saying, ‘Time is not your friend. Now time is your enemy.’ And that was 18 months out, 12 months out, very publicly, very strongly about this. And I think this is how… Unfortunately, this has been a major contributing factor.

PAUL What you’re saying to us is essentially it’s the Indians’ fault. Now, what you’ve got is your chairman, Mr Fennell, Saturday afternoon does a news conference in Delhi and says, ‘The whole lot of you have got to take responsibility for this,’ and you are the chief executive, Mr Hooper.

MICHAEL That’s correct, and I take responsibility for my areas of responsibility, and that has been working very hard with the organising committee to get things done. Now, at the end of the day, I’m not a construction engineer. I’m not a builder. We’re at the hands and the mercy of, effectively, the government of India, the Delhi government, the agencies responsible for delivery of the venues. They consistently failed to meet deadlines. Now, we were very active, very strong in pushing for this to be done. The actual venues were not handed over effectively – and I say handed over from the point of view of getting venue-completion certificates and occupancy certificates…

PAUL No, I understand. I understand there’s bee very slow handovers. There’s been a problem with that, I know.

MICHAEL …until the 6th of September, and that’s very frustrating.

PAUL But there are reports that say – a report today told me that relations between you and the local Delhi organising committee have been atrocious. There has been virtually a standoff for a couple of years. Is that so?

MICHAEL No, that’s nonsense. Clearly, the organising committee chairman, Suresh Kalmadi, is averse to criticism, like, obviously, a lot of us are. It’s a natural thing. But certainly I’m put here… There’s only myself here. I’m put here to try and pursue and push the organising committee as much as possible to get the things done, to speak out when necessary, and I’ve certainly done that, and any review of past media releases, etc, show that. When Mr Fennell one year ago, following our general assembly, pointed out significant discrepancies – like delays in the delivery of venues, like operational planning deficiencies, etc – Mr Kalmadi launched an unheralded personal attack on myself, and, as well documented, tried to get me thrown out of the country.

PAUL Well, yes, but you see, the Commonwealth Games – I wonder if it’s fair of you to blame India. The way you’re talking, you see, just puts all the blame on India. Now, the Commonwealth Games Federation – your constitution says that you are the supreme authority in all areas concerning the Commonwealth Games.

MICHAEL That’s correct.

PAUL You are the authority of last resort.

MICHAEL Yep. That’s correct, and I used this term with another New Zealand reporter this morning: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. And the very frustrating thing is we have consistently spoken out loudly and clearly, consistent in our reporting: ‘Get these things done. Get these venues delivered. Focus on the operational delivery of the Games.’ And unfortunately, we are where we are. Now, we can all do these post-mortems later, Paul. The reality is right now we need to focus on getting as much as we can done. It is unfortunate that we had to go as public as we did yet again…

PAUL Yeah, but it’s an extraordinary situation, isn’t it?

MICHAEL …four days back on the Games Village issue.

PAUL It’s an extraordinary situation. We’ve got today the head of the Australian Commonwealth Games committee, the head of the Australian Commonwealth Games saying India should never have been given the Games. Do you agree with that?

MICHAEL You’re incorrect. It wasn’t the head of the Commonwealth Games Association. It was Mr John Coates from the Australian Olympic Committee, and he’s got nothing to do with the Commonwealth Games, so I’m not sure why he’s making such comments.

PAUL Alright, but you’ve known for a long time, and you’ve been talking about last December and Mr Fennell being concerned and so forth. Why only now did it come to light?

MICHAEL The buildings weren’t complete at that time. The buildings have only just been handed over to the organising committee a month, six weeks back, which is ridiculous. I mean, the 6th of September of an occupancy certificate – it is ridiculous, but ultimately the CGF looks to… The local hosts, under a host-city contract, is responsible for delivering all the promises it made. At the moment, unfortunately, those promises haven’t been met, and they certainly haven’t been met on time. We hope that things will change in the next few days. It’s very much a day-by-day situation.

PAUL You can talk all you want, Mike. You can talk all you want, but, with respect, the problem is surely with the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, the Commonwealth Games, with your organisation. I’ve got Barry Maister quoted this morning in New Zealand – the secretary-general of the NZOC, another Olympic Committee bloke. He says, ‘The Commonwealth Games Federation has a lot to answer for.’ He said, ‘It’s their job to ensure that the village was ready for habitation. In my view, they did not do so.’ Again, you’ve got Barry Maister having a go at you.

MICHAEL Well, Barry’s quite entitled to his view. The reality is we made it very clear to all the CGAs the state of progress on an ongoing basis. We made it clear 16 weeks ago through our final coordination commission visit that a key issue that had to be addressed with urgency – and it was circulated to all our members – was the completion of the Games Village to the appropriate standards. Mr Fennell again came back in August and said, ‘This is still not complete. It’s not satisfactory. You’ve got to get it finished.’ Now, you know, we are where we are, and it’s exasperating to find ourselves in this situation, but I do not believe, other that what we did – constant cajoling, pushing, publicly and privately, to get these things done… It’s what we’re faced with here.

PAUL What I can’t understand is why an athlete would go to these Delhi Commonwealth Games and risk all kinds of illness and molestation, perhaps from terrorists or whatever, that can set a career back years. Why would you go?

MICHAEL Well, look, I think that’s a bit unfair. I think from a security point of view, a lot has gone into… An investment has been made by the government of India. They provided an undertaking right at the bid stage of a safe and secure environment in and around the Games venues and the Games village, etc.

PAUL Yeah, but I’m talking mainly about the filth, you know what I mean? The filth and uninhabitability.

MICHAEL Well, the filth, Paul – I mean, that still comes down to when the flats were handed over. And we had no… That’s just come to light since the 15th, 16th of September. Now, you’re right. That shouldn’t have been like that. It’s disgraceful. Mr Fennell wrote to the cabinet secretary, elevated it to the government of India – this is so serious, that’s how high he took it – and said, ‘These venues – you must deploy massive resources, whatever is necessary to get it right.’ And in fairness, you will have seen recent reports – in the last three or four days, there has been significant improvements throughout It should have been done sooner. It wasn’t.

PAUL Is the Indian prime minister himself on to this?

MICHAEL Yes, he is. He’s certainly called in all his senior ministers, and he’s got a group of ministers that are pursuing everything. And we are seeing change as a consequence, improvements as a consequence of that. Doesn’t mean we’re still not going to have other problems as we go through these Games, Paul. I think that’s inevitable, and the issue is that the actually have in place mechanisms to address, in a fast-track way, whenever things do go wobbly. I mean, I can go back to Atlanta when there were issues with technology, there were problems with transport. But the key issue now is…

PAUL And also trouble with a pipe bomb.

MICHAEL …ensuring they deploy the resources to move forward.

PAUL 1.7 million tickets are available for these Commonwealth Games. 1.7 million. How many have been sold, Mike?

MICHAEL I have absolutely no idea. My focus has been on operational matters.

PAUL Why don’t you know this? You are the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation. Why don’t you know this?

MICHAEL Well, I’m not concerned about… It’s not my concern at this point in time. My concern at this point in time is focusing on what needs to be done for the athletes, and that’s what we’re pushing very hard to get done.

PAUL What about a ballpark figure about tickets being sold? I don’t know of anybody who says, ‘Gosh, I can’t wait to go to Delhi to the Commonwealth Games.’

MICHAEL Paul, I don’t know. I’d be speculating. Clearly, there’s been a lot of negative publicity, and that’s as a consequence of raising these issues. I mean, we’ve been very upfront about it. Now, that has deterred a lot of people from coming. The security issues have deterred a lot of people from coming. Dengue, the massive monsoon, the floods that have occurred have deterred a lot of people. That’s a shame, but I obviously don’t know how many tickets have been sold, and it isn’t really high on my priority list at the moment. My priority list is making sure that the things that matter for the athletes – the Games Village – getting that right, the transport from the Games Village to and from the venues, the sporting competition, etc. They’re the things we’ve got to focus now and get right. The rest is nice to have, not necessary to have

PAUL It’s an unholy mess, isn’t it? I mean, you’ve got to accept it has been an unholy disorganised mess. It’s done incredible damage to the reputation of India. You have had a difficult relationship with the head of the Delhi organising committee. It’s fair to say, isn’t it, that your head’s going to roll, Mr Hooper.

MICHAEL I don’t accept that, Paul. I believe that I have done everything I possibly can on behalf of the Games movement to get people to deliver on the promises that they made to the broader Commonwealth, simple as that.

PAUL Someone has also said, ‘Look, don’t worry about India. India is like this.’ I think the expression they use in India is it’s going to be like a monsoon wedding – that everything’s chaotic and suddenly on the last day, on the day of the wedding, on the day everything’s supposed to happen, it will happen. Is that what you think is going to happen with Delhi?

MICHAEL I don’t ascribe to that. I couldn’t believe it when the Minister of Sport here made that statement some time back. He’s made it on several occasions, and it’s very concerning that some people take that sort of attitude. There is a very good reason the Games are awarded seven years out, and unfortunately a lot of time was squandered here. And that’s part of the reason the CGF in the end took a decision to place me here to try and influence. And I’ll be blunt – you think it’s bad? To be honest, I think it would have been worse had I not been here, pushing and challenging the whole time.

PAUL Either way, the Games, what, start in about eight days, seven days, and what do you think of the chances we’re going to see brilliant sport. Are we going to see records? What do you think? Are the meteorology conditions good?

MICHAEL Well, I certainly hope so, Paul. I mean, history shows that the Commonwealth Games has produced a lot of new rising talents. We have had world records, Commonwealth records, personal records almost at every single Commonwealth Games. The facilities themselves are certainly, whilst very late, are starting to look good. And hopefully, from an operational perspective, everything runs smoothly. We’re certainly working with the international federations. They’re working very very hard under difficult circumstances to get things done, and I certainly hope we’ll see the sport take over shortly, and then we can all play with post-mortems later.

PAUL Thank, Mr Hooper, very much for your time, and all the best for the Commonwealth Games.

MICHAEL You’re welcome, Paul.

ENDS

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