Why Shane Ross didn’t have a sporting chance against the Olympics boss

Hickey has global success that someone like Sports Minister Ross can only look at askance, writes Gerard Howlin

THE relationship between Sports Minister Shane Ross and president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, Pat Hickey, is not one of equals. Hickey is by far the more important man. It is understandable that the Sports Minister should have misunderstood the relationship. He is the minister, after all. But he has made a mistake in front of an Irish media willing him to fail. Hickey does not have an extensive fan club in the fourth estate, but Ross rode the media tiger for years and devoured all before him. Now, it is eating him and tigers don’t nibble.

In Rio, Hickey is in control and has reason to believe he can be impervious to an Irish sports minister. Unlike the forum of an Oireachtas committee in Dublin, he cannot be tethered to the witness chair.