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During the recent 2008 Olympics an amazing thing happened. Natural justice was seen to work in sport. In the last few moments of a rather uneventful bout of Tae Kwon Do a competitor hit the home crowd’s favourite in the face – a winning blow. As the world watched the replays it was clear – but the rules demand that three of four floor judges see it and respond to it within a second of each other, and they hadn’t. The referee calls the judges to a huddle – no, the kick was missed by at least two judges, no points, no win. The rules are clear, and there is no appeal. But then the world changed. The Olympic spirit of fair contestants and fair judges was exercised. Against the flow of rules and regulations, justice was applied to top-flight sport. An appeal was heard and the mistake was corrected. The result was overturned. Maybe that’s why we use the term “Olympic” when we describe the best. This was an Olympic decision to the benefit of sport and natural justice. The FIA have just been made to look like complete amateurs again. As the world watched on, they showed themselves as small-minded minnows incapable of seeing justice as a better principle than badly written rules. If you have to change a rule because it is badly written, you should not then rely on another badly thought out rule to prevent a challenge. Next to the judges of Tae Kwon Do in Beijing this year, the FIA look like jobsworth wheel clampers. Formula 1 should look at taking itself away from such incompetent amateurs if it wants to impress the people that pay for its existence. |
