At the start of 2023, Athletics Ireland introduced a new 'one-day permit' costing €2 for non-club runners taking part in races with Athletics Ireland permits.
In April of 2023, I had a post up about how Athletics Ireland were facing an anti-competition challenge from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) regarding their one-day licence... https://corkrunning.blogspot.com/2023/04/athletics-ireland-face-legal-challenge.html
Shannonside Sport now reports that the CCPC have made three recommendations...
1) Implement a formal and robust tender process for any future service providers.
2) Remove any reference to restrictions on AAI members running in non-permitted races from AAI documentation / terms and conditions.
3) Formally record industry feedback from future consultations.
In response, Athletics Ireland said... “The CCPC has endorsed our internal process and advises us to continue to display such professionalism going forward with three low level recommendations
1. vigilant tender processes,
2. engagement and feedback with stakeholders and
3. as confirmed to the CCPC that the AAI will not place any restrictions on AAI members running in non-permitted races in the State and will not restrict the holding of non-permitted road races in the State.”
You can see the full article on the Shannonside Sport website HERE
You can see the full Athletics Ireland response HERE
Comment & Analysis... When this challenge was taken back in April, there was a question about about the whole one-day licence process and how it would playout. Now, Athletics Ireland have now been given the green light and they can continue with Event Master and keep charging the €2 fee.
A few weeks back, I read a news item from Athletics Ireland about how the numbers at road races with permits were up 15% on the same period in 2022. In other words, the introduction of the one-day licence doesn't seem to have any impact on the number of people in races. In Cork, the situation seems to be the same with no reduction in numbers.
Athletics Ireland are likely to make well over €100,000 per annum from the introduction of the one-day licence and any clubs, organisations or individuals hoping to get the new one-day licence overturned now are really going to find it difficult.
As for the statement that Athletics Ireland "will not restrict the holding of non-permitted road races", I'm not sure where that comes from? Some of the most populrar races in Cork are the BHAA ones which don't have an Athletics Ireland permit and runners don't care that it doesn't have an AAI permit.
As regards "the AAI will not place any restrictions on AAI members running in non-permitted races", this is something that would be impossible to implement anyway. If any club tried to impose a restriction, the members wouldn't be long telling the club where to stick their membership.
Were these restrictions recent additions to the AAI rules or were they left over in the official documentation for many years ago? No idea.
" Implement a formal and robust tender process for any future service providers" - This would suggest that the tender process wasn't great in the first place.
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