[sumo] Sumo Kyokai

[Magnus Berg]

At the risk of sticking my head in a proverbial hornet's nest, I wanted 
to ask some of you a question that sprung to my mind the other day. I 
get the feeling that some members of this list are a bit 
irritated/angry/furious at the Sumo Kyokai for how they have handled 
the long row of events this year, mainly the Asashoryu Soccer Incident 
and the Tokitsukaze scandal.

I'm not saying that they HAVE handled the affairs poorly, as I'm not 
really in a position to judge this. But if we for argument's sake say 
that Kitanoumi rijicho and the rest of the riji-kai and kyokai 
officials have done a lousy job handling the unfortunate events of 
2007, the question I want to ask is this: should we really be 
surprised? It struck me yesterday as I saw footage of oyakata in a 
meeting discussing the Tokitsukaze case. There was the former Sakahoko, 
ex-Wakashimazu and many others that we know from the dohyo. And I 
thought: these are guys who are sitting in this room for one reason - 
they were once good or rather good at beating another guy in a sumo 
ring. Have they reached their current position because they have 
excellent skills at running a complicated organisation? Of course not. 
Do they have such skills? Well, who knows? Some might, but let's face 
it, 100% of all officials in the NSK have their job because they could 
win enough sumo matches to reach makonouchi or juryo. Not because they 
have studied and worked in economics, business, marketing, public 
relations, management, etc. Is there any other major sports 
organisation in the world where it's a demand to have been succesful as 
an active player? So, to get back to the question: should we really be 
suprised that the NSK have trouble handling events like these? I say 
not. Maybe the NSK would benefit from letting people from the outside 
world into the organisation to help run it?

Looking forward to hearing different views on this.

Maguroyama