WHY NO DISCUSSION?

Sir — What a shame that, at its recent AGM, British Eventing (BE) declined to tell the members who it has chosen to be its representative on the new British Equestrian Federation (BEF) board. It also appears that none of the sport’s stakeholders have been consulted in the choice of the proposed candidate.

While timescales may have been tight, was there no time to run a short, efficient process that would have given us the confidence that our sport will be well represented on this critical board? UK Sport, upon whom the sport relies for significant funding, has been consistent in its view on the need for greater transparency in sports governance. The stance taken by the BE board in this case appears to be contrary to this objective.

Di Brunsden

Chipping Ongar, Essex British Eventing chief executive David Holmes replies: “The population of the new BEF board has taken place against the backdrop of a very tight timeframe to get everything in place to meet UK Sport and Sport England’s Code of Governance.

“Due to this, timescales did not allow for advertising or consultation with our stakeholders for an appointed director, as would normally be the case.

“After consultation with the other Olympic disciplines, it was decided to follow the same process as them of nominating directly without advertising, and so the board considered the role description for this role on the BEF board.

“As the BE nominee is still required to go through the BEF nominations committee process to ensure their skills match those set out in the role description, the BE board is unable to share who the nominee is at this time.

“Also to be clear, this director will not represent BE on the new BEF board — their role is to bring the skills set out in the role description to inform the decision making of the new BEF board.”