- Title: OLYMPICS-IOC/SPORTACCORD IOC suspends recognition of SportAccord
- Date: 7th June 2015
- Summary: LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (JUNE 7, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) HEADQUARTERS IOC DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS MARK ADAMS ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS MARK ADAMS SAYING: "Like many members of SportAccord, we are suspending our recognitio
- Embargoed: 22nd June 2015 13:00
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- Location: Switzerland
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA5AOHLAY6Y8UZYTEMC94D42P05
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Sunday (June 7) suspended its recognition of SportAccord, whose president Marius Vizer resigned in May after starting a row over the control of international sports federations.
Vizer had challenged the IOC's grip on global sports, accusing it of being dated and blocking the creation of new events, as well as lacking transparency. His sharply-worded comments triggered a wave of departures from the umbrella organisation, which represents around 100 international sports federations. Many of the departing federations accused Vizer of a unilateral move and not speaking on behalf of SportAccord's members.
IOC Director of Communications Mark Adams told a news conference in Lausanne on Sunday: "Like many members of SportAccord, we are suspending our recognition of SportAccord and we will withhold our funding until these questions are answered and an agreement between the stakeholders has been reached."
The IOC said in a statement that it support the federations "in all the initiatives being taken to restructure their representation following the serious internal problems of SportAccord".
Adams told the news conference: "We do not want the clean athletes to suffer in any way from this vacuum. We are offering the concerned international federations all the services and advice to the federations in the fight against doping which so far have been offered by SportAccord and financed by the IOC and WADA. We will be making the same offer with regard to good governance as well as on match-fixing and related corruption and the IOC is ready to provide this support directly."
The IOC executive board met on Sunday and discussed, among other issues, the problems at FIFA, whose outgoing president, Sepp Blatter, is a board member but did not attend.
Adams said the board discussed FIFA, but took no decisions.
"So, there was a discussion about the situation at FIFA. There were no recommendations, it's not the place of the IOC to make recommendations to FIFA. There were discussions as I say. We continue to watch ongoing developments there very closely; obviously there are two criminal investigations going on there at present. Let me remind you simply maybe what the (IOC) president has already said this week end. He said: 'We had our difficulties 15 years ago and we did two things: we took swift action with regards to members, 10 members were expelled or retired; and we undertook widespread reforms'. As I say, there were general discussions about FIFA by all the members, but no further decisions, so I won't give you any - there is no concrete outcome to report to you on that." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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