Olympics: India and athletes entourage on IOC menu
The two subjects likely to be top of the agenda will be whether to end India's eight month suspension from the IOC and potential sanctions for the entourage of an athlete who is found to have broken the rules, principally to have failed a doping test.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: September 03, 2013 11:06 AM IST
Ahead of votes for the 2020 Summer Olympics host city, a sport for the 2020 Games, and the new International Olympic Committee (IOC) president the IOC's elite 15-person Executive Board will meet to discuss some thorny issues in Buenos Aires.
The two subjects likely to be top of the agenda will be whether to end India's eight month suspension from the IOC and potential sanctions for the entourage of an athlete who is found to have broken the rules, principally to have failed a doping test.
India has been out in the cold since last December when the EB suspended it from the IOC after Lalit Bhanot, who is facing corruption charges linked to the scandal-hit New Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010, was elected IOA secretary-general.
The IOC wanted the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to amend its constitution so that officials facing criminal or corruption proceedings in court would be kept out of the IOA election process.
However, the stand-off looks set to continue for the IOA as on August 25 it rejected the IOC's demand.
The IOA's general body decided to bar only those who had been convicted, and not just charged.
"We have accepted all the amendments proposed by the IOC, except the charge sheet clause," senior sports official S. Reghunathan, who chaired the meeting, told reporters.
"We have modified that clause so that only those persons who have been convicted by a court for a jail term of two or more years will not be able to contest elections.
"If the jail term is for less than two years, the case will be referred to the IOA's ethics commission."
The amendment was in keeping with Indian law, which says that those facing charges are allowed to contest parliamentary elections since they are innocent until proven guilty, Reghunathan said.
The diluted version means influential sports officials such as Bhanot and Suresh Kalmadi, who is also on trial for corruption linked to the 2010 Commonwealth Games, can stand for IOA elections.
The calls for sanctions against the entourage of an athlete have grown over the years as doctors or coaches of athletes who have failed dope tests have simply moved on to another potential star while the athlete themselves have been the only one punished.
However, Sergey Bubka, head of the Entourage Commission set up by Jacques Rogge to look into the problem, has now put together their recommendations, a copy of which AFP has obtained.
They have laid out 13 instances where a member of the entourage can be held accountable from doping violations to match-fixing as well as ones directly protecting the athlete from 'any form of harassment or abuse (physical, professional, sexual, mental)'.
They also recommend that the member of the entourage will also potentially face punishment if their athlete is found to have broken the rules even if they were not aware he or she was doing so.
'Members of an Athlete's entourage may also be sanctioned for the acts and/or omissions of persons over whom they have influence or for whom they are responsible' reads the recommendation.
They also call for 'Sporting Entities should put in place mechanisms, such as educational programs, so as to allow that members of an Athlete's entourage are aware of and understand the rules applicable to them.'
With regard to possible sanctions they list nine including a reprimand to fines but also 'Permanent exclusion from the event/Sporting Entities (club, National Federation, sport, International Federation)' while an agent can also have his license withdrawn.
Bubka, one of six men vying to succeed Rogge who is retiring after 12 years as IOC president, said in Moscow at the World Athletics Championships in August how important he considered bringing the entourage to account.
"They can be anyone from a coach to a doctor to a member of the family and they must not only be held accountable as they are the influence around the athlete but also educated in what is right and what is wrong," said the 49-year-old pole vault legend.