By Andrew Warshaw
October 6 – Not for the first time, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has given FIFA a gentle reminder of how genuine reform can be achieved.
As Sepp Blatter faced fresh calls to resign as head of football’s world governing body, Bach used another opportunity, this time at the Camp Beckenbauer sports conference in Austria, to give FIFA a timely nudge over the importance of implementing real change and stability.
Referring to the bribery scandal which rocked the IOC over the 2002 Salt Lake City winter games, Bach explained how the crisis forced wholesale changes to be made.
“The IOC carried out reforms in many areas 15 years ago. If another sports organisation want to do the same, we wouldn’t mind and we’d even welcome it. (But) I will not judge any person or other organisation here.”
Blatter announced in August that after 16 years as an IOC committee member he had decided not to seek re-election. Bach didn’t mention that in his opening address to the Kitzbuhel conference, or FIFA’s troubles per se, but he stressed action rather than words were needed to improve the Olympic movement’s own image.
“We already introduced term and age limits 15 years ago for everybody from the executive board members [to] the president who can serve only two terms, one of eight years and four years and not renewable.”
“You have a clear set of rules about who is making the decisions and who is accountable as well as all the indemnities for IOC members and the IOC president, of course, so everybody knows what everybody gets for their activity in the IOC.
“We have an internal audit committee, we have an internal chief auditor, we have a compliance and ethics officer who reports directly to me, and we have an ethics commission which is not appointed any more by the IOC executive board but elected by the full IOC session, by all the members.”
Citing the IOC’s “zero tolerance policy” on corruption, he added: “I can only encourage other sports organisations to follow this way and to be really accountable and to be transparent.”
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