By David Owen
December 10 – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has added its support to the package of reform proposals approved last week by FIFA’s ruling Executive Committee, while expressing concern about the “ongoing criminal procedures” in the United States and Switzerland.
Meeting in Lausanne, the IOC’s Executive Board (EB) – which includes one US and one Swiss member – said it remained concerned “with regard to the ongoing criminal procedures in the US and Switzerland, which according to these authorities could last for another five years.
“Since this could continue to overshadow the credibility of FIFA and affect all sports organisations for such a long time, the IOC EB encourages FIFA to take all necessary measures to clarify and resolve all the pending issues as soon as possible by further engaging with the relevant authorities.”
Olympic leaders also underlined their determination to make the anti-doping system independent of sports organisations, tabling a series of proposals to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
These included: a new independent testing and results management entity to be set up “under the leadership of WADA”; a professional intelligence-gathering unit to be established within this organisation; sanctions to be centralised and pronounced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.
The IOC is “convinced” that adoption of these proposals would lead to a “more efficient, more transparent, more streamlined, more cost-efficient and more harmonised anti-doping system”. It wants to have such a system in place by the start of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February 2018.
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