DELHI: Hardening its stand against the Indian Olympic Association, the International Olympic Committee has asked the Indian body to sack “charge-framed” officials through constitutional amendments by October 31 and conduct fresh elections by Dec. 15 to return to the Olympic fold.
Giving its “conclusions and decisions” on the IOA’s Executive General Meeting held in New Delhi in August, the IOC said the key provision of barring individuals, against whom charges have been framed in court, was ignored by the Indian body, according to a Press Trust of India report.
“The IOC is well aware of the difference in the Indian legal system between charge-sheeted persons and charge-framed persons and has never requested that the clause initially proposed applies for charge-sheeted persons. Therefore it is reiterated that the initial wording is aimed to apply for anyone charge-framed by a court in India,” the IOC Director General Christophe de Kepper said in a letter to the IOA.
...”the IOC does fully respect the principle that ‘until proven guilty, one is innocent’. However, what is at stake is the reputation of the Olympic movement which must not be tarnished,” it added.
The IOC then goes on to urge the IOA to act accordingly, setting deadlines for the requisite constitutional changes and the fresh elections.
“It is required that the suspended IOA includes the initial wording proposed by the IOC (or a very similar wording which would not dilute the meaning and the expected results and which would be submitted in advance to the IOC) with respect to both charge-framed and convicted individuals.
“This is pre-requisite for the IOC to approve the revised Constitution of the IOA. For that purpose, the suspended IOA should meet again in a general assembly no later than October 31 and proceed with the required amendments,” the IOC stated.
“Once this step in completed and the IOC can approve the new constitution of the IOA, the suspended IOA would be in a position to hold its elective general meeting as soon as possible thereafter and no later than Dec. 15,” it added.
Final push
The final day of campaigning to host the 2020 Olympics started with Madrid saying its proposal based on economic austerity can become the new model for future games.
Madrid began the three cities’ final push to lure International Olympic Committee members’ votes on Saturday. Tokyo and Istanbul are scheduled to hold news conferences later.
“We believe that having a responsible budget represents the new way to understand the games,” Madrid Mayor Ana Botella said. “We believe that it’s a new model to organize the games at a time marked by political and economic turbulence around the world.” Spain’s economic struggles, highlighted by a 27 percent unemployment rate, have been seen as the main weakness of Madrid’s bid heading into the IOC meetings. Tokyo has fending off questions about the radioactive leak in the Fukushima nuclear plant, while Istanbul has had to deal with concerns about the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Madrid officials have been trying to assure the IOC members who will vote on Saturday that the economic problems don’t pose a significant challenge for the games and that having a proposal based on economic austerity is something positive for the future of the Olympic movement.
“We are proposing a new model of games which are adjusted to the current times,” Botella said. “We believe that having this type of budget is something really good for the future because otherwise there would be many cities in the world which would not be capable of hosting the games.”
Madrid, in its third-straight attempt to win the bid, claims that it has one of the lowest Olympic budgets ever, taking advantage that 80 percent of venues are in place in a compact layout.
“We are trying to show that our candidacy is adjusting to what the Olympic movement wants,” Madrid bid leader Alejandro Blanco said.
Botella said that Spain’s three layers of government will have to spend a total of 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) in the next seven years, “which is perfectly possible knowing that conditions in Spain are beginning to improve.” The 2014 Sochi Games will be the most expensive in Olympic history, and the 2016 Rio Games has also been seen as an expensive endeavor for Brazil.
“We have a new model of games which could become the norm in the world that we live now,” Botella said.
IOC sets deadline for Indian Olympic Association to clean house
