LAUSANNE, Switzerland: International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach encouraged FIFA to continue with its reforms on Monday but warned soccer’s scandal-plagued governing body that the process would be painful.

Bach added that he did not want to give advice to FIFA and pointed out that the structures of the two organizations were enormously different and difficult to compare.

“We can only encourage FIFA to continue (with) the reforms which have been initiated, we cannot give detailed advice of what to do but we appreciate there is a readiness for reforms,” he told a news conference.

“We also know from our experience that....putting everything on the desk can be a painful experience, but it is absolutely necessary to do this as we have seen from our own history.”

FIFA president Sepp Blatter resigned last Tuesday, less than one week after Swiss police staged a dawn raid on a luxury hotel in Zurich and arrested several officials on corruption charges filed by US prosecutors in New York.

In 1998, the IOC was caught in its own bribes-for-votes scandal involving the 2002 Salt Lake City winter Olympics. That was the catalyst that led to wholesale reforms within the organization.

“The structure of FIFA is very different from the IOC and the difference in the scope is huge. There is almost no comparison of what happened with Salt Lake City and what is now at stake with regards to FIFA,” said Bach.

“We had this kind of problem (and) we addressed it... by introducing term limits, reducing the age limits, by having term limits not only for members but also members of the executive board and president,” added Bach.

“One of the major steps in this reform (was) to have athletes electing their own representatives for the IOC executive board; we had the representatives of the international federations and of the national Olympic Committees.

“It means giving all the stakeholders in the Olympic movement the chance to express themselves.”

Bach played down the significance of Blatter’s decision not to attend the presentation of 2022 Winter Olympic candidates cities Almaty and Beijing to IOC members on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“He informed us 10 to 14 days ago that he will not be able to make it for the briefing...because of other commitments, and I think he is not the only one who excused himself,” said Bach.

Stops funding SportAccord

The IOC withdrew its recognition and funding for SportAccord on Sunday and called on international federations to reshape the umbrella body that has been torn apart by Marius Vizer’s attack on Olympic leaders.

Bach, called for a complete restructuring of SportAccord, which had represented Olympic and non-Olympic federations.

More than two dozen federations have withdrawn or suspended ties with SportAccord since Vizer, its president since 2013, blasted the IOC and Bach in a speech in Sochi, Russia, in April. Among other things, Vizer called the IOC system “expired, outdated, wrong, unfair and not at all transparent” and said Bach’s “Olympic Agenda 2020” reform program was of little use to the federations.

Vizer resigned as president a week ago, leaving SportAccord’s future in doubt.

“We are suspending our recognition and we will withhold our funding until these questions are answered and an agreement between the stakeholders has been reached,” the International Olympic Committee said.

The IOC said it provides about $300,000 annually to SportAccord, including $160,000 for anti-doping programs.

The committee said it would continue direct relations with international federations and wait for them to come up with a solution for SportAccord, including the fate of its annual sports industry convention.

“It’s not for the IOC to make those decisions,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “It’s up to the various stakeholders, largely the international federations. They need to consider among themselves what the future for SportAccord is.”