Sporting Ties That Bind

When most people enter a sporting event or tournament the thought of cheating does not even enter their mind. Regrettably that cannot be said for everyone in the sporting world.

Most sports fans have a few sports that they follow closely. Few will delve into the very heart of the sports they follow, which some would say is just as well as they may become very disillusioned with what they find. However, those running many of the sports bank on this lack of interest to feather their own nest.

Apart from stories on the position of a number of sports in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and whether to suspend Russian athletes and teams, or the whether transgender athletes will be allowed to compete in some sports, in the past two months there have been a number of stories break in relation to corruption within International sport, that few media outlets have picked up on.

An investigation is currently being carried out into the International Bowling Federation after claims were made against a senior member of the IBF alleging that money amounting to more than USD$10 million was transferred last year from the IBF and Asian Bowling Federation (ABF) to a personal account.

Former International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) President Tamás Aján was banned for life by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Nicu Vlad, a former vice-president of the IWF Anti-Doping Commission and Olympic Gold medallist who was also a previous chairman of the IWF Technical Committee, also received a lifetime ban from the sport. Both individuals were accused of “tampering with the doping control process”.

At the IWF elections a week later Mohamed Jaloud was declared the new President of the sport’s governing body. However this was not without drama or protest. Yousef Al-Mana from Qatar, protested after the votes had been cast that Jaloud had withdrawn.

Proceedings were halted for an emergency meeting while the Electoral Commission deliberated on the protest.The decision went in favour of Jaloud, and then Al-Mana himself withdrew and Jaloud was declared the winner without a count.

One of Jaloud’s allies on the IWF Board, Jose Quinones from Peru, was elected general secretary. Quinones was banned for five years – now expired – by a Peruvian administrative sport court for alleged financial mismanagement. However as Inside The Games reported “he said in an interview last year that the court had not followed due process and said he was appealing against the sanction.” It has since transpired that Quinones did not have the required number of votes and that a second ballot should have taken place. So the voting will take place for a second time on Thursday 30th June.

Then the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that it has stripped the International Boxing Association (IBA) of its rights to organise boxing events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The reason given was that this was due to ongoing concerns over governance issues within the organisation.The IBA cannot organise the qualifying events for the Games. This will now be the second consecutive Olympics where the IOC will organise events without the International Federation. For the IOC to step in, things must be bad as they are renowned for sitting on the fence.

Following the scandals that have rocked gymnastics not just in the USA where the documentary “Athlete A” laid bare the systematic abuse of female athletes and the lack of action taken by the powers that be, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) published its new Code of Conduct, outlining standards of behaviour expected from all participants in the sport. For this they are to be applauded, but for many this action has come too late.

Then in amongst all of this was the High Court of Delhi ruling that the President of the India Olympic Association and the International Hockey Federation had held positions as a Life Member/office bearer of Hockey India that was illegal and went on to state that due to these being illegal positions they “cannot be a stepping stone for any other position or benefit elsewhere, in a national or International body.” At the end of last week the High Court told the individual to stop functioning as the President of the Indian Olympic Association which he had allegedly continued to do in spite of the initial court ruling, and to step down immediately or face contempt of court charges. The International Hockey Federation has remained mute on the issue and postponed a decision on the future of their President until a meeting during the FIH Women’s World Cup which is due to commence at the end of this week. (Money Talks. Does That Explain The Silence?)

If we go back to the year 2020 it was revealed who was the mystery buyer of the original 1892 Olympic manifesto, a 14-page document penned by the IOC’s founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin. This was the most expensive piece pf sports memorabilia in history and was purchased at a New York Auction in December 2019 for USD$8.8million. The document was then donated to the IOC by the winning bidder Russian Billionaire Alisher Usmanov and the IOC accepted it with gratitude.

Fast forward to February this year and Usmanov who was re-elected as President of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) in November 2021 was named by the European Union as having been one of a number of Oligarchs sanctioned for alleged ties to Vladimir Putin. As a result his assets have been frozen and he has been prohibited from making funds available to listed individuals or entities. He also faces a travel ban.

Uzbekistan- born Usmanov, who also had invested in Arsenal and bought the naming rights of Everton’s proposed new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium was reported to have donated USD$87million to the sport of fencing over three Olympic cycles since first being elected President back in 2008. Usmanov stepped aside as FIE President following the sanctions by the European Union which came about following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

So where does this leave the sport of Fencing having accepted these gifts without asking where the money came from? Where does it leave the IOC and their President Thomas Bach who was quoted as saying Usmanov was ‘a friend,’ after accepting such a generous donation?

Not surprisingly the word out of Lausanne is that no one is willing to talk about this as the ties that bind in this case are the sport. Thomas Bach is after all a former Olympic fencer and Olympic gold medalist. So the matter is only discussed in the shadows, and in a whisper.

What has become clear is that there are a large number of scandals becoming public in a range of sports, and one of the common factors is that many of these involve senior executives of Sports Federations based in Switzerland.

The irony is remarkable. Most sports promote fair play and take the moral high ground, yet deep within so many sports are people acting in a way that flies in the face of those morals and values.

Switzerland, and the city of Lausanne has in some ways helped create this problem. In the 1990’s the IOC under President Juan Antonio Samaranch encouraged many of these sporting organisations to move their head offices to Switzerland. Since 1994 the city has become known as the “Olympic Capital.” The Court of Arbitration for Sport and 55 international sport associations are based in the city, which has a public transport system that is set up to enable all of these associations ease of movement.

Of course one of the reasons that these sports moved to Switzerland was because they were heavily dependant on the money they received from the IOC. How this money is decided has never been made public, but the two key components have always been assumed to be television viewing figures and tradition; although politics could also play a key part. The share from the Summer Olympic Games is taken from a pot that has been reported as being in the region of USD$530million. For the Winter Olympics it is USD$220million.

Of course these sports would not be welcome unless they delivered benefits to the country or the region. A report by the International Academy of Sport Science and Technology in 2019 said that International sports employed over 3,300 people in Switzerland. One of the benefits for the sports is that they pay no tax.

One would hope that the International Federations would be employing the best people in order to benefit their individual sports into the future. Sadly that is not always the case. Many of these sports will pay relocation costs for any staff they bring in from outside of Switzerland. The problem is they will not pay for these staff to return from whence they came, so they stay in Lausanne and simply move from job to job, even if they were not that successful in a previous role. (Administrators On The Move)

In fact the staff are one of the reasons why so many sports found themselves with problems during the Covid pandemic, and why these International Federations had to borrow money from the IOC. (Play Now Pay Later) Most of the sports earn revenue in US dollars, be it sponsorship or television revenue. Yet the staff are paid in Swiss Francs. During the Covid Pandemic the US dollar fluctuated greatly against the Swiss Franc, and as a result many sports lost as much as 12% of their revenue. In addition those who had competitions that were linked to television revenue, if the competition stopped, so too did the revenue from the broadcasters.

None of this however explains why things are not always above board.

Having these organisations based in Switzerland not only generates income for the country but it also brings prestige. However some are beginning to ask whether it is a good thing for the image of the country having organisations within the country constantly being exposed as being corrupt. For many years the view was taken that if people from other countries are receiving bribes for a vote that does not affect Switzerland, then there was nothing to worry about. The word is that public opinion is beginning to shift. It is affecting the outside world’s perception of Switzerland, as it appears that the Swiss are turning a blind eye to illegal activity while these organisations are under their jurisdiction.

To show how there has been shift in this point of view up until six years ago bribery in the private sector, which included Sporting Federations was not illegal in Switzerland. From 2016 active and passive bribery in the private sector will now result in a criminal investigation.

Two of the biggest sporting organisations in the world, FIFA and the IOC have had major scandals in which votes have been bought for large sums of money. The trouble is when there is little done to ensure that such events do not happen again, it means that others contemplate the same behaviours. Then when senior executives move from sport to sport, they encourage such behaviours as being the norm.

In the case of FIFA the trials in the United States have been completed. The trial in Switzerland only opened at the start of this month. Some in Switzerland believe that the reason for the delay was because deals were being done in the background, and that the outcome of the trial will result in minor or in fact no convictions.

Despite the public humiliation for FIFA and football not much has actually changed. Sepp Blatter was replaced by Gianni Infantino who has been investigated for holding alleged secret meetings with the former Attorney General of Switzerland when that office was carrying out investigations into FIFA. Infantino has claimed that the meetings were a sign of FIFA’s willingness to co-operate with the investigation. Such information makes it understandable why some have no faith in the trial or its outcomes. The outcome will undoubtedly have an impact on how sports fans view Switzerland and its stance on corruption.

FIFA has adopted a new code of ethics, but those overseeing the ethics and the new internal regulations have once again been specially chosen because of their connections to those who are bending the rules. So as a result the new regulations are worthless. How many other sports have similar committees? Who have they copied?

While many believed that the reason International Sporting Federations moved to Switzerland was to be close to the IOC, there are others who now hold a very different view.

As an article published in March this year by swissinfo.ch highlighted, the Swiss law on societies was created to govern local clubs, not International Sporting Federations, and the law has not been amended. Statutes are drawn up and members are asked to respect them, but if they are not adhered to the Swiss are unlikely to step in and take legal action.

It was the IOC in 2015 who initiated reforms in the governance of sport, and made those sports that were Olympic sports open their books. A failure to share their audited accounts was supposed to mean that funding would not be received.

Yet in many sports it is the IOC funding that is being used by those in power in many sports to stay in power. To hand over money directly to a National Association for a vote would be far too easy to trace. So many International Federations are achieving the same outcome but by distributing IOC funding to National Associations in return for a vote. Are the IOC monitoring where the money they hand over goes or what it is spent on? Apart from being too much work, they are probably well aware of what is happening and in many cases the links between the International Federation and the IOC are mutually beneficial.

The only way to change this is to have the association spend the money first and once the program is in place, only then does the International Federation or IOC hand over the money to pay for it. This would make it harder for individuals to siphon off money intended to develop or grow the sport.

If the Swiss Government is not prepared to do anything to stamp out corruption and prosecute those individuals who have not only brought their sport into disrepute but also the country of Switzerland, what hope is there for many of the sports currently based in Switzerland?

The National Associations are in most sports the ones who wield the power to implement change, but as witnessed with FIFA if you can lock up key regions or confederations in terms of their votes, often achieved via incentives, then change is hard to come by. Which means that the only way change is going to happen is if the Swiss authorities step in and tighten up the laws in relation to International Sporting Associations.

As stated few teams or athletes go out to cheat, but it would appear that there are plenty running our sports who do not share that approach. Maybe emblazoned above the doors of each of these international sporting federations should be the words of the author E.M. Forster from the book appropriately named in this instant, “Where Angels Fear to Tread,” who wrote “We shall be judged by our intentions, not our accomplishments.”