The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has appointed Philip French as its new Director of Public Affairs and Social Development through Sport Department (PASD), to start work on 1 March.

A British national, French is joining the IOC from the England and Wales Cricket Board where, as Director of Public Policy and International Relations, he was responsible for overseeing the organisation’s strategic development in public affairs and managing key external relationships.

The IOC says it has developed a comprehensive programme using sport as a tool for local socio-economic development and for humanitarian assistance. 

“The PASD is central in defining the strategies for the development and implementation of such grassroots and peace projects around the world, as well as for advocating for the integration of sport and physical activity in national and international policies and programmes,” the IOC said in a statement.

“It is also responsible for fostering partnerships with a wide range of organisations specialised in development and humanitarian aid, including the agencies of the United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), in a bid to build a better world through sport.”

Before working at the England and Wales Cricket Board, Philip French held the position of Chief Adviser on Sport at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom government. With responsibilities ranging from grassroots and elite athlete funding ahead of the Olympic Games London 2012, the National Lottery, broadcasting and gambling, French led on drafting and delivering the government’s key strategic policies on behalf of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Mr French was previously Chief Executive of Supporter Trusts, a British non-profit organisation which aims to provide a platform for fans to influence the running of their clubs, and Director of Public Policy at Premier League, where he had responsibility for public affairs, corporate communications and community development. He previously wrote for the Guardian newspaper and was a consultant to UEFA in the UK.

A graduate in Economics with Government of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Philip French has acquired over his career extensive experience in public affairs, international relations, community development and stakeholder management. He is very well acquainted with the world of sport, from both the media and management sides, and will be a valuable addition to the IOC’s team of directors.

A fan of athletics, football, cricket and tennis, Mr French is also involved in a number of grassroots and charity projects.

When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved Agenda 2020, its “strategic roadmap for the Olympic Movement” in 2014, the most evidently urgent issue was to boost the appeal of hosting the Olympic Games. Four European cities had pulled out of bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, leaving Almaty and Beijing as candidates.

The first three of Agenda 2020’s “20+20” recommendations focussed on reforming the bidding process. These changes have been quickly implemented and the results are evident in the strong field of cities bidding for the 2024 Olympic Games. 

But Agenda 2020 is about much more than this, focusing on areas such as sustainability, blending sport and culture, launching an Olympic TV channel, engaging with communities – and an issue that has become extremely pressing for the Olympic Movement in recent months: the protection of clean athletes. 

Sir Craig Reedie, in his dual roles as Vice President of the International Olympic Committee and President of the World Anti-Doping Agency, spoke exclusively to Host City about the challenges and opportunities ahead for the Olympic Movement and how the IOC is implementing Agenda 2020.

HOST CITY: How is the IOC encouraging organising committees to boost sustainability and reduce the cost of event delivery?

Sir Craig Reedie: Sustainability covers a wide range of operations. It effectively started under Agenda 2020 with the first two or three proposals, which were to shape the bidding process as an invitation; and then evaluating the cities, assessing key opportunities and risks; reduce the cost of bidding; and then to include sustainability in all aspects of the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement. 

By framing the Games bidding process under the invitation, we get the opportunity to speak to a National Olympic Committee which wants to submit a city, and the city itself, right at the start of the programme. We can set out quite clearly that we wish them to consider a sustainability strategy, to develop a plan and to integrate and implement sustainability measures that cover the economic side, the social side and the environmental sphere in all stages of the project. And so far I have to say that seems to be working. 

The Winter Games are sometimes a bit more complicated than Summer Games, because by the very nature of Winter Games there are some indoor facilities that are very sports specific – for example long track speed skating. A lot of work needs to be done by organising committees and candidate cities to make sure that what they build is sustainable after the Games. 

For a summer Games it’s probably a little bit easier, because the facilities that have been built can frequently be used for more than one sport or more than one purpose. It’s certainly an integral part of the Agenda 2020 process and it’s underway. 

We certainly wish to reduce the cost of bidding and that is clearly underway at the moment for the 2024 bidding process. The cities have far fewer presentations to make and they work very closely with the IOC. There are three specific stages and we are just at the beginning of stage one. 

We want what is built to be sustainable; we don’t want any white elephants and we want cities to plan all that carefully all the way through.

HOST CITY: Looking ahead to Tokyo 2020 do you have confidence that their stadium will be a sustainable solution?

Sir Craig Reedie: Yes, they looked hard at the original plans for the main stadium primarily on the basis of cost and they have come back, as far as I can see, with a revised and more cost effective plan. 

It’s more sustainable and it will be finished earlier, which is a good thing so you can fit that stadium with all the bits and pieces that are necessary for an Olympic Games; you’ve got not just sport taking part there but you’ve got major ceremonies. 

Most recently there was a report from Tokyo on the whole sustainability structure and that gives me some confidence that what we wanted to happen is actually happening. 

HOST CITY: A USD 20m fund was set aside to protect clean athletes through Agenda 2020. In the light of recent revelations in athletics, is this enough or are further measures necessary?

Sir Craig Reedie: The US$20m fund is clearly working. It was split into two parts. The first was US$10m for advanced anti-doping research; it was made available to WADA provided we got governments to match the US$10m. We managed to collect about US$6.5m, so we have received or are in the process of receiving US$6.5m of the original ten. So there is a new fund of about US$13m which WADA is dealing with. 

The remaining US$3.5m, which was not matched by governments, is being invested by the IOC itself; and we clearly cooperate on the applications we get for that scientific research to make sure we don’t do the same thing. That process is working extremely well. 

The second US$10m under the heading “protecting clean athletes” wasn’t anti-doping – it was for any forms of manipulation and corruption. Clearly that’s been in the media recently with accusations about wrongdoing in tennis several years ago, and the tennis authorities are clearly looking at that. 

The IOC have invested some of that US$10m in an intelligence gathering system to which almost all the International Federations have signed up. So that process is underway as well. 

HOST CITY: It must be very costly looking into and investigating the integrity of all the Olympic Sports combined. Is working with the International Federations (IFs) a way forward there?

Sir Craig Reedie: They are an integral part of the Olympic movement. The IOC itself, the IFs and the NOCs are the three pillars of the movement, so we are structured to deal with the IFs. Certainly in the anti-doping field, from WADA’s point of view, we work closely with all the IFs. 

There is a debate at the moment about the creation of a new independent testing agency to take away the perceived conflict that IFs might have, who are supposed to develop and organise their sport, and at the same time to police their sport. The more we speak to people the more the feeling there is that this is a good idea and it might well happen. 

So this is a major project, the whole anti-doping effort is a major effort and quite clearly there are major problems in sport of manipulation and corruption and the IOC are well aware of that and effectively putting their money where their mouth is. 

HOST CITY: What’s the outlook for Russia’s involvement in Rio?

Sir Craig Reedie: Well, from the WADA perspective our job is, having removed the accreditation of the Moscow laboratory because it was criticised in the independent commission report, and having declared the Russian anti-doping agency to be non-compliant, our job is to deal with both of these situations so that the accreditation of the laboratory can be renewed and above all that the Russian anti-doping agency becomes compliant again. 

Our job is not to do this so that people can take part in the Rio Games; our job is to assist Russia in becoming compliant again. It’s other people who decide whether they go to Rio. The one national federation at the moment that is suspended is the Russian athletics federation; it’s the responsibility of the IAAF to make sure that that particular national federation is compliant with all aspects of the world anti-doping code – plus other conditions that it has applied – these will all have to purified before they can be declared compliant and by definition then available to come to the Rio Games. There is a lot of work to be done.

HOST CITY: How will the IOC itself continue to show leadership in the good governance of its own affairs?

Sir Craig Reedie: As leaders of the Olympic movement, we start with ourselves. We now produce a very comprehensive and detailed annual report which is very transparent; it tells everybody everything we are doing, it tells what people are paid, and tells everybody that we produce the accounts under the international financial reporting system – even though that’s not a legal obligation on us. 

We have imposed time limits on membership, time limits on periods that you can stay on committees. So we’ve looked very hard at our own governance. 

We also speak regularly to the associations of international federations and encourage them to do the same – and many of them do. 

As far as National Olympic Committees are concerned, they again are given guidelines – there are basic standard of good governance with which we expect them to comply. At the moment they self-monitor, but we try to ensure that across the whole movement high standards of good governance will apply.

HOST CITY: How will the Olympic movement engage with society and communities in the future?

In many cases the reform process was a serious think-tank. We did look very carefully at, and have a recommendation on, how we deal with communities. 

The first one that is being worked on is to create a virtual hub for our athletes and we are quite a long way down the line in doing that. 

We’re looking at doing the same for volunteers; we’re looking at ways we can engage the general public. Much of this is social media and how we can improve our website and how we can encourage people to keep in touch with us. We need to have a very clear policy ourselves on how we engage with young people – all of that work is underway. 

We’re also going to develop, at no little expense, a television programme called the Olympic Channel, which is going to be a digital programme in its initial form that can then spread into being a full television programme if needs be at a later date, and if countries want it. That will allow us to inform, educate, hopefully excite, entertain and amuse millions and millions of people. All of that is quite an exciting prospect as we move forward.

HOST CITY: It’s interesting that it’s going digital first, because the majority of young people are now watching more on the internet than on traditional television. 

Sir Craig Reedie: Yes, I suspect that that piece of statistical information was warmly welcomed in the offices of the digital channel in Madrid.

HOST CITY: Why is it so important to further strengthen the blending of sport and culture at the Olympic Games and in-between?

Sir Craig Reedie: At the end of the day it’s one of the absolutely defining characteristics of the Olympic movement and the Olympic Games – that there is this clear mix, this blend of sport and culture.

We’re trying to develop that; we’re looking at creating an Olympic Laurel award to celebrate any outstanding contribution to Olympism through culture, education, development and peace. We are looking to develop an Olympic House, to welcome the general public to engage in a dialogue with the Olympic movement. 

There’s a programme called artists in residence which is being examined; that’s a very specific cultural connection. We’re looking at a curators committee composed of various global cultural players.

We also try as best we can to take the Olympic Museum out on the road: for example, specific Olympic Museums created in host cities at times of the Games. I think that’s quite an exciting project; it’s one of the projects I’m trying to develop, as I think it’s part of our heritage and it’s something we should celebrate. 

HOST CITY: How is Agenda 2020 being implemented within the IOC?

Sir Craig Reedie: The whole Agenda 2020 process appears to have been warmly welcomed and we now work on it regularly at the Executive Board meetings. We look at the implementation plan to see what else we have to do; so it’s not just been a question of thinking through what we want to do, putting it down on paper and then hoping that it happens. There is a specific and detailed implementation plan that we look at on a very regular basis. 

A lot of this will fall, in several years’ time, into our new headquarters in Lausanne, so everybody working for the IOC in Lausanne works under one roof. It’s a huge investment in the Olympic movement, it’s a huge investment in sport and it’s also a huge investment in Lausanne – particularly when you look at the way we’ve made a similar investment in the complete remodelling of the Olympic Museum. So we hope to be good citizens.

The IOC Executive Board will meet in Lausanne on 1 to 3 March 2016 to discuss the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020

The International Anti-Corruption Summit, hosted by UK Prime Minister Cameron on Thursday in London, welcomed the efforts of sports organisations in the fight against corruption.

The conference issued a communiqué that said: “We welcome the work of the international sports organisations to strengthen openness and improve governance so that they meet global best practice. We urge them to achieve the highest global standards and regain public trust through a culture of good governance. We recognise the autonomy of international sports organisations conferred under national laws. We believe this must be exercised responsibly and be earned by continually demonstrating good governance in a spirit of openness.” 

The conference specifically welcomed the initiative of the IOC to launch “an International Sport Integrity Partnership in the margins of a meeting of the International Forum for Sport Integrity in Lausanne in early 2017.” 

IOC President Thomas Bach said: “We appreciate that this summit has acknowledged the efforts of the IOC and sports organisations. The IOC has all the instruments in place and the resolution to fight effectively against corruption. But like any other organisation we are not immune to wrongdoing. In such cases we have a proven record of swift action. The reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020 have strengthened our position to implement our zero tolerance policy in this respect. As welcomed by the Summit, we will take the fight against corruption further by launching the International Sports Integrity Partnership.”

The Summit coincided with confirmation from French financial prosecutors that they are investigating allegations that payments exceeding $2m connected to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid were made to a bank account linked to the son of former IOC member and IAAF President Lamine Diack.

IOC Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Paquerette Girard-Zappelli spoke at the conference. In an IOC-issued statement she said: “We used this opportunity to present all the measures undertaken by the IOC in the fight against corruption. 

“Through Olympic Agenda 2020 the position of the IOC Ethics Commission has been strengthened and transparency has been increased. This includes a Consultants Register for the Olympic Games Bid Process and many other measures. 

“We have proven that we are actively fighting against corruption. For instance, the IOC took immediate action against Lamine Diack already in November 2015 when the first allegation arose against him. As a result of our action he no longer has any position in the IOC. Nevertheless, we continue to actively look into the matter and have become a civil party to the French investigation.”

IOC Member and President of the International Paralympic Committee Sir Philip Craven chaired a panel on sport at the summit. Girard-Zappelli was joined on the panel by Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD, Jaimie Fuller of Australian sportwear brand SKINS, and Isha Johansen, president of the Sierra Leone Football Association and FIFA board member.

“I have a mission and a vision, to force good governance into football. Because I believe it can help with the growth and prosperity of that nation,” said Johansen.

“Corruption is a deadly killer disease. Having lived in Sierra Leone through the ebola crisis, I know the destruction a disease can cause in a society, it can rip through it, it can kill a society.”

After the summit, Sir Philip Craven said: “Sport is under greater scrutiny than ever before and rightly so; sport is a multi-billion Euro industry that reaches and impacts billions of people around the world on a daily basis.

“There are absolutely no doubts that recent scandals involving some international sport federations have greatly tarnished the image and reputation of sport. This has led sport to quickly realise that it is not immune from being accountable for its actions, just like any other industry.

“It should not take a high profile scandal however to act as the catalyst to organisational reform. Sport organisations must be proactive in improving their athlete centred governance. They must seek out corruption and deal with it swiftly and effectively. It cannot be brushed under the carpet in the hope it will go undiscovered.

“Eliminating corruption in sport needs to be a real team effort. That is why the IPC fully supports the work of the IOC, the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, the launching of International Sports Integrity Partnership in early 2017 and the recommendations of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) Governance Task Force.”

The conference also dealt with issues such as corporate secrecy, government transparency, the enforcement of international anti-corruption laws, and the strengthening of international institutions. 

The summit adopted a “Global Declaration Against Corruption”, which reads: “Corruption is at the heart of so many of the world’s problems. We must overcome it if our efforts to end poverty, promote prosperity and defeat terrorism and extremism are to succeed. 

“Today’s Summit has demonstrated the deep commitment of a significant number of countries, businesses and members of civil society to work together to tackle this scourge.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has received candidature files from Los Angeles (USA), Rome (Italy), Budapest (Hungary) and Paris (France) for hosting the Olympic Games 2024 by the Wednesday deadline.

The IOC has hailed the plans, which were submitted in digital-only format for the first time, as showing the potential for unprecedented venue sustainability. 

“Following Olympic Agenda 2020, the Candidate Cities are making use of an extremely high percentage of existing and temporary venues, possibly the most ever,” said Jacqueline Barrett, Associate Director Olympic Games/Olympic Candidatures.

Olympic Agenda 2020 is the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement and the candidature process for the 2024 Games is the first to be launched following its adoption. 

The new process encourages cities to present Olympic projects that best match their sports, economic, social and environmental long-term planning needs. It calls for the use of existing facilities where possible, and provides flexibility for the venue concept to meet local sustainability and legacy needs and ambitions.

“Los Angeles, Rome, Budapest and Paris are all submitting projects fully in line with Olympic Agenda 2020,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.

 “It is impressive to see how they have incorporated the Olympic project into the long-term development plans of their city, region and country. Coming from different starting points, for all four there is a clear focus on sustainable development, legacy and in particular how the facilities are going to be used after the Olympic Games,” said Bach. 

“We are delighted to have four extremely strong candidatures and look forward to a fascinating competition.”

The submission of the Candidature Files on “Vision, Games Concept and Strategy” marks the end of the first part of the bidding process. 

“The plans received indicate very thoughtful consideration of what the Cities and their people need for the future,” said Barrett.

“The IOC has significantly simplified the Candidature Process, symbolised by the fact that the submissions arrived for the very first time on a USB key only, instead of thousands of pages of paper documents.”

An IOC-appointed working group will now study the files and report to the IOC Executive Board (EB) in June 2016. 

The next stage of the Candidature Process will focus on Governance, Legal and Venue Funding, to be submitted by 7 October 2016, followed by a final “Games Delivery, Experience and Venue Legacy” stage due on 3 February 2017.

During Stage 3, an IOC Evaluation Commission will make working visits to each City to study their projects in detail and issue a final report. 

The host city of the 2024 Olympic Games will be elected in September 2017 at the IOC Session in Lima, Peru.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has created a two million dollar fund that will be made available to National Olympic Committees (NOCs) for programmes focused on refugees.

“We have all been touched by the terrible news and the heartbreaking stories in the past few days. With this terrible crisis unfolding across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, sport and the Olympic Movement wanted to play its part in bringing humanitarian help to the refugees. We made a quick decision that we needed to take action and to make this fund available immediately,” IOC president Thomas Bach said on Friday. 

“We have a long term relationship with the United Nations and with the UNHCR and we draw on their help and expertise.  We know through experience that sport can ease the plight of refugees, many of them young people and children, be they in the Middle East, Africa, Europe or in other parts of the world. Our thoughts are with the many refugees risking their lives and the lives of their families to escape danger.”

The fund is made up of one million dollars directly from the IOC and a further one million from Olympic Solidarity, which is an IOC commission that organises assistance for NOCs, particularly those with the greatest needs, by redistributing broadcast rights through programmes offered to all NOCs.

NOCs and other interested parties will be asked to submit projects to the IOC for funding. 

“Because of the nature of the crisis the assessment of projects and the distribution of funds will be carried out extremely quickly,” said Bach. 

“We are able to work on the ground with our partners in the National Olympic Committees and the expert agencies to get help to where it is needed most urgently.”

The IOC already works with a number of United Nations agencies to help refugees around the world. In April 2014 the two organisations signed a historic agreement aimed at strengthening collaboration.

The IOC has been working with the UNHCR for two decades and has already seen thousands of refugees benefit from sports programmes and equipment donated by the IOC.  

Last year IOC Honorary President Jacques Rogge completed his first mission as Special Envoy of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General for Youth Refugees and Sport.

With the goal of raising awareness on the conditions of youth refugees and the impact of sport for their well-being, Rogge visited Syrian refugees currently living in the UN camp of Azraq, located in the desert 100 kilometres east of the Jordanian capital, Amman. The camp currently hosts more than 5,000 shelters housing some 18,000 refugees.

Since 2004, the IOC and UNHCR have organised a “Giving is Winning” programme.  This global solidarity campaign allows athletes, officials and sponsors of the Olympic Games, National Olympic Committees , International and National Federations, and other Olympic Movement stakeholders to donate tens of thousands of clothing items to help refugees . The campaign has already collected over 170,000 items of clothing, which have reached refugees in 23 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

In 2013 and 2014, the IOC, Worldwide Olympic Partner Samsung and the UNHCR joined forces to distribute IOC Sports Kits to more than 180,000 internally displaced young people living in refugee camps in 20 countries throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. 

As an Olympic medallist, recent developments in some sports are particularly upsetting. What saddens me most as a former athlete is that they erode the trust in the clean athlete. Clean athletes who push themselves day in day out pursuing their dreams see the finger of suspicion pointing at them. This is the very worst ‘side-effect’ of doping. 

We must do everything we can to protect these millions of clean athletes around the world. For their sake and for the credibility of sports competition, they have to be protected from doping and corrupting influences. We also have to protect the credibility of sports competition from match-fixing and manipulation. The IOC has created a specific 20-million US dollar fund for the protection of clean athletes. This comes on top of overall international investments of an estimated 500-million US dollars for around 250,000 anti-doping tests a year, among other initiatives. The IOC has a zero-tolerance policy against doping and any kind of manipulation and corruption. 

Doped athletes already face a four-year ban from any kind of sports competition for their first infringement. This means an effective ban from the next edition of the Olympic Games. As a young man, I called for life bans even for the first infringement. Unfortunately, such a sanction would not be upheld by any judicial court. But what we can do is making the anti-doping system more independent from sports organisations. In this respect, the IOC took the initiative to ask the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the international authority in the fight against drugs in sport, to consider taking over testing programmes from the international sports federations. The IOC also proposed that the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS), the highest judicial body for the sports world, take over all sanctioning of doped athletes. 

Zero-tolerance also means all nations and all sports have to be compliant with WADA’s rules. On this front, sport requires the support of governments. Let us not forget that governments have a 50% stake in WADA. Governments need to make sure that their national anti-doping authorities are WADA-compliant. Governments also have to ensure dealers, corrupt doctors and coaches are punished with the full force of the law. 

Protecting the clean athlete goes hand in hand with ensuring that the environment in which the athletes operate is safe from corrupting influences. To fight manipulation in sport and specifically match-fixing and illegal betting, the IOC and the International Sport Federations are already working closely with police, betting operators and regulators around the world. Recognizing the international nature of organized crime, the IOC is also engaged with Interpol to safeguard the integrity of sport. 

Fighting corruption also means that good governance for sporting organisations is essential. The IOC has put the necessary measures in place since a long time. More recently, the reforms passed in Olympic Agenda 2020 exactly one year ago, ensure internationally recognized standards of governance. As a result, all our accounts are audited at a higher international financial reporting standard (IFRS) and we are publishing everything in our annual report, as is common practise in the corporate world; we have term and age limits for all IOC Members; we have a chief ethics and compliance officer, an audit committee and an independent ethics commission. We have called on and we expect all sports organisations to follow this route. All these measures and others, which are publically available, allow the IOC to distribute over 90% of our revenue – that is $3.25 million each and every day – back to athletes and world sport. 

The recent discussions on these issues show the huge significance sport has in our society. Sport has the power to make the world a better place. If these good governance measures are adopted and the zero-tolerance policies are followed by all sport organisations, there is a very bright future for sport. As Nelson Mandela said: “Sport has the power to change the world.” Yes, these are difficult times for sport. But yes, it is also an opportunity to renew the trust in this power of sport to change the world for the better.

This opinion piece by IOC President Thomas Bach is also published on www.olympic.org

The IOC Executive Board on Tuesday suspended the honorary IOC membership of Lamine Diack, former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) following the publication of a World Anti-Doping Report on Monday.

“The Independent Commission’s Report contains a series of findings that will shock and appal athletes and sports fans worldwide, and indeed many issues that highlight very current deficiencies with the anti-doping system in Russia,” said WADA President and IOC Vice President Sir Craig Reedie on Monday, during Host City 2015 conference in Glasgow.

Following the publication of the report, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was “closely monitoring the situation” and expects the IAAF and WADA to “consider all necessary action to be taken to protect the clean athletes and rebuild trust”.

The IOC’s Executive Board on Tuesday confirmed the proposal of the IOC Ethics Commission to provisionally suspend Mr. Lamine Diack, the former President of IAAF, from his honorary membership of the IOC.

In a statement, the IOC said it has asked the IAAF to initiate disciplinary procedures against all athletes, coaches and officials who have participated in the Olympic Games and are accused of doping in the report of the Independent Commission. 

“With its zero-tolerance policy against doping, following the conclusion of this procedure, the IOC will take all the necessary measures and sanctions with regard to the withdrawal and reallocation of medals and as the case may be exclusion of coaches and officials from future Olympic Games,” the statement said. 

The news follows WADA’s suspension of its accreditation of the Moscow Antidoping Center. The laboratory is now restricted from carrying out any WADA-related anti-doping activities including all analyses of urine and blood samples. 

The IOC said it has no reason to question the credibility of the results of the anti-doping tests carried out at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, but will retain all the doping samples for ten years and retest samples “in an appropriate way should substantial doubts arise. In any case, the IOC may retest samples once new scientific techniques become available”.

“While the contents of the Report are deeply disturbing, the investigation is hugely positive for the clean athlete as it contains significant recommendations for how WADA and its partners in the anti-doping community can, and must, take swift corrective action to ensure anti-doping programs of the highest order are in place across the board,” said Sir Craig Reedie.

“WADA is fully committed in its role of leading the charge to protect the rights of clean athletes worldwide.”

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday adopted a declaration on good governance in sport in response to growing concerns of sports organisations. 

In the declaration, the IOC singled out criminal investigations into FIFA as an area of particular concern that “could affect all sport organisations” for up to five years. 

In a statement, the IOC said the Executive Board welcomed the FIFA Executive Committee’s proposals for major reforms, which include term limits. 

However, the IOC said its Executive Board “remains concerned with regard to the ongoing criminal procedures in the United States 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 sport 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.”

At a meeting in Lausanne, the IOC Executive Board addressed requests from “a number of sports organisations which feel affected by incidents in some sports organisations and are concerned their reputation is being tarnished by generalisation."

The IOC declaration proposes a number of measures to develop good governance in sport. “Recent incidents have shown that, in the interest of the credibility of all sports organisations immediate action to reinforce good governance is necessary,” the IOC statetment said. 

According to the declaration, the basic principles of good governance, including transparent and democratic decision making processes, financial reporting and auditing according to international standards, publication of financial reports and ethics and compliance rules, etc. will be applied during 2016.

The IOC will initiate an independent audit system of its major subventions to IFs, NOCs and Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) with regard to the financial as well as the good governance aspects. With regard to all other activities of IFs, NOCs and OCOGs, Recommendation 27 of Olympic Agenda 2020 should be applied as from 2016. The IOC, recognising the independence and autonomy of the IFs, appreciates their support for this initiative as expressed in the IOC EB meeting and by setting up a working group on sports governance by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).

The IOC has also has asked the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne and its Global Board Centre to undertake research into good governance at the IOC itself. A first assessment by IMD was presented to the Executive Board.

The IOC Executive Board also confirmed its zero tolerance policy toward doping, expressing support for the authority and autonomy of WADA while putting forward a number of proposals to the WADA working group. 

These include establishing an independent testing and results management entity, under the leadership of WADA. “Sports organisations should transfer their doping control operations to this new organisation and make the funding available initially at the level of the present investment in the fight against doping. This organisation should also co-ordinate the work of the national anti-doping agencies to ensure a streamlined, efficient and worldwide harmonised anti-doping system. Governments, which are 50 per cent partners of WADA, should support this reform alongside the sports movement, both logistically and financially,” the IOC said.

This entity should include a “professional intelligence gathering unit” to “address issues that may affect the compliance of anti-doping organisations and anti-doping laboratories accredited by WADA, at the earliest possible stage. This would help to make all such institutions compliant at all times and in such a way as to protect the clean athletes worldwide to the same level.”

The IOC declaration also determined that sanctions should be pronounced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a centralised way, which would make the system cost-efficient and lead to harmonisation among all sports and all countries. The current right to appeal such sanctions to a different chamber of the CAS would be fully upheld and guaranteed, the IOC said.

The IOC is aiming to have an independent anti-doping system in place from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

In a historic deal valued at EUR 1.3bn, Discovery, the owner of Eurosport, has been awarded the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 across all media platforms in all European countries, excluding Russia.

The rights, which were issued after a competitive tender process, extend to the development of the IOC’s planned Olympic TV Channel.

“This is a historic partnership, innovative and ground-breaking on a number of fronts,” David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications told journalists in a press conference. 

“We can reach more than 700m people across Europe. This agreement will bring the Olympic Games to more viewers on more screens than ever before.” 

According to IOC President Thomas Bach, a major deal-breaker was the broadcaster’s ability to reach young people via digital platforms.

“It is the first time one single media company has acquired all the rights across Europe,” said president Bach.

“This agreement concerns all the different platforms, so Discovery is the real gatekeeper for all these rights.

“This agreement allows us, in a very special and particular way, to address youth on the platforms they use. We can reach out to them directly through these platforms. 

“It will go from the telephones, over digital channels and many more. This is what made it very attractive for the IOC.”

Discovery is confident it will recoup the heavy price tag over time.

“This investment is consistent with our prudent approach to investing in content,” said Zaslav. 

“The EUR 1.3bn purchase price, to be phased in over time, will include the rights to four Olympic Games across all platforms, including the Olympic archives, and aligns with our strategy of acquiring world class IP to the Discovery Company.  

“And over the term of the contract, we expect the Olympic Games to be cash flow positive.”

The deal gives Discovery the exclusive rights to broadcast the most popular entertainment property in the world.

“There is no more exciting property than the Olympic Games,” said Zaslav. 

“The live, must-have and universal appeal of the Olympic Games make it unique and singular as a programming event. 

“The global reach, the fan engagement, the thrilling stories, the volume of content, the integrity of the brand – there is no rival in sheer global or mass appeal.

“Our ability to develop and follow the same characters and athletes all year, combined with access and rights to the Olympic archives, makes possible for the first time a programming strategy that can burn the Olympic flame with stories and content 365 days a year.”

The agreement includes cooperation on the IOC’s Olympic Channel, which is planned as part of the IOC’s “Olympic Agenda 2020” process of reform. 

“We are very happy that as part of the agreement we will cooperate with regard to the Olympic channel, which will be another tool to reach out to youth and to keep the awareness about Olympic sport and the Olympic values high throughout the year,” said Bach.

A launch date has not yet been set for the Olympic Channel. Timo Lumme, Managing Director, IOC Television and Marketing Services said, “This is not about speed, it is about quality and therefore we have not given a deadline for the start of the Olympic Channel.

“But today, this another milestone in the development of the Olympic channel, because with this agreement we can look forward to having the Olympic channel extended to other platforms and having a roll-out to ensure the whole continent.”

Eurosport already has agreements in place with many Olympic sports federations.

“As we look at the assets that we have, we have a real advantage as we sit down with the IOC to build the Olympic Channel,” said Zaslav.

“Almost half of what’s on Eurosport are Olympic sports that we have rights to for the next several years already.”

The agreement requires Discovery to broadcasting a minimum of 200 hours of the Olympic Games and 100 hours of the Olympic Winter Games on free-to-air television during the Games period, but it will sub-license a portion of the rights in many markets across Europe. 

“The flexibility to sublicense rights across territories will open up strategic partnership opportunities with a wide range of broadcasters and distributors on how best to exploit these and bring more coverage to more people on more platforms throughout the European continent,” said Zaslav.

This aspect of the deal is somewhat controversial as it introduces a middleman between the IOC and domestic broadcasters, who are seen to have played a crucial role in extending the reach of the Olympic Games.

“Of course they [European national broadcasters] have played a significant role in spreading and broadcasting the Games,” said Bach. 

“But Eurosport has also contributed to this in the past, so it is not the public broadcasters alone.”

The domestic broadcasters in Great Britain and France will retain the rights they have already been allocated to broadcast the 2018 and 2020 Games. 

“In Great Britain, you have the situation that the BBC has the rights for 2020 so there is ample time before 2022 and 2024 to have discussions with Discovery about their cooperation,” said Bach. 

“So this is not excluding anybody, but it is showing a new and broader approach to Olympic broadcasting by incorporating the Olympic Channel in a very intelligent and effective way and by offering the great experience of Discovery and Eurosport to work on their multiple platforms.”

Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC Executive Board Member and delegate IOC Member for European broadcast rights said: “Discovery and Eurosport will ensure the exposure of the Olympic Games through their own TV channels and media platforms, and, where relevant, by reaching sublicensing partnerships with other broadcasters in the various territories.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended its recognition of SportAccord on Sunday, saying it is ready to discuss restructured representation with the organisation’s stakeholders. 

The IOC had recognised and worked with SportAccord, the “umbrella group” for Olympic and non-Olympic sports federations, for many years. 

Relationships between the two organisations have deteriorated since SportAccord president Marius’ Vizer’s criticism of IOC president Thomas Bach’s Agenda 2020 programme of reform at SportAccord Convention in April. 

Many international federations (IFs) of Olympic and non-Olympic sports have since left SportAccord. 

Despite Vizer’s resignation last week, the IOC has withdrawn its recognition of SportAccord. 

“The IOC will continue its ongoing and direct relationship with the IFs and other members of the Olympic Movement,” the IOC said in a statement issued during an executive board meeting in Lausanne.

“We encourage and support them in all the initiatives being taken to restructure their representation following the serious internal problems of SportAccord.”

“We have been in contact with many of the IFs and their representative bodies in the last days and we have been advised that they want to take some measures in this respect.

“We would like to invite the representatives of different groups to further discuss this issue and to come to an agreement among all stakeholders.

“We will first wait for their deliberations and consultations to conclude, and we are ready to support them and ready to invite the representatives of the different groups, including the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF), the Association of Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF),  the Alliance of Independent Members of Sport Accord (AIMS) and the International World Games Association (IWGA), to discuss the restructuring of their agreement for a common approach.”

SportAccord has historically provided support to IFs to ensure the integrity of their sports – a role that the IOC will take up directly during SportAccord’s current circumstances.

“In the meantime, we do not want the clean athletes to suffer in any way from this vacuum. We are offering the IFs concerned all the services and advice in the fight against doping which have been offered so far by SportAccord and financed by the IOC and WADA. 

“We will be making the same offer with regard to good governance as well as on match-fixing and related corruption, and the IOC is ready to provide this support directly. We must ensure that there is not a vacuum during this ongoing process.  

“Like many members of SportAccord, 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.

“We are awaiting the outcome of the consultations and, when the time is right, we would like to invite these stakeholders here to discuss how services can best be provided in the future to the above-mentioned organisations.”