international olympic committee – Page 2 – Declan Hill

02MayMay 2, 2016

They Have Already Failed: IOC and Interpol

Three weeks away and much to discuss. Lets begin with the non-action of the Olympic integrity officials. They have already failed. In case you missed it amidst the barrage of fancy sounding “anti-corruption” conferences and announcements from various bureaucrats about how they are fighting hard against fixing, leaving no stone turned, standing vigilant, etc, etc [fill in your favourite cliché here] you may have missed the po-faced declaration from Interpol and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about their joint campaign to...

08OctOctober 8, 2015

FIFA – What Should Happen Now

Get Richard Pound in there asap. The news today of Sepp Blatter’s suspension shows the power of the sponsors. Forget any police charges. Forget any bad publicity. The reason why he is being shown the door is that some of the rich sponsors - finally, finally - came forward last week and asked for him to leave. If they had done it years ago we might not be in this position. The question is what to do now? FIFA is still an...

03JunJune 3, 2015

10 Thoughts on Sepp Blatter’s Resignation

1- There are lots of people in the FIFA world who are far, far worse than Blatter. 2- It is possible that after the next FIFA election we could wind up with a president who will make us feel nostalgic for Blatter. 3- Blatter and his group at Zurich ran effective protection for national football federations around the world when they faced criminal investigations for corruption. From Nigeria to Iran to Greece – when governments, police forces and law enforcement have...

01JunJune 1, 2015

Loud Booing, Bridge of Lies & South African Fix

What to do if you're a Canadian soccer fan. It is very simple. Cheer the players: Boo the soccer officials. Anytime a FIFA official walks on the pitch or addresses the crowd: boo and jeer them. For good measure, make signs that denounce them. At these international events, FIFA officials’ usual trick is to make sure they are only seen on the pitches accompanied by fashion models or small children in costumes. Ignore the models, respect the children, but jeer the FIFA officials. Remember, this...

15AprApril 15, 2015

The Devil is in the Details

To start with the important point: it is a good idea. This is the proposal that came out of a meeting of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) sports integrity forum last weekend. The IOC’s reputation has suffered so much damage over the years that the words – ‘meeting, ‘sports integrity’ and ‘IOC’ - immediately plant in many people’s heads the image of a conclave of mobsters chatting with Monty Burns from The Simpsons. The truth is more prosaic. The committee meetings of the...