India opposes Olympic’s tenures fixing

NEW DEHLI: India has clashed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over new rules limiting the tenures of the country’s top sports officials.

The IOC asked the government not to implement new guidelines that mean the sports federations’ heads cannot remain in their posts for more than 12 years or beyond the age of 70. Indian Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill’s tough stand on the new rules has riled incumbents, but won praise from former sportsmen who say the move was long overdue.

The IOC, however, has urged that the guidelines be suspended. “It is our understanding that the guidelines which you have issued will not be imposed in a mandatory manner on the organisations in India,” IOC director Pere Miro wrote. In response, the ministry shot off a reply to the governing body’s chief Jacques Rogge, saying it was ‘strange’ the Olympic council opposed the very rules it had implemented for its own office-bearers recently.

Published in the Express Tribune, May 14th, 2010.