Olympic ‘Kingmaker’ steps aside to fight criminal case
The corruption case involving a powerful International Olympic Committee member dominated the meeting of the 206 national bodies in Tokyo last week.
Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, known as the “Olympic Kingmaker”, stepped down temporarily earlier in the week as the pres- ident of the Association of National Olympic Committees.
Sheikh Ahmad said he needed to fight a criminal case in Switzerland, and was also reportedly pressured to step aside by the International Olympic Committee.
Last week he suspended his 26-year membership of the committee.
Sheikh Ahmad is accused by Geneva public prosecutors of forgery in an alleged faked arbitration case involving four others. He is also a long-time ally of committee President Thomas Bach.
Sheikh Ahmad was up for re-election to the association presidency unopposed but asked the membership on Wednesday to leave the post vacant while he fought his case.
In the meantime, senior vice president Robin Mitchell of Fiji will be in charge.
In a long debate, dozens of members urged Sheikh Ahmad to run, defying the wishes of Mr Bach and the commission, which has been embarrassed by recent corruption cases.
Sheikh Ahmad told about 1,400 delegates of his wishes in the morning but he had to return in the afternoon to make his case again. “I will be there for you all the time. You will see this face, you will never miss the face,” he said.
Many of Sheikh Ahmad’s backers spoke out. “You must have the presumption of innocence and we do not believe what is happening right now is fair play,” said Nasser Majali, the secretary general of the Jordanian National Olympic Committee.
The committee has published a document from its own ethics commission written last week assessing the forgery case and a possible five-year prison sentence. Sheikh Ahmad’s trial is expected to start in the first half of next year.