IAAF leader Diack says federations don’t need SportAccord
SOCHI, Russia: Major sports federations can survive without umbrella body SportAccord after its head behaved like a “dictator” in his scathing attack on Olympic leaders, IAAF President Lamine Diack said Tuesday.
The International Association of Athletics Federations pulled out of SportAccord on Monday after Marius Vizer blasted the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach.
With Bach looking on, Vizer accused the International Olympic Committee of lacking transparency, ignoring the federations and blocking his plans for new multisport competitions.
The international shooting federation also withdrew from SportAccord, which represents Olympic and non-Olympic federations. Other sports were considering following suit.
Diack said Tuesday that Vizer, who is also president of the International Judo Federation, resembled “a chief or dictator coming from nowhere” and telling major sports federations what to do.
Major sports do not necessarily need SportAccord to represent them because “we are already organized” in other associations that do not have a strong presidential figure playing politics, Diack said.
There is a place for a larger body such as SportAccord, Diack said, “but it must be an organization in which, I think, every- one knows that we are (on) the same level.”
Another sticking point was a plan previously announced by Vizer for federations to unite their world championships under the SportAccord umbrella, a clear challenge to the Olympics. Diack said the move would usurp power from the individual federations.
“The gentleman (Vizer) was complaining, was saying he was going to organize the world championships of all the sports. So I go: ‘What, I am going to disappear?’“
Along with the IAAF, at least 14 federation presidents, including FIFA’s Sepp Blatter, have signed letters of protest at Vizer’s comments. The council of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations was meeting Tuesday in Sochi, with the issue high on its agenda.
The International Shooting Sport Federation said it had also withdrawn following Vizer’s comments.
“The ISSF cannot accept the positions expressed by the SportAccord president Vizer,” ISSF head Olegario Vazquez Rana said in the statement. “We do not share his negative evaluations on the governance of the International Olympic Committee.”
Another influential federation head, world swimming president Julio Maglione, condemned Vizer’s comments.