SportAccord chief launches scathing attack on IOC

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[April 20, 2015]  By Karolos Grohmann
 
 (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) president is blocking plans by a sports federations umbrella group to set up its own multi-sports events, SportAccord President Marius Vizer said on Monday in a scathing attacking on the IOC.

International judo federation president Vizer, whose SportAccord organization represents Olympic and non-Olympic sports federations and organizers of multi-sports games, said Bach interfered with the autonomy of sports bodies.

"After becoming SportAccord President, I always tried to develop a constructive collaboration with the IOC and with President (Thomas) Bach," Vizer said at the opening of the SportAccord convention in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

"Unfortunately, it never became reality," he said.

"Mr President, stop blocking the SportAccord strategy in its mission to identify and organize conventions and multi-sport games. Do not try to create a theory around which sports are and are not eligible for multi-sport games," he said.

The IOC has had an uneasy relationship with Vizer, who took over SportAccord in 2013 and instantly attempted to set up his own international multi-sports event, the United world Games, which never materialized.

The IOC, which usually holds an executive board meeting during SportAccord, has scrapped its meeting this time, leaving the convention without one of its highlights.

It has also stopped bid cities for the 2022 winter Olympics from attending the event, robbing it of another attraction.

"Do not try to impose upon the organizers of SportAccord events guidelines on how to distribute funds generated and earned by ourselves," Vizer said.

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"Do not interfere in the autonomy of the sport organizations."

Vizer also rejected the IOC's Agenda 2020, a set of reforms approved in December, to make the Games more attractive and relevant to fans, bid cities and sponsors.

"The Agenda 2020 hardly brings any real benefit to sport, to International federations, or athletes," he said.

The Agenda 2020 is the brainchild of Bach, who put the reforms in motion after being elected to his post in 2013.

"My impression is your opinion you have exclusively for you," German Bach, a lawyer by profession, said after the end of Vizer's speech.

"What we need altogether is credibility. This credibility we can only achieve if we have unity in our diversity," Bach said.

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

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