The Kuwaiti powerbroker playing a key role in FIFA’s presidential race has singled out two men as the leading candidates to take over soccer’s scandal-scarred governing body.
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“The worldwide Olympic Committee is demanded to prove the contrary (in order to justify the recent FIFA decision to bar Kuwait from global football events); we will ask them (the IOC) to do we when we meet in Kuwait”, the minister told reporters Sunday night. The IOC says the new sports law threatens the autonomy of the sports bodies and would mean Kuwait would no longer comply with the Olympic Charter. Sheikh Sabah said he did not want Kuwait to run down its Future Generations Fund. Including this and other assets, the sovereign wealth fund is estimated to be more than $500 billion in size.
If the suspension stands, Kuwaiti athletes will be allowed to participate in Rio but will do so as individuals under the Olympic flag.
The authority, blaming OCA, KOC and the local clubs supporting them, said Kuwait did not spare any effort to support sport and athletes.
Kuwaiti Sheik Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah speaks during an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, October 26, 2015 in Washington.
Kuwait was also banned in 2010 over a similar dispute, but was reinstated before the 2012 London Olympics.
Sheikh Ahmad said he couldn’t understand why Kuwait would now establish a law that goes back on the ruler’s pledge to the IOC.
This marks the second time in five years that Kuwait has been penalized for political interference.
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“The Olympic Movement in Kuwait has faced a number of issues to preserve its autonomy, in particular due to recently amended sports legislation in Kuwait”, the IOC added.
