The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has asked the former interim president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), India’s Randhir Singh, to run the organization while it reviews last month’s election of Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
Last week, the IOC issued a three-year ban to Sheikh Talal’s brother, former OCA president Sheikh Ahmad, for traveling to Bangkok for the election despite being warned against it. His presence in the city when the election took place was “interpreted as interference” by the IOC’s ethics commission.
Sheikh Ahmad has been self-suspended since 2018, when he was charged (and later convicted of) forgery by a Swiss court related to domestic political rivalries back home in Kuwait. His dad founded the OCA in 1981. Sheikh Ahmad is a former OPEC secretary general and recently elected minister of defense in Kuwait.
Sheikh Talal ended up winning the OCA election last month, 24 votes to 20, over World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam, a fellow Kuwaiti. But the IOC says it is no longer recognizing that result pending a “full assessment of the potential non-respect of the OCA’s elections process.”
“Considering the evidence gathered by the IOC and the impact on the OCA’s elections of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah’s behaviour, it appears from the exchange of emails between the OCA’s Ethics Committee and the IOC [Chief Ethics Officer] that there is a need for a full assessment of the potential non-respect of the OCA’s elections process,” the IOC’s ethics commission wrote in a letter to Singh on Sunday that was seen by Reuters. “Following the outcome of the IOC investigation, we will work with you to implement the next steps of a roadmap to ensure the continued functioning of the OCA according to the basic principles of good governance.”
Meanwhile, Sheikh Talal is moving full steam ahead, organizing an Extraordinary General Assembly for August 15, a little more than a month before the Asian Games are set to begin in Hangzhou, China.
Singh is a former Olympian in skeet shooting who had been the acting leader of the OCA from 2021 until last month.
After his OCA defeat, Al-Musallam was re-elected to a new eight-year term as World Aquatics president last month. He also has ties to Sheikh Ahmad as his longtime aide.