IOC's Thomas Bach on Qatar criticism: "It's not about money"

Anoc World Beach Games is organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees, which is the IOC's various national Olympic federations. The IOC is behind the organization, which last week organized the first edition of the World Beach Games, which included sports such as beach football, beach handball and beach tennis.

Just as when the Athletics World Cup was recently held in Qatar, and around the World Cup to be played there in 2022, the choice of Qatar as the organizer has been criticized, due to, among other things, the lack of human rights that exist in the country.

When the ANOC General Assembly met today, IOC's Thomas Bach spoke a bit about the criticism, defending the choice of Qatar as the organizer, and denying that their choice was about money.

- The Olympics is not about maximizing revenue. The Olympics are about fulfilling our mission. And that is to unite the world through sports. If the Olympics were about making money, then we would not have had 206 member countries, and then we would not have had athletes within 33 sports, he said, according to the IOC's Twitter account.

Bach also felt that more respect was needed for the governments of different countries.

- Political neutrality must be respected. We all live in a society of diversity where our neighbors may have a different opinion than you yourself. We must concentrate on the unifying power of sport, and focus on what unites us and not what divides us, he said.