How does the communication between the two most famous sports officials in the world work?
Apparently not that good.
At least if what Thomas Bach said on Thursday in Lausanne about his contact with FIFA is true.
Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that he only knew what the press could read about the plans of the International Football Association (FIFA), and in particular of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, regarding Infantino's idea of football World Cup every two years.
Is that conceivable?
Christoph Becker
Sports editor.
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Infantino, who has also been an IOC member since January 2020, and Bach have never spoken about the idea, which has been very clearly presented several times this year, to make the world happy with a future doubling of the football World Cup. "We had no discussions with the FIFA President or FIFA about this," said Bach on Thursday. “Everything we know about the plans, we know through the media. This also applies to the international federations and the continental federations of the national Olympic committees. So we have to rely on the media reports. ”It could be that the two-year World Cup rhythm collides with the games planned for 2028 in Los Angeles for the first time, said Bach. “Then we would have to consider what the consequences are. But now that's pure speculation, we don't have any real information. "
It's that easy to show the FIFA President a yellow card. Bach makes such easy points in front of his own audience. He has this so well under control that even those thanked for Bach's leadership who were not only warned by the IOC executive, but were first sent off. With a view to the 2028 Summer Games in California, three sports are left out for the time being: boxers, weightlifters and modern pentathletes must hope that the officials of their world associations will soon comply with the wishes of the IOC executive.
The demands on the boxing association AIBA and the International Weightlifting Federation IWF are more difficult to meet than the requirements of the pentathlon association UIPM. After the “Hau-right-drauf” scenes by the German pentathlete Annika Schleu, her horse Saint Boy and her trainer Kim Raisner in Tokyo, he should introduce an alternative to riding, make the sport more “accessible” and with more “universality and appeal for younger people ”. (Incidentally, attributes that the IOC ascribes to climbing, skateboarding and surfing, which are now set for California.)
According to Bach, boxing and weightlifting have a bigger problem than pentathletes without horses. Bach's entry into his press conference statement: “I'll start with our problem children.” And it's true: The weightlifters of the IMF, a world association for decades in which its leaders lived off corruption and doping, are still not able to get a new start off the ground. With formal complaints, the old guard prevented the election of the new presidium, which was planned for December 20 and 21. It is now hoped, said interim president Michael Irani, that the election “in the first semester of 2022” will take place. Follow the IOC's plan and be grateful that the IOC has confirmed the weightlifting participation in the 2024 Games.
The boxing problem children, who have been suspended since 2019, sounded even more servile.
“AIBA is grateful for the timetable for the future of the Olympics,” it said on the association's website in response to Bach.
The reform proposals, which were worked out by a group around the German lawyer Ulrich Haas, would be adopted on Sunday at an extraordinary congress.
Financial transparency, integrity, clean judges' decisions - what was not guaranteed for decades is now promised immediately.
High and holy.
The reactions are the opposite of the silence between Bach and Infantino.
The FIFA boss doesn't need the IOC so badly.
For boxers, weightlifters and pentathletes it is the umbilical cord of their own existence.
In 2023 the IOC will decide whether to let them go on.
Then a final decision on the Olympic approval will be made.