SLAM! Sports
Olympic Scandal
COLUMNS
REVIEW
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
IOC eyes reform commission, new proposal on sites
LONDON (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee is backing off a plan to strip rank-and-file members of voting for Olympic cities.IOC leaders told The Associated Press on Friday that a reform commission will be proposed at the special general assembly March 17-18 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The panel will consider ways of changing the structure and operations of the IOC, setting the stage for what could be the biggest changes in the body's 105 years.
"The idea is to have a fresh look at the way the IOC functions," executive board member Jacques Rogge said Friday.
Rogge also confirmed the executive board was changing plans for the selection of the 2006 Winter Games site, which had been criticized by a large percentage of members.
Originally, the board wanted a small group to pick the winner. But after fierce opposition from the membership, the board now would propose that the general assembly select the winner under tight controls after the smaller group pared the six-city field to two finalists, Rogge said.
The IOC has been under tremendous pressure, from within and without, to enact reforms in the wake of the Salt Lake City corruption scandal -- the biggest crisis in Olympic history.
Rogge said the internal investigation into the final group of 19 members implicated in the scandal won't be concluded until sometime next week.
The findings had been expected to be announced by the end of this week, but Rogge -- a member of the six-man hoc inquiry commission -- said the panel's report was still being finalized.
"It's a long report, a very substantial report with a lot of information," he said in a telephone interview from Belgium. "I personally don't expect any news before the beginning or middle of next week. The end of next week is also possible."
The panel can recommend expulsions, exonerations or warnings.
So fa, nine members have resigned or been ousted following allegations they received cash payments or other improper inducements during Salt Lake's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
The expulsions will go to the full IOC session, where a two-thirds vote is required for ratification.
The watershed meeting also will appoint an ethics committee to police a new code-of-conduct for IOC members, and Rogge said outside members would be represented on both the ethics committee and the reform panel.
While specific reform proposals aren't expected to be discussed at the March assembly, officials said the IOC is already studying fundamental structural changes.
Possible reforms include altering the way IOC members are selected. Traditionally, members are hand picked by the IOC president and appointed to virtual life terms.
A U.S. ethics panel, headed by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, recommended this week that IOC members be elected by national Olympic committees and other sports bodies and subjected to term limits.
The Mitchell panel also recommended the IOC open its books to outside audits and release the financial figures to the public at least once a year.
Whatever changes the reform commission recommends, the final decisions will be up to the full IOC, Rogge said.
Craig Reedie, an IOC member from Britain, said fundamental reforms were paramount in the wake of the scandals.
"Having been caught with your pants down, changes seem inevitable," he said. "The more secret, elitist and private you make the organization, the more suspicion you create in people's minds."
IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and his executive board proposed in January new bidding and selection procedures for the 2006 games, including a ban on member visits to the six European candidate cities.
But members rebelled against the proposal to have a 15-member body select the host city. Many members, whose primary duty is choosing host cities, protested that the entire assembly was being branded corrupt.
Rogge said he and the majority of the executive board now support a new proposal. While the ban on visits would remain in place, the 15-member panel would choose two finalists and let the entire membership select the winner.
Rogge said the process should take place behind closed doors on the same day and in the same building, with bid city officials barred from contact with the selectors.
"It would be like the selection of a pope: you lock up all the cardinals, no one comes in or out, and you wait for the white smoke to come out," he said.
Rogge said the possibility of corruption is reduced by having more, rather than fewer, people involved.
"If you only have a small number deciding, there is far more possibility that the candidate cities could try and influence them very heavily," he said.
Rogge also said a small electoral panel lacks the universality and geographical representation of the general assembly.
The 2006 site is scheduled to be chosen at the IOC session in Seoul, South Korea, in June. The candidates are Helsinki, Finland; Klagenfurt, Austria; Sion, Switzerland; Turin, Italy; Poprad-Tatry, Slovakia; and Zakopane, Poland.