Governing Bodies
ORIGINAL 125-YEAR OLD OLYMPIC GAMES DOCUMENTS SOLD FOR $8.8 MILLION AT AUCTION
BY DUNCAN MACKAY.
The manifesto which led to the revival of the Olympic Games more than 120 years ago has sold for a record $8,806,500 (£6,764,543/€7,916,191) at an auction in New York City.
The historic artifact was expected to sell for between $700,000 (£535,000/€630,000) and $1 million (£770,000/€900,000), but ended up in the hands of a bidder for over eight times the estimate.
According to Sotheby’s which hosted the auction, it is the highest price ever paid for an item of piece of sports memorabilia, breaking the previous record set by a Babe Ruth New York Yankees baseball jersey that sold for $5.4 million (£4.1 million/€4.8 million) earlier this year.
The previous record at auction for a piece of Olympic memorabilia was the $1,466,574 (£1,132,239/€1,324,488) that a buyer paid for one of Jesse Owens’ four gold medals from Berlin 1936.
The 14-page document dates back to 1892 and was written by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The price skyrocketed as those present at the auction in New York participated in a lengthy 12-minute bidding war.
Sotheby’s has not announced who the bidders were or who eventually won the battle for the documents.
The 5,000 words hand-written document highlights why Coubertin wanted to bring the Ancient Greek tradition of Olympic competition back during an address he gave at the Sorbonne University in Paris two years before the formation of the IOC in 1894.
He outlined how he believed the Games could be a way to provide peaceful competition between countries.
“It is clear that the telegraph, railways, the telephone, the passionate research in science, congresses and exhibitions have done more for peace than any treaty or diplomatic convention,” Coubertin wrote in the manifesto.
“Well, I hope that athletics will do even more.
“Those who have seen 30,000 people running through the rain to attend a football match will not think that I am exaggerating.
“Let us export rowers, runners and fencers; this is the free trade of the future, and the day that it is introduced into the everyday existence of old Europe, the cause of peace will receive new and powerful support,” he wrote in the document.
“That is enough to encourage me to think now about the second part of my programme.
“I hope that you will help me as you have helped me thus far and that, with you, I shall be able to continue and realize, on a basis appropriate to the conditions of modern life, this grandiose and beneficent work: the re-establishment of the Olympic Games.”
The unique piece of history went missing for quite some time between the two World Wars.
Frenchman Marquis d’Amat went searching for it in the 1990s and eventually located it from a collector in Switzerland.
The sale set a personal record for the auctioneer, too, who has never hammered numbers quite this high in his 30-plus years of book and manuscript sales.
“It was a personal honor to serve as today’s auctioneer, as this marks my highest price on the rostrum in more than three decades at Sotheby’s,” Selby Kiffer, senior specialist in Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts Department, said.
-insidethegames
Astute sports administrator, Bukola Olapade has been appointed as the Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC). He becomes the second official of the recently revived NSC.
The appointment is one of those announced on Thursday by the Presidency in a statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
The other appointments made are that of Dr. Abisoye Fagade as the Director-General of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun as the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement. The other non-director appointment announced is that of Daniel Bwala as Special Adviser, Media and Public Communications at the State House.
Olopade, the Director General of the NSC is also the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the National Sports Festival holding in his home state, Ogun State in January 2025.
He served as a two-term commissioner of youth and sports in Ogun State.
It is almost certain that South Africa’s Patrice Motsepe will return for a second term as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
He is the only candidate as of the close of nomination on Tuesday, 12 November, confirming that Motsepe will run unopposed.
Motsepe took over from Madagascar’s Ahmed in March 2021 and now looks set to continue leading African football’s governing body after negotiations reportedly cleared the path for his re-election.
Alongside the CAF presidency vote, elections will also decide the new members of the CAF Executive Committee and Africa’s representatives on the FIFA Council.
Nigeria’s Amaju Pinnick and Morocco’s Fouzi Lekjaa, are serving members of the FIFA Council and hope to retain their seats.
Lekjaa is also the President of the Royal Moroccan Football Association (FRMF).
Other outgoing members include Egypt’s Hany Aboureda, Mali’s Mamadou Toure, Benin’s Martin Tchakos, and Sierra Leone’s Aisha Johansen.
The elections will be held on March 12 in Cairo, Egypt during CAF’s General Assembly.
Patrice Motsepe is a South African billionaire and businessman who made his fortune in mining.
He founded African Rainbow Minerals, a big mining company, and was the first Black African to join the Forbes billionaire list.
In 2021, he took on a major role in African football by becoming the CAF president.
South African Football Association (SAFA) President Danny Jordaan was arrested on Wednesday over allegations he used the organisation’s money for his own purposes, according to local media reports.
Jordaan, who was a leading figure in bringing the 2010 World Cup to South Africa, had tried to interdict his imminent arrest on Tuesday, but the Johannesburg High Court is only scheduled to hear his submission on Thursday.
The arrest stems from a raid by police on the SAFA offices in March, after which police spokesperson Katlego Mogale said the allegations are that “between 2014 and 2018, the president of SAFA used the organisation’s resources for his personal gain, including hiring a private security company for his personal protection and a public relations company, without authorisation from the SAFA board.”
Jordaan, 73, and his reported co-accused, SAFA chief financial officer Gronie Hluyo and businessman Trevor Neethling, are due to appear in court later on Wednesday.
Neither Jordaan nor SAFA responded to a request for comment from Reuters, but in his affidavit to court seeking to block his arrest, he denies any wrongdoing.
-Reuters
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