Governing Bodies
CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK: OLYMPICS HAVE A $1.2 BILLION RESERVE FUND FOR CANCELLED GAMES
As the International Olympic Committee looks ahead to the Summer Games with trepidation, it does have something that could cushion the blow in case of cancellation: a US$897 million (S$1.2 billion) reserve fund to help finance global sports.
It’s an improbable scenario, but one drawing more consideration at the coronavirus continues to spread around the world. A number of global sporting events and Olympic qualifiers have been cancelled, and many are now wondering how the outbreak might effect the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, scheduled to start at the end of July.
The fund was established as a backstop for international sports federations that rely on the IOC to balance their budgets, said Mr Dick Pound, the organisation’s longest-serving member. That’s not soccer or basketball, but smaller sports like judo, volleyball and water polo.
Part of the IOC’s broader risk management strategy, the fund was established in 2001 with US$105 million. It had grown to US$422 million by 2008.
“It’s a significant number, and would keep all the balls in the air if we actually missed a games,” Mr Pound said in an interview.
CASES SURGE
Coronavirus cases have surged to more than 80,000 worldwide, with new hot spots in Italy, South Korea and Iran in addition to the epicentre in China.
The World Health Organisation has held off on declaring a global pandemic, but stock prices have plunged and bond yields have soared as investors worry about a further spread.
For now, the Olympic movement is moving forward with its plans for Tokyo. The US Olympic & Paralympic Committee has suggested a limit on all non-essential travel to China, Hong Kong and Singapore, but has informed its teams to continue training and preparing as planned.
On Tuesday, the committee sent an updated e-mail to its teams advising them on the latest virus fallout, including event cancellations in both Italy and Iran and strict travel
We don’t yet know the full impact of the new developments on Team USA athletes and staff,” the committee said in the memo.
Japanese politicians have also said there are no plans to move or cancel the games.
“The preparations for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 continue as planned,” the IOC said in a statement.
“Countermeasures against infectious diseases constitute an important part of Tokyo 2020’s plans to host a safe and secure games.”
The committee said it has full confidence that the authorities, “in particular in Japan and China, will take all the necessary measures to address the situation.”
The IOC made US$5.7 billion in its last four-year Olympic cycle, which included the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Of that total, 73 per cent came from broadcast rights and 18 per cent from top-level sponsors.
That money goes in part toward mounting the Olympic Games, and in part to national and international governing bodies to help fund athletes around the world.
For the Summer Games in Rio, for example, the IOC distributed US$540 million to international federations and another US$540 million to national Olympic committees.
The reserve fund is just part of the IOC’s risk management stores. The organisation also has US$647 million in assets set aside from TV money, in case it needs to refund parts of those contracts; US$261 million to cover deficits in its main sponsorship programme; and US$447 million to help cover distribution to national Olympic bodies.
Mr Pound, who has been an IOC member since 1978 but isn’t involved in day-to-day management, said the organisation isn’t in any immediate rush to make a decision on the games.
He said late May, two months out from the opening ceremony, will likely be the point at which the entire Olympic movement needs to know if the games will be cancelled or postponed.
“This is the most dangerous threat to the Olympics other than a state of actual war,” Mr Pound said. “This is the new war scenario.”
Kirsty Coventry became the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the most powerful person in sport, on Monday in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.
The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body, and at 41, the youngest since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.
Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who, like her, is an Olympic champion — he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.
Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands” and Coventry would bring “conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective” to the role.
Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.
Aside from her parents, who were present at the ceremony in Lausanne, there is her husband Tyrone Seward, who was effectively her campaign manager, and two daughters, six-year-old Ella, who Bach addresses as “princess”, and Lily, just seven months old.
“Ella saw this spider web in the garden and I pointed out how it is made, and how strong and resilient it is to bad weather and little critters,” said Coventry, who takes over officially at midnight Swiss time Monday (2200 GMT).
“But if one little bit breaks it becomes weaker. That spider web is our movement, it is complex, beautiful and strong but it only works if we remain together and united.”
‘Pure passion’
Coventry said she could not believe how her life had evolved since she first dreamt of Olympic glory in 1992.
“How lucky are we creating a platform for generations to come to reach their dreams,” she said to a packed audience in a marquee in the Olympic House garden, which comprised IOC members, including those she defeated, and dignitaries.
“It is amazing and incredible, indeed I cannot believe that from my dream in 1992 of going to an Olympic Games and winning a medal I would be standing here with you to make dreams for more young children round the world.”
Coventry, who served in the Zimbabwean government as sports and arts Minister from 2019 to this year, said the Olympic movement was much more than a “multi-sport event platform.”
“We (IOC members) are guardians of this movement, which is also about inspiring and changing lives and bringing hope,” she said.
“These things are not to be taken lightly and I will be working with each and every one of you to continue to change lives and be a beacon of hope in a divided world.
“I am really honoured to walk this journey with you.”
Bach, who during his tenure had to grapple with Russian doping and their invasions of the Crimea and Ukraine as well as the Covid pandemic, said he was standing down filled with “gratitude, joy and confidence” in his successor.
“With her election it sends out a powerful message, that the IOC continues to evolve,” said the 71-year-old German, who was named honorary lifetime president in Greece in March.
“It has its first female and African to hold this position, and the youngest president since Pierre de Coubertin. She represents the truly global and youthful spirit of our community.”
Bach, who choked back tears at one point during his valedictory speech, was praised to the rafters by Coventry, who was widely seen as his preferred candidate of the seven vying for his post.
After a warm embrace, she credited him with teaching her to “listen to people and to respect them,” and praised him for leading the movement with “pure passion and purpose.”
“You have kept us united through the most turbulent times.
“You left us with many legacies and hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart for leading us with passion and never wavering from our values.”
-AFP
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Former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took over the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach in a ceremony on Monday with the 2028 Los Angeles Games already threatening to fill her in-tray to overflowing.
Coventry, who starts her eight-year spell officially on Tuesday as the most powerful sports administrator in the world, became the first woman and first African to be elected head of the Olympic ruling body in March.
Much of the discussion during campaigning focused on the IOC’s need for change in its marketing strategies with several top Olympic sponsors having left in the past 12 months.
However, with Los Angeles hit by protests against immigration raids, and relations tense between state and city officials, and the U.S. government, the 2028 Games have become the major talking point in the movement that would ordinarily be focusing on next year’s Milano-Cortina Winter Games.
Coventry has long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a leading swimmer at Auburn University in Alabama. That will prove useful ahead of LA 2028, and she has said she will seek to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the Games.
Coventry will also need to find time to help secure the long-term finances of the movement. The IOC, which generates billions of dollars in revenues each year in sponsorship and broadcasting deals for the Olympics, has secured $7.3 billion for 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-2032. More contracts are expected for both periods.
COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand commercial opportunities for sponsors at the Olympics with the organisation’s finances in a robust state and the privately-funded LA Olympics a good place to start.
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, beating six other candidates, making history for the African continent, with the IOC having been ruled for 131 years by European or North American men.
Her background and being the first female president will be assets in a diverse IOC membership and the international makeup of Olympic stakeholders.
On Monday she was handed the golden key to the IOC by Bach, who was the organisation’s president for 12 years.
“I am really honoured I get to walk this journey with you. I cannot wait for anything that lies ahead,” Coventry said in her address to IOC members and other Olympic stakeholders.
“I know I have the best team to support me and our movement over the next eight years.”
Coventry will hold a two-day workshop this week to get feedback from members on key IOC issues.
“Working together and consistently finding ways to strengthen and keep united our movement that will ensure that we wake up daily… to continue to inspire,” she said.
A seven-time Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and in Beijing four years later.
“With her election, you have also sent a powerful message to the world: the IOC continues to evolve,” Bach said in his speech. “With Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic movement will be in the best of hands.”
-Reuters
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Penalties scored when a player accidentally touches the ball twice must be retaken, world soccer’s lawmaking body IFAB has said after Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had his spot kick disallowed in a Champions League last-16 match.
During a tense shootout with Real Madrid in March, Argentine forward Alvarez slipped and the VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right.
Although Alvarez converted the penalty, the goal was chalked off and Atletico went on to lose the shootout and were eliminated from the Champions League.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said the correct decision was made under the current laws but IFAB (International Football Association Board) has said that in such cases the penalty must be retaken.
Atletico Madrid v Real Valladolid – Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – April 14, 2025 Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo
“(When) the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick: if the kick is successful, it is retaken,” IFAB said in a circular.
“If the kick is unsuccessful, an indirect free kick is awarded (unless the referee plays advantage when it clearly benefits the defending team). In the case of penalties (penalty shootout), the kick is recorded as missed.”
The decision to disallow Alvarez’s penalty left Atletico boss Diego Simeone livid and the club’s fans outraged.
IFAB added that if the penalty taker deliberately kicks the ball with both feet or deliberately touches it a second time, an indirect free kick is awarded or, in the case of shootouts, it is recorded as missed.
The new procedures are effective for competitions starting on or after July 1, but IFAB said it may be used in competitions that start this month.
-Reuters
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