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FORTY-FOUR YEAR TENURE ENDS ABRUPTLY FOR SIT-TIGHT WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING PRESIDENT

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Tamás Aján has resigned as President of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), where he has held high office since 1976.

Ursula Papandrea, the American Acting President, now leads the sport’s governing body.

Aján, who was the IWF general secretary for 24 years, became President in 2000.

The 81-year-old Hungarian was accused of corruption in a German television documentary that was broadcast in early January.

He repeatedly denied the allegations, which concerned alleged financial malpractice 10 years ago, and corruption in anti-doping procedures.

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An IWF statement said: “The IWF Executive Board notes that an independent investigation by Professor Richard McLaren is currently ongoing, examining allegations made by ARD (the German TV station) and related issues.”

Papandrea said: “The IWF thanks Tamás Aján for more than four decades of service to weightlifting, and most notably for his work in recent years to ensure an anti-doping programme which meets the standards of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) is in place.

“We can now begin the work of determining a fresh path towards achieving the full potential of our sport.”

Aján’s behaviour in attempting to hold on to power had irked many members of the Executive Board, who met for many hours by teleconference today and were still in discussions going into the evening.

It is believed that a clear majority of the Board were in favour of expelling Aján, who avoided that fate by resigning.

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The 81-year-old Hungarian stood aside as President, originally for 90 days, in late January when the independent investigation began into claims made by ARD’s journalists – the same team that exposed state-sponsored doping in Russia.

That investigation is being led by the man who played such a significant role in the Russian doping scandal, the Canadian professor of law Richard McLaren.

The Board later extended the interim role of Papandrea from mid-April to mid-June, and Aján’s apparent refusal to accept being sidelined led to a prolonged discussion over his future by the Board.

He was accused by Papandrea, in a private email that was leaked to ARD last weekend, of making “insults and implicit threats” against her, including one occasion when he threatened to have her arrested in the IWF offices for bringing in members of McLaren’s investigative team.

Papandrea also accused Aján of taking part in conference calls with the IOC when he should not have done, obstructing access to IWF bank accounts, overseeing a bank transfer without Papandrea’s knowledge, conducting “business as usual” with the IWF Secretariat in Budapest when Papandrea should have been in command, and interfering in the timing and venue of Board meetings.

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“You, President Aján, have not stepped into the background of operations,” Papandrea wrote.

“I believe you are no longer suited to either represent or lead this organisation.”

Papandrea was “incredibly upset” that the private email, addressed to Aján and 19 other Board members, had been leaked.

“I hope the damage to our sport is reparable as my ultimate goal is to restore the reputation,” she told insidethegames.

That reputation has taken many knocks over the years, reaching a low point in June 2017 when Thomas Bach, the IOC President, said weightlifting must address its “massive doping problem” or face expulsion from the Olympic Games.

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Aján had been at the IWF during previous Olympic doping scandals, most notably in 1988 and 2000, but this one was more serious because it involved such high numbers of cheats.

The IOC stored samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games and retested them: at the time of Bach’s comments 49 weightlifters had come up positive, more than half of all the doping violations across all sports.

That number has since risen to 61, many of them medallists who have been disqualified, but in the period between Bach’s “strong signal” to weightlifting and the broadcast of the ARD documentary the sport had made huge advances.

Attila Adamfi, Aján’s son-in-law who is director general of the IWF – and whose position led to claims of nepotism in the Lord of the Lifters documentary – played the lead role in devising a new Olympic qualifying system that compelled athletes to undergo far more testing.

It was praised by the IOC and led to the removal, a year ago, of any threat to weightlifting’s Olympic status.

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Nine nations were suspended for a year for having three or more positives in those IOC retests, a new anti-doping policy came down harder on cheats, new commissions and panels were created to deliberate on cleaning up the sport, introducing new body weights categories, and punishing serial dopers, the IWF partnered up with the International Testing Agency (ITA) and Thailand, Egypt and Malaysia were banned from Tokyo 2020 for repeated transgressions.

It angered Aján and his IWF colleagues that the ARD programme made no mention of such reforms, and that many of the allegations in the documentary related to incidents from years ago.

But those alleged historical transgressions, which Aján has continued to deny, have come back to haunt him.

In the 14 weeks since the broadcast of the ARD programme, the weightlifting headlines on insidethegames have included “Aján moves aside as IWF President for 90 days”, “Aján resigns as honorary IOC member”, “Aján’s 44-year reign at IWF under threat as Executive Board members demand change”, “Exclusive: Angry Board members may move to formally suspend Aján as IWF President”, “Aján not allowed to resume IWF leadership in April after Board extends his absence” and “Aján faces expulsion from IWF as Board members are asked to vote on his future.”

Given the weight of opposition to him within his own Executive Board, his resignation was not a surprise to its members.

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In the IWF statement Aján said, “I offered the best of my life to our beloved sport.

“When health circumstances related to the pandemic allow, holding elections would enable a new generation to start work as soon as possible on ensuring a bright future for the sport we love.”

The prolonged Executive Board meeting continued, after accepting Aján’s resignation.

The Olympic Qualifying system and IWF governance matters were up for discussion.

“In these difficult and uncertain times, the IWF is determined to provide clarity over qualifying for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics to weightlifters everywhere,” said Papandrea.

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“Our athletes are our first priority and they are currently facing significant challenges and disruption.

“We therefore want to ease the burden on them and ensure that we are providing them with further details about how we will deliver a safe and fair qualification process.”

-insidethegames

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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Governing Bodies

Sanusi set for record-extending tenure as Nigeria’s football politicians assemble in Asaba

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Speculations gathered ahead of the 2024 Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Football Federation holding in Asaba on Friday have it that tenure elongation for the General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, is a major item on the agenda.

Neither formal confirmation nor denial has been issued since one of the leading newspapers in Nigeria, ThisDay dropped the hint.  

 The agenda of the meeting is also not made public. Dr, Sanusi is the longest-serving General Secretary in history having been in office from 30 March 2015 making 3,476 days or nine years six months and four days.

It easily drowned that of his closest rival in tenure – Sani Toro whose tenure from 21 December 1993 to 3 May  1999 is merely 2020 days or five years, six months and 12 days.

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 Thus, no one had enjoyed a longer period in office than the incumbent, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi.  It is speculated that the tenure will be extended as NFF has reported that all delegates have arrived in the Delta State capital by Thursday evening.

The NFF Annual General Assembly, the first of which took place 90 years ago in Lagos on 19 February 1934, is the biggest assemblage of football administrators and stakeholders in the country.

In one such meeting on 24 July 2008 in Makurdi, the football body changed its name from NFA to NFF.

This year, according to a press release by the NFF, the plenary will have in attendance, the chairmen and secretaries of football associations in the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory, chairmen and secretaries of the Nigeria Premier Football League, Nigeria National League, Nigeria Women Football League and the Nationwide League One, as well as chairmen and secretaries of the referees’ association, players’ union and coaches’ association. This group of 88 makes up the Congress.

 They are joined by the members of the NFF Executive Committee and the management team as well as former NFF Presidents and General Secretaries.

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The Minister of Sports Development, John Owan Enoh, is announced as the special guest. Nigeria’s Member of the FIFA Council, Amaju Melvin Pinnick is also expected as well as a representative of the West African Football Union (WAFU B).

The Governor of Delta State, Sheriff Francis Oborevwori will declare the General Assembly open. 

Venue is the Unity Hall of the Delta State Government House.

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Governing Bodies

Like in Egypt, former Nigerian Olympian, Sadiq Abdulahi wants Tinubu to declare ‘State of Emergency’ in Sports

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Former Nigerian tennis player and Olympian, Prof. Sadiq Abdulahi has called for drastic action to arrest the decline of Nigeria in global sporting events.

  The former tennis player who is now a professor in the United States declared that the “failure to win a medal at the regular 2024 Paris Olympics, the few medals at the Paris Paralympic and the fallout at the National Youth Sports Festival has exposed the deep problems facing the sport’s sector.”

  He wants Nigeria to have the same approach that the Egyptian president has taken while reacting to the country’s performance at the Paris 2024 Olypics.

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered  a comprehensive evaluation of sports federations that  participated at the Paris Olympic Games, following a mission report submitted by the country’s sports minister.

 According to Prof. Abdulahi, the National Sports Federations charged with the preparation of elite athletes have failed to do their job despite the cry for funding from the government.

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“Federal Government cannot adequately fund all the Olympics sports. It is impossible.

“By declaring a state of emergency, new people, new approaches and new funding models will be identified. More importantly, the Federal Government will redefine grassroots sports development.

“We will lay sustainable foundation for sports development.”

Continuing, he called for the return of the National Sports Commission (NSC) which enabling decree was abolished through Decree No. 7 of 1991, but came back through presidential proclamation under Sani Abacha before it was abolished again.

 The original NSC was established in 1964 as National Sports Council before the promulgation of Decree 34 of 1971 which legalised it as  the apex Federal Government agency to control, regulate and organize sports.

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  “The FG may now bring back the National Sports Commission or the National Sports Authority. Our emerging national economy with the full participation of the private sector can support this new beginning. I hope this helps.” 

RELATED STORY: President Al-Sisi orders sports system overhaul

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Governing Bodies

CAF gives Yoruba and Arabic interpretations of  ‘OLA’ the Super Cup 2024 Official Match Ball

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The Confédération African of Football, CAF, has given the linguistics interpretation of OLA, the confederation’s official match balls produced by Puma which has also unveiled a special edition for the Super Cup duel holding on Friday in Saudi Arabia.

According to CAF, OLA, symbolizing the dynamic and energetic nature of African football, means “wealth,” “honour,” and “respect” in Yoruba and “rise” and “success” in Arabic.

The OLA ball stands out with its vibrant design and cultural significance. “OLA” 

The ball is a mix of black and gold, representing power and sophistication. The ball will be the centrepiece of the eagerly-awaited match between the two giants of African football.

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