Ghana on IOC’s agenda at London meeting

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will be meeting in London Tuesday April 5, 2011 to discuss a couple of issues on world Olympics.

The Associated Press (AP) reports today April, 4, 2011 that among issues to be discussed by the Board is to get an update on the suspension of the Ghana national Olympic committee. The IOC will also receive an update of the Kuwait Olympic committee’s suspension.

“On other matters, the IOC will receive progress reports from organizers of the London, Sochi and Rio de Janeiro Games and get an update on the suspension of the Kuwait and Ghana national Olympic committees”, the report said citing an IOC official on condition of anonymity because an announcement hasn’t been made yet.

Ghana was suspended from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following a decision taken by its Executive Board on Thursday January 13, 2011, an official statement copied to ghanabusinessnews.com from the media relations department of the IOC said.

“The Olympic Charter has forced the IOC Executive Board to suspended the NOC of Ghana in order to protect the Olympic Movement in Ghana (pursuant to the applicable rules of the Olympic Charter, in particular Rule 28.9), with all consequences provided for in the Olympic Charter”, the statement said.

According to the statement the IOC has deployed every possible effort in order to help resolve the situation that the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ghana has been facing for 18 months and find a long-term solution with all parties concerned.

Giving the reason for the suspension, the IOC said the obvious lack of cooperation of the government authorities in Ghana and lack of respect of the Ghana public authorities’ written commitment to take all necessary actions to revise the sports legislation in Ghana before the end of 2010 in a sense that would allow the NOC and the Olympic Movement in Ghana to operate in full autonomy.

Ghana’s Ministry of Youth and Sports recently presented to Parliament a new Legislative Instrument (LI) to replace the old LI 1088 based on the Sports Law SMDC 54 in consonance with the statutes of the International Federations (IF) and in line with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) charter.

The new LI mandates democratic elections onto all National Sports Associations in line with their respective International Federations (IF) and by extension the IOC Charter while ensuring autonomy for sports associations in the country.

By Ekow Quandzie