Bach: 'Corruption and Manipulation' in Federations Eroding Trust in Sport

(ATR) In an urgent appeal for sport’s credibility, sport must fight "a time of mistrust," says the IOC President.

Speaking on June 30 to a group of taekwondo academic specialists on the sidelines of the Taekwondo World Championships in Muju, South Korea, Thomas Bach declined to name federations but says "some sports" federations' "corruption and manipulation" is damaging sport’s credibility.

Perhaps the most well-known examples can be found in the governing bodies for athletics and football. For years, accusations of corruption and mis-management have dogged the federations, and the federations’ top executives.

"We have to address this skepticism and at the same time we have to put it in perspective of what's happening in society overall."

Sport’s diminishing trust, Bach said, can also be attributed to a society where people have begun to lose faith in institutions, governments, and, Bach said, each other. "The people don't trust anymore," he said.

To regain trust, Bach said sport must regain its credibility.

"We need this more than ever. When we see many research projects all over the world the trust is at its lowest level.

"Credibility is about the credibility of the sports organization and the credibility of the competition," Bach added. "You cannot separate the two."

Among the other ills plaguing sport are fears of increased use of performance-enhancing drugs and the looming specter of organized crime manipulating sporting events through illegal betting.

Bach’s statements come on the heels of the June 28 revelation that the FBI and Internal Revenue Service are investigating how the U.S. city of Eugene, Oregon won the rights to stage the 2021 athletics world championships. That decision was made largely in secret and caught the global sports world unawares when it was announced in 2015, with seemingly none of the traditional bidding protocols being followed.

Reported in Muju by Ed Hula III.