IOC Executive Board Warns Diack, Reprimands Hayatou

(ATR) Lamine Diack of Senegal gets a "warning" and Issa Hayatou of Cameroon a "reprimand" over ethics violations related to FIFA's infamous ISL marketing scandal.

The decisions were taken Thursday in Lausanne by the Executive Board in accordance with recommendations of the IOC Ethics Commission.

"It's always sad if you have to discipline colleagues, who are the same time friends, but first we have to take care of the needs of the organization," said IOC President Jacques Rogge in a press conference following the EB's afternoon session.

In its decision, the Ethics Commission notes that both Diack and Hayatou "personally received" cash from ISL, the former marketing agency of world football's governing body.

Neither Diack, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, nor Hayatou, the president of the Confederation of African Football, were IOC members at the time they took the kickbacks in 1987.

According to the Ethics Commission, they were, however, "obliged to respect the fundamental principles of Olympism" as both were members of FIFA, a constituent of the Olympic Movement.

Both "caused damage to the reputation of the Olympic Movement" as the facts surfaced when they became IOC members, hence Thursday's decisions.

A warning is not a sanction but a reprimand is, according to Rogge.

"The difference is a matter for the Ethics Commission to decide," he said.

"It's not up to the International Olympic Committee Executive Board to try to make a ranking between the two decisions. They are two different decisions with two different [sets of] facts."

More details to follow...

Other EB Business

Rogge offered a recap of the rest of the EB’s work over the past two days.

He noted that the financial status of the IOC is "solid."

"There is nothing to be worried about" for any of the future Olympic Games, Rogge added.

Following up on the hot button issue of the week, a contentious succession plan for the Association of National Olympic Committees on the EB, Rogge wouldn’t say he wanted that post to become permanent.

"We continue to do that, and all of the entire IOC agrees with this tradition and habit," he said.

Mario Vazquez Rana, current ANOC president and representative to the EBm will have to resign at the end of 2012. He is also chairman of the Olympic Solidarity Commission. It was uncertain if he would continue to serve in that role following his retirement.

"After that I’ll consider what to do at a later stage" Rogge said.

With reporting in Lausanne from Ed Hula III.

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