‘IOC received inaccurate info on Kuwait sports situation’ – FIFA ban Thai soccer chief, Hayatou delays arrival

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GENEVA, Oct 12, (Agencies): Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah said Monday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) received inaccurate information on the Kuwaiti sports situation, but “we have rectified the image.” Speaking to KUNA following his meeting with IOC members, the minister said he clarified to the IOC in full transparency that Kuwaiti sports laws are compatible with the Olympic Charter and relevant international regulations.

He stressed sovereignty and full respect by the State of Kuwait for local sports laws, and international regulations and criteria, pointing to His Highness the Amir’s vow to adopt Law No. 26/2012 related to sports activities in the country. “There are private sports bodies that are unwilling to apply this vow and want to create a state of imbalance and chaos which we categorically reject,” he said.

He added that the Kuwaiti delegation affirmed to the IOC that the State of Kuwait enjoys sovereignty and respect, and “cannot accept any warning from any party without unequivocal evidence or legal articles.” The minister reaffirmed Kuwait’s rejection against any framework, and welcomed receiving the so-called “nine points” which are believed to contradict the Olympic Charter. “We will refute this so clearly. We reaffirm our full respect for the IOC. Kuwait’s response will be in harmony with the constitution and relevant international laws and regulations.” Sheikh Salman added that the Kuwaiti delegation set out a clear-cut legal and technical points that regulate the Kuwaiti sports movement, and underlined the independence of sports movement and non-interference by the government in local sports activities.

He also emphasized Kuwait’s keenness on caring for young people and encouraging sports clubs through the State’s unlimited financial support. The minister thanked Kuwaiti Ambassador to Switzerland Bader Al-Tunaib for his great efforts and help to the Kuwaiti delegation.

He also appreciated the delegation members, mainly Chairman and member of the National Assembly’s Youth and Sports Committee Abdullah Mayouf and Dr Abdullah Al-Turaiji respectively, and Sheikh Ahmad Mansour Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Board Chairman and Director General of the Public Authority for Youth and Sport (PAYS), for their technical and administrative efforts to clarify the State of Kuwait’s position on the sports movement in the country.

FIFA’s ethics watchdog on Monday banned Thai football chief Worawi Makudi for 90 days as acting president Issa Hayatou delayed his arrival at football’s corruption-hit ruling body by 24 hours. The ethics committee said it had moved to sideline Worawi “on the grounds that a breach of the Code of Ethics appears to have been committed and a decision on the main issue may not be taken early enough.”

Worawi was a FIFA executive committee member for 18 years until May and has faced multiple allegations of wrongdoing. He was found guilty in July by a Thai court of forgery in his reelection as head of the Football Association of Thailand.

Monday’s ban follows matching suspensions handed out to beleaguered outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter and European football boss Michel Platini last Thursday. Hayatou had been set to turn up at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters to assume command on Tuesday, but the 69-year-old African football boss’s arrival is “now expected on Wednesday”, a FIFA press spokesperson told AFP.

He was appointed caretaker boss of FIFA in his capacity as its oldest serving vice-president. Hayatou was in his native Cameroon at the weekend, and has since moved on to the Gabon capital Libreville to take charge of a Confederation of African Football meeting.

Blatter was relieved of his duties by FIFA’s ethics committee as Swiss prosecutors investigate him for criminal mismanagement. The 79-year-old, who was due to stand aside from the organisation he has run since 1998 in February, is appealing his suspension. On Sunday, a defiant Blatter told Swiss weekly Schweizer am Sonntag: “I’m a fighter. They can destroy me, but they can’t destroy my life’s work.”

Platini, the UEFA president and a front runner to succeed Blatter, is also appealing his ban. The former French football legend has denied any wrongdoing in accepting a $2million payment from FIFA in 2011 for consulting work he undertook years earlier and called the ban “farcical.”

Meanwhile, the lack of a written contract and a delay collecting payment led to the 90-day suspensions for Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, a person familiar with the FIFA ethics case told The Associated Press on Monday.

Blatter and Platini were handed 90-day bans last week after failing to provide written evidence to justify a payment of 2 million Swiss francs (about $2 million) that Platini received from FIFA in 2011 — nine years after the job was completed, according to the person. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Both Blatter, the FIFA president, and Platini, his counterpart at UEFA, face longer bans if the FIFA ethics committee proves its case to ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. The full verdicts are expected before the 90-day suspensions end.

Both deny wrongdoing and are appealing against their suspensions. The ethics case was triggered by Blatter and Platini becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation in Switzerland over the same payment. Blatter was questioned as a suspect and Platini is being investigated by the Swiss attorney general as something between a witness and a suspect.

The payment relates to the time when Platini worked for Blatter as an adviser from 1998 until 2002, when the former France captain joined the FIFA executive committee.

Contractually, Platini was to be paid 300,000 Swiss francs per year for his job. He claims an additional 500,000 Swiss francs per year was to be deferred. The Frenchman received 1.05 million Swiss francs for 3-1/2 years of work, the person said, reiterating details first published by The Guardian newspaper on Monday.

According to the person, there was only a verbal agreement on the additional 500,000 Swiss francs per year — the amount eventually paid in 2011. Under Swiss law, Platini should have called in the debt within five years.

Platini, who was also a FIFA vice president under Blatter until he was suspended on Thursday, said two weeks ago that he was not paid “the totality of my salary because of FIFA’s financial situation at that time.”

A statement from the ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber, which is headed by Eckert, said Monday that it interviewed Platini for more than five hours on Oct 1. Eckert “did not see a need for a second hearing” before imposing the provisional suspension, the statement added.

UEFA has rebuffed requests by the AP to ask Platini to provide a contract that shows FIFA owed him 2 million Swiss francs. Some soccer nations have also publicly questioned Platini’s limited public explanation.

UEFA said last week that Platini feels “he has given satisfactory explanations to the authorities that are dealing with this case.” The provisional ban looks set to derail Platini’s hopes of standing in the FIFA presidential election, which is scheduled for Feb 26. But the FIFA executive committee could decide to postpone the ballot when it meets on Oct 20.

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