(ATR) As corruption scandals rock the Olympic Movement’s two largest federations, ASOIF establishes two watchdogs to try and keep federations in line.
The ASOIF Council meeting in Lausanne on Tuesday approved the launch of governance and anti-doping task forces.
Both task forces stem from discussions at the IF Forum in Lausanne earlier this month that convened amid corruption and doping scandals enveloping FIFA and the IAAF.
"Our governance task force will make sure that words will be followed by concrete, transparent and measurable action," said ASOIF president Francesco Ricci Bitti, who led the council meeting.
"It will analyze the status quo, monitor progress and is expected to deliver a first report to our council at the next meeting in February."
Chaired by the ASOIF president, the task force will include legal and governance experts from ASOIF member federations.
World Archery chief Ugur Erdener, who heads the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission, will chair the anti-doping task force.
The new body will be in charge of conducting a study on the current anti-doping activities and related expenditure of the 28 Summer Olympic federations.
ASOIF hopes the results will deliver valuable input into ongoing discussions about the potential creation of an independent body for drug testing backed by IOC president Thomas Bach.
Also at this week’s ASOIF Council meeting, IOC sports director Kit McConnell updated members on Rio 2016 Olympic preparations, including feedback on the test events and venue delivery issues.
McConnell also spoke about the development of the IF Shared Data Project. Initiated by ASOIF, it’s the first of its kind in world sport. The sporting database will eventually contain historical and near-to-live results, athlete biographies and future calendar data with content validated at source by the IFs and Olympic Movement stakeholders.
The Council has also approved plans to create an ASOIF Award, which will honor personalities from IFs for outstanding services to the umbrella Summer Olympic body and its members. Further announcements will come at the next council meeting at the end of February.
At that meeting, discussions may take place about the ASOIF presidency. Ricci Bitti’s term expires at the end of this year but he could yet seek another term.
Written by Mark Bisson
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