(ATR) Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah urges the interim leaders of the Kuwait Olympic Committee and Kuwait Football Association to invest more effort into developing sports programs in the country.
The Emir seized control of the two sports organizations on Aug. 28 using Kuwaiti police to escort the former leaders out of office. Around the Rings is told the sports executives passively resisted the removal and no injuries have been reported thus far.
Both organizations were dissolved on Aug. 25 by the Kuwait Public Authority of Sports (PAS) for violating the new Kuwait sports laws, citing "financial irregularities" and "countless violations". These new sports laws led to the International Olympic Committee and FIFA suspending Kuwait’s sports federations in October 2015 for violating its positions on sports autonomy.
Sheikh Sabah hosted PAS director general Sheikh Ahmad Mansour Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah along with interim NOC leader Sheikh Fahad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah and interim KFA chief Fawaz Al-Hasawi at the Bayan Palace Monday afternoon.
He told the new leaders to use all resources available to helping young athletes achieve "whatever they aspire to", according to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
"The Kuwaiti flag will again flutter on the world’s sports arenas," the Emir told KUNA, alluding to the Olympic flag being flown when Fehaid Al Deehani of Kuwait won gold in trap shooting at Rio 2016 as a result of the country’s suspension.
The leader of the dissolved sports bodies Sheikh Talal Al Fahad says the decision represents a crisis of community and national values.
"It is unfortunate that such a mentality is trying to exploit government positions to manage sport by force," says Sheikh Talal.
"It was not a surprising decision, although, as a national sports sector, we counted on the wise people in the government to stop this bleeding of diversity values, the values of senior citizenship, money, time and human dignity, since the minister monopolized the authority of sports decision."
Written by Kevin Nutley
Forgeneral comments or questions, click here.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about theOlympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribersonly.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
