Sir Craig Reedie, the former vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, has criticised the IOC’s upcoming presidential election for a lack of transparency.
The IOC’s membership will vote for one of seven candidates to succeed Thomas Bach as president in a secret vote in Greece on Thursday, and in doing so they will anoint one of the most powerful figures in global sport. The winning candidate will win an eight-year term with a potential four-year renewal.
Lord Coe, the head of World Athletics, is among the frontrunners for the presidency along with Juan Antonio Samaranch, whose father was the seventh IOC president, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, and Zimbabwe sports minister and decorated Olympic swimmer Kirsty Coventry.
The election has been kept carefully under wraps with candidates allowed only tightly controlled 15-minute presentations to the membership in Lausanne last month, which were not broadcast publicly or followed up with questions from members. There have been no election debates and candidates have not been allowed to criticise each other’s campaign, while members are forbidden from public endorsements.
There has been some media scrutiny of the candidates but Reedie – the former chairman of the British Olympic Committee, ex-World Anti-Doping Agency president and long-time member of the IOC – believes the clandestine process is a mistake which sends the wrong message.
“I’m absolutely clear in my own mind that the current process set by the IOC is not a good one,” Reedie told The Independent. “It’s been far too secretive, a lack of transparency, bringing members all the way to a closed meeting in Lausanne, allowing them to get a 15 minute presentation from each candidate, no questions asked, and manifestos out.
“I think it’s only reasonable that if you elect a president once every 12 years, all the members should be allowed to be as actively informed as they could be. I really do think at the moment the IOC has lost an opportunity to get quite a lot of group publicity, because this is a good field.”
Reedie’s comments were echoed by Coe, who said last week the election needs “more access to the members, more transparency. It has been difficult to engage and I don’t think those are the guiding principles of an election. An election is very important, in one big way, in that it gives people the opportunity to have a conversation. In future, this needs to be a more open and expansive process.”
Reedie, who is now an honorary member of the IOC, says the once-in-a-generation election should be a chance to show off the IOC’s impact around the world and how the organisation deploys sport as a tool for positive change.
“The IOC runs the biggest sports event of all,” he added. “They do much good work for sport all around the world every day. Why there should be secrecy in the election of the president of the organisation defeats me. They are missing an opportunity to promote what is one of the best sports organisations in the world.”
