IOC meets with Government of Egypt and Egyptian Olympic Committee

KALYAN KUMAR MAHATA The true appellation of Apu.

26/11/2013

INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE

www.olympic.com

 

The IOC held a productive meeting today in Lausanne involving senior representatives of the Egyptian Sports Ministry, the Egyptian Olympic Committee, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) and the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA).

The main purpose of this meeting was to review the current situation of the Olympic Movement in Egypt vis-à-vis the sports legislation, and find a common understanding as to how the sports organisations belonging to the Olympic Movement in Egypt can be in a position to comply with both the basic principles of the Olympic Movement (including the principle of autonomy) and the law of the land.
The meeting was extremely positive and greatly contributed to reaching a mutual understanding and trust between the Government authorities and the Olympic Movement. The meeting concluded with the following points of agreement:

• The sports law currently in force in Egypt (since 1975) needs to be updated and revised to make it fully compatible with the basic standards of the Olympic Movement. As part of this revision process, the global situation of the sports clubs in Egypt will have to be reviewed and clarified. To this effect, the Sports Ministry has already launched a consultation phase involving the main constituents of the Olympic Movement in Egypt (including in particular the Egyptian Olympic Committee and the national sports federations). In view of the transition period which Egypt is experiencing, a reasonable timeframe was established as follows:
  
  o The new draft sports legislation should be completed within six months; and
  
  o The whole process, including the formal adoption of the new sports legislation by the competent authorities in the country, should be completed within one year from now.
  
• In the meantime, the Government will not interfere in any manner whatsoever with the internal operations of the national sports federations and the sports clubs, and the current sports regulations/”standard statutes” issued by the Sports Ministry will not be implemented. In particular, this will give  all national sports federations the possibility to establish their own statutes, get them adopted by their respective general assemblies and endorsed by the corresponding International Federations.
  
• During this process, it was agreed that a “tripartite commission”, consisting of the Egyptian Sports Ministry, the IOC (representing the Olympic Movement as a whole) and the Egyptian Olympic Committee (representing the Olympic Movement in Egypt), will be established to supervise the implementation of the process and to address any specific issue which might arise during this period.

A letter will be sent shortly to the Egyptian Government to ratify this agreement and establish the details of the process.
The IOC and all partners of the Olympic Movement are hopeful that this meeting will pave the way for a fruitful cooperation with the Government authorities in Egypt with full respect to the basic principles and rules which govern the Olympic Movement.