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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will have plenty to discuss this week, including an ethics investigation that forced out its longest-serving member, stalled revenue-sharing talks with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and a museum embezzlement scandal that led to the firing of three employees.
The IOC opens a two-day executive board meeting Wednesday in Lausanne, Switzerland, amid several delicate issues that have boiled up in recent days.
The gathering comes just days after 95-year-old Joao Havelange resigned from the IOC to avoid suspension in a decade-old kickbacks scandal dating to his days as FIFA president.
The Brazilian, an IOC member for 48 years, faced a possible two-year suspension for allegedly taking US$1 million from FIFA's former marketing agency ISL in return for World Cup television contracts.
Havelange's resignation, first reported Sunday by The Associated Press, was confirmed Monday by the IOC and FIFA. Sanctions against Havelange had been scheduled to be announced by the IOC board tomorrow, but his departure closes the case.
The IOC's ethics commission will make recommendations on two other members. IAAF President Lamine Diack and African football official Issa Hayatou face much lighter penalties, short of full suspensions, for alleged conflict of interest. Neither was an IOC member at the time.
The IOC ethics probe stems from a BBC documentary last year into kickbacks allegedly paid by ISL, which owned World Cup television rights and collapsed with debts of US$300 million in 2001.
Hayatou, an IOC member for Cameroon since 2001, reportedly received about US$20,000 from ISL in 1995. He has denied any corruption and said the money was a gift for his confederation's anniversary celebrations.
Diack said he received money after his house in Senegal burned down in 1993. Diack said he did nothing wrong and is confident of being cleared.
The board also will be updated on the IOC's protracted negotiations with the USOC on a new revenue-sharing agreement. Both sides had hoped to reach an accord this year on the split of marketing and television money, but the talks appear to have hit a roadblock.
