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The International Olympic Committee has expressed concern over the Indian Olympic Association’s “unfortunate” delay in the appointment of the CEO/Secretary General. Along with this, the IOA has been urged to resolve the dispute with the wrestling association at the earliest. The IOC issued a strongly worded statement on Wednesday during its Executive Board meeting, where it received updates on the status of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of Afghanistan, Guatemala and Sudan, besides India.
The NOC of India has been directed on several occasions to finalize the appointment process of the new CEO/Secretary General without any further delay as per the NOC constitution, so as to normalize the situation within the NOC. “Unfortunately, the NOC has not yet completed this process. The IOC continues to monitor this issue,” said an IOC statement.
The IOC has also asked the IOA to coordinate with international sports federations to resolve issues affecting sports federations in India, namely the Wrestling Federation of India.
Indian wrestling has been in the limelight in the last two months, with top wrestlers including Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and Asian Games champion Vinesh Phogat protesting at the Jantar in New Delhi demanding the arrest of outgoing wrestling federation president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Protests have been held at Mantar. The agitating wrestlers allege that Brij Bhushan has sexually assaulted women wrestlers.
“The NOCs of India are requested to work closely with international federations to address the many current issues affecting Indian sports federations in a coordinated manner and in accordance with the rules and directives of the relevant international federations. IOC said , “This particularly includes the position of the Wrestling Federation in India.”
In March this year, the IOC had also pointed out the delay on the part of the IOA in appointing the CEO without any delay. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the 2023 IOC session would be held in Mumbai.
A panel was constituted by the Supreme Court of India on this matter, which made a new constitution and was also recognized by the IOC. As per the new constitution, the IOA had to appoint IOA president and former sprinter PT Usha as a CEO who would take over the functions of the former secretary general, within a month of the new executive council taking charge. The new IOA Council assumed office on December 10, but it has been over seven months and the NOC is yet to appoint a CEO.
IOA Secretary General Kalyan Choubey is discharging the functions of the CEO. The CEO shall be an ex officio member of the IOA Executive Council without voting rights. Usha had said in March that the IOA had set criteria for the appointment of the CEO, but only one applicant was found eligible for the post. He had said that he needed more applications and the IOA would re-advertise the post.
One of the eligibility criteria for the post of CEO is that the candidate should be a “management professional with not less than 10 years of experience as CEO of a company/entity with an annual turnover of less than Rs 25 crore”.
Article 15.3 of the Indian Olympic Association’s amended constitution also states that “the CEO shall be proposed by a Nominations Committee, consisting of the IOA President, the President of the Athletes’ Commission and an IOC member from India.”