Sports policy

Kuwait is suing the IOC

Kuwait demanded by the International Olympic Committee for damages, because the country is suspended and not at the Games in Rio is allowed to start. The IOC responded in spite of the height of the sum complained of left.

Kuwait’s information Minister Salman al-Humud al-Sabah

The dispute between Kuwait and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a few weeks before the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (5. to 21. August) escalated. The Islamic sheikdoms sued the IOC in Switzerland, for damages in the amount of one billion U.S. dollars (about 886.000 million euros). The IOC had Kuwait first, to the 27. October is suspended, and thus an exclusion from the Games in Rio is probably. Reason is the political influence of the state on the national sports associations such as the National Olympic Committee. “It is completely unacceptable that Kuwait is treated in this unfair way, and from the international Sport studies is excluded,” said Kuwaiti information Minister Salman al-Humud al-Sabah.

Olympic start only under the IOC flag

The IOC reacted calmly to the lawsuit. “The process is now in the hands of the court, and the IOC expects, with Confidence, the results,” said a spokesman for the organization. Since 2007, the IOC has suspended Kuwait three times. It was alleged that the government of the Scheichtums to get involved in the sporting Affairs of the country and the Kuwaiti NOK could not work independently. 17 international organisations, including the world football body, FIFA, joined the sanctions. A two-year suspension against Kuwait for the same reasons, had been repealed in 2012 just before the Olympic Games in London. According to the IOC Kuwaiti athletes that have met the sporting criteria for Olympic qualification are likely to start, in continuation of the lock-in Rio, however, not under the flag of the Country, but under the flag of the IOC:

sn (dpa, sid, rtr)