WANTED: A new world body for SPORT by Derek Wyatt
What is it about our world sporting leaders? What disease to they have which gives them the right to siphon £millions and £millions and £millions to their private bank accounts at a click of a mouse? What is it about a nation like Russia which thinks it is okay to reinvent its drug abuse on an industrial scale almost an exact replica of what the USSR (and East Germany) did between 1952 and 1978?
Wait a minute.
A large number of these sporting organisations are headquartered in Europe and come under the toughest finance regulations anywhere in the world. Except. Except if they are housed in Switzerland (IOC and FIFA) or Monaco (IAAF/Track & Field).
In Switzerland part of the gift of the Cantons and part of its attraction to sporting bodies is that normal rules have been suspended or so its seems. Yet these organisations also have boards of trustees or boards. But it clear that there has been a failure of regulation and a failure of governance.
The problem is there is no world body which could become the "checking" organisation. You would not want it to be the UNO or the WTO and the IMF and World Bank do not fit the job description. There is a Court of Arbitration based in Lausanne which has recently dealt with the banning of some Russian athletes at Rio. There is the World Anti-Doping Agency but as it says on the tin this regulates (or makes an attempt) the use of banned substances.
The time is right for the UK to take the lead and to propose a World Sports Governance body. It would be headquartered here and come under UK law. It would be open and transparent an unusual quality in most international sporting bodies.