Agencies/Budapest


The Kuwaiti government must “come to the table” and resolve the sports law which has caused the country to be banned from the International Olympic Committee, IOC president Thomas Bach said yesterday.
Kuwait was suspended in October for the second time in five years over government interference in the country’s Olympic Committee. The sports ministry has also ordered the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to vacate its headquarters in Kuwait by April 2016. The head of the OCA is Kuwaiti Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, an influential IOC member.
Kuwaiti media reported on Saturday that a court had handed out a six-month suspended prison sentence to Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family and a powerbroker in international sport, for quoting remarks by the country’s ruler without permission.  
The Gulf Arab state’s constitution describes Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah as “immune and inviolable”. Quoting him without permission from his court is punishable under Kuwaiti law. Bach, attending a meeting to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, said the prison sentence was a separate issue from the sports law. “This is justice in Kuwait, it’s nothing to do with the sports law or sport,” Bach said. “The IOC will respect the law of a sovereign country.”
But he said the law which led to Kuwait’s ban needed to be changed. “We will insist on our worry that the sports law is in compliance. I think this is also in the interest of the Kuwait authorities and the Kuwaiti athletes to ensure this compliance and not forcing their other federations to escalate the issue.
“They have to come to the table,” Bach said. “The IOC has always made it clear it is ready to address the various stipulations of the law that need to be changed.”

Rio Olympics tightening
belt amid crisis
The 2016 Olympics are 80 percent ready, but Brazil’s punishing economic crisis has forced organisers to dramatically tighten their belts, they said Monday.
In the six years since Rio de Janeiro was named to host the Games, Brazil has gone from being an emerging market phenom to being mired in recession and political crisis.
That has put the pressure on the Rio 2016 Committee to keep a tight lid on expenses, said its chief spokesman, Mario Andrada.
He estimated the overall budget had been cut by between five and 20 percent.
Athletes will not have TVs in their rooms and will have to share the ones located in the common areas of the apartments in the athletes’ village. The VIP area will be more modest than at past Olympics. And, in a bid to save paper, “print less” will be the mantra of the day.
Organizers even toyed with the idea of making athletes pay for their own air conditioning, but dropped the plan after numerous complaints.
“These will be the first Olympic Games to have intelligent cost management, with a balanced budget. We’re going to organize the games with the money we have. We’re not going to leave unsettled bills for the government or society to pay,” Andrada told AFP.
The committee has $1.9 billion to organize the Games, and is trying not to touch a $780 million fund from the federal government for related expenses such as transport infrastructure and security.
Andrada vowed no cuts would be made to budgets for venues, competitions, the opening ceremony or “legacy” projects intended to last after the Games. But some construction projects have drawn criticism.
The diving pool will not have a roof, despite complaints from the federation responsible for the sport. And construction delays on the velodrome track, which will only be built in January, have raised eyebrows.
“Rio is 80 percent ready today. In April it will be 100 percent ready, and throughout the Games it will be at 120 percent. It will be a spectacular Olympiad,” said Andrada.
He pledged to have the waters of the city’s iconic but filthy Guanabara Bay clean in all areas that will be used for sailing competitions. But, setting aside his upbeat tone, he called the pollution “a national embarrassment.”