Olympic Movement Awaits Second McLaren Report Installment -- Monday Memo

(ATR) The other shoe may drop on the Russian doping scandal this Friday when Richard McLaren publishes results from his second investigation into the country's state-sponsored doping allegations.

The Canadian law professor was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency to seek out the truth to claims by former Russian anti-doping laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov that a clandestine operation manipulated Russian test samples during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

McLaren released part one of his investigation on July 18 that supported Rodchenkov’s claims of a state-sponsored doping system throughout Russian sport. The results of the investigation led to calls for all Russian athletes to be banned from the Rio 2016 Olympics in August, a request that was denied by the International Olympic Committee which instead left the decision up to individual federations.

The International Paralympic Committee agreed with WADA’s request for a complete ban and kept all Russian Paralympians from competing in Brazil.

The next batch of results released by McLaren on Dec. 9 in London could hinder progress made by the All-Russia Athletics Federation and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to get back in the good graces of their respective international governing bodies.

IOC Executives Hold Last Meeting of 2016

The IOC executive board will hold its third and final meeting of the year in Lausanne from Dec. 6-8.

The Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission led by IOC vice president John Coates will be a major topic of discussion. The commission visit closed on Dec. 2 and brought an end to a full week of meetings in Tokyo kicked off by the Rio 2016 transfer of knowledge session on Nov. 28.

Concerns about the Tokyo 2020 budget which is now projected at $20 billion, a figure the IOC wants to see reduced significantly further, and discussions about venue location changes will likely dominate the conversations.

The three days of executive meetings will close with a press conference by IOC leaders, with IOC president Thomas Bach’s spokesperson Mark Adams speaking on the first two days and President Bach himself speaking about the outcomes of the EB on Dec. 8.

Leaders of the Olympics Movement will also likely discuss the impending McLaren report and its potential ramifications that will be released the day after the EB closes.

CAS to Reveal Blatter Verdict

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will determine whether former FIFA president Sepp Blatter will be banned from all football activities for six years on Monday.

CAS heard Blatter’s appeal on Aug. 25 when he claimed a $2 million payment to former UEFA boss Michel Platini was for consultancy work Platini had done for him, not a bribe to ensure his support.

Following his hearing, Blatter was confident CAS would overturn the six-year ban.

"I’m sure at the end.... that the [CAS] panel will understand that the payment made to Platini was really a debt that we [owed] him and this is a principle, if you have debts, you pay them," Blatter said.

Blatter and Platini were both originally handed eight-year bans that were reduced to six years by the FIFA ethics committee. The committee cited the former football executives’ service growing the game of football around the world as the reason to reduce the bans.

The former FIFA chief resigned from the head of world football in June 2015 after 17 years at the helm of the federation. The resignation came as a shock just four days after his reelection for a fifth term.

Blatter is seeking a full pardon for his ethics violations. CAS has already ruled on Platini’s appeal, reducing his ban to four years.

Tokyo Ready to Break Ground on Olympic Stadium

Construction on Tokyo's revamped Olympic Stadium will begin in a little more than a week.

The project, now nearly 14 months behind schedule due to a change in the stadium design, will begin on Dec. 11 with a groundbreaking ceremony, according to the Japan Sports Council.

The original design by the late architect Zaha Hadid was scrapped after cost projections for the stadium rose to as much as $2 billion. Hadid’s design was replaced by that of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in December 2015 with a projected cost of $1.3 billion.

The new project was chosen to help Tokyo 2020 organizers cut costs in line with the International Olympic Committee’s Agenda 2020 that seeks to limit the burden of host cities. Even with the new cost projection, the Tokyo Olympic Stadium will be the most expensive ever built for the Games.

International Sports Convention Begins in Geneva

The fourth edition of the International Sports Convention begins Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to organizers, ISC 2016 will be the largest international sports conference of the year and will feature 18 sports seminars as well as a 6,000-square meter convention hall that allows for plenty of networking and sales opportunities.

The two-day event will be held from Dec. 7-8 and is expected to have more than 150 speakers from the sports business industry along with more than 2,000 delegates.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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