Havelange Expected to Miss IOC Session
The IOC says it has not yet received confirmation that former FIFA president Joao Havelange, the doyen of the IOC, will miss the Session in Durban next week.
AP reports from Brazil say the 95 year-old is not travelling to the IOC meeting where the 2018 Winter Olympics host city will be selected in a July 6 vote by members.
He is said to be staying home because of a relative is undergoing surgery. A Havelange aide told the Associated Press that it was "almost certain" Havelange wouldn't make the long trip.
IOC veterans say they cannot remember when the former FIFA president, elected to the IOC in 1963, missed a Session.
The IOC Ethics Commission is currently examining BBC Panorama documents concerning corruption allegations it made about Havelange in a documentary earlier this year.
The program alleged he accepted a $1 million kickback in 1997 in the scandal involving collapsed FIFA marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. He was still head of FIFA at the time. Sepp Blatter succeeded him a year later.
Havelange denies any wrongdoing.
The IOC told Around the Rings in June that the IOC had not officially launched an investigation into Havelange, as claimed in some other reports. The ethics commission asked the BBC for any evidence of corruption relating to the Brazilian before Christmas.
"The ethics commission is in process of authenticating those documents," an IOC spokesman said.
Easton to Miss Durban
IOC member James Easton of the U.S. continues to recover from a stroke he suffered last year and will not travel to the IOC Session next week, his office tells Around the Rings. He has not travelled on IOC business since the stroke.
Easton, who turns 76 this month, was elected to the IOC in 1994. He is one of three IOC members from the U.S.
Durban Roll Call Still Undetermined
Despite the possible absence of Havelange and definite for Easton, the IOC says it cannot confirm the number of members who will be excused from attending the IOC Session until the eve of the meeting July 5.
Without Havelange and Easton, the IOC would have 108 members eligible to attend the Durban IOC Session.
Written by Mark Bisson and Ed Hula. For general comments or questions, click here
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