Tensions at ANOC; Troubles for Vazquez Rana

(ATR) Sources tell Around the Rings that discontent is growing to the point that Mario Vazquez Rana may face no confidence votes at upcoming meetings of the two National Olympic Committee organizations that he leads.

One source says "open warfare" exists between Vazquez Rana and the NOCs he is supposed to represent..

The latest controversy comes after a temper-filled meeting in London this week of the Association of National Olympic Committees executive council. In an Around the Rings story earlier this week, two participants downplayed tension at the meeting.

However, comments from other sources since then indicate the meeting was a disaster for Vazquez Rana, who hastily left when it was over, ATR is told.

Members of the Council openly challenged the removal of Australia’s Kevan Gosper as vice chair of Olympic Solidarity, which Vazquez Rana chairs.Olympic Solidarity disperses hundreds of millions in revenues from the Games to the world’s national Olympic committees.

Council members discovered at the London meeting that Gosper had been replaced with ANOC secretary general Gunilla Lindberg. Sources at the meeting say that Vazquez Rana insisted that Gosper had been removed as Olympic Solidarity vice chair at the request of IOC President Jacques Rogge. That is not the case says an IOC source.

Vasquez Rana has not responded to requests for comment about the meeting.

Olympic Council of Asia president Sheikh Ahmad al Sabah wrote to IOC president Jacques Rogge, expressing his dismay over Gosper’s removal. Of the five continental NOC associations, only the Pan American Sports Organization, of which Vazquez Rana is the president, was not a signatory to the letter.

A source at the IOC confirmed receipt of the letter to Rogge but said the IOC was trying to keep its distance from the affair.

The source added Lindberg did not want or seek the Olympic Solidarity position and was likened to a "hostage" in the scenario. Lindberg has not been available for comment on the meeting.

Sheikh Ahmad is in line to become ANOC President when Vasquez Rana's term is over in 2015 under a succession plan adopted at the December ANOC Council meeting.

For the better part of two years, Vasquez Rana has sparred with his fellow Olympic leaders and IOC members, growing increasingly isolated from the rest of the Olympic Movement.

His first fight grew out of the ANOC General Assembly in Acapulco, Mexico in late 2010. Vasquez Rana wanted to remain on the IOC Executive Board for the remainder of his term, despite exceeding the IOC age limit of 80 this year. He won a resolution from the 204-member ANOC assembly asking the IOC to allow Vazquez Rana to remain on the EB. His request was rejected by the IOC president in 2011.

Resigned to his fate with the IOC, Vazquez Rana grudginglystood aside in December when the ANOC Council selected European Olympic Committees president Patrick Hickey as the nominee to succeed Vasquez Rana on the EB.

Now, a challenge is looming in PASO, which Vasquez Rana has led since 1975. A group of NOCs from the Caribbean are reportedly spearheading an effort to call a vote of no confidence on Vasquez Rana. He is seeking reelection to a new term at the PASO Assembly in Mexico City March 6 to 8. Similarly, another confidence vote could arise when ANOC holds its General Assembly in Moscow, April 10 to18.

Besides the possible challenges to his leadership at PASO and ANOC, Vazquez Rana still has not won the endorsement of the IOC president to continue at the helm of Olympic Solidarity. Rogge has said he had yet to make a decision about the post, which by tradition is filled by an active IOC member.

Upon his IOC retirement this year, Vazquez Rana was expected to be named an honorary IOC member, as is the case with other retired members. Honorary IOC membership may convey a status sufficient for him to keep the reins at Olympic Solidarity. But open warfare between the ANOC chief and the NOCs, as well as frayed relations with the IOC president, could cost Vazquez Rana that prize as well.

Written by Ed Hula and Ed Hula III.

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