Saudis escape punishment for last minute pull-out

Saudis escape punishment for last minute pull-out

BANGKOK (Agencies): Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan will escape punishment for their late withdrawal from the 13th Asian Games, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia, announced Saturday.

But future culprits face the prospect of sanctions he warned. The Kuwaiti Sheikh, speaking at the end of the OCA Executive Board Meeting, said there was no legislation in the current OCA constitution to take punitive measures against the two absentee nations or countries who withdraw their teams from various sports in the Games program.

"We are very sorry for these withdrawals," the Sheikh said. "There is no article or bye-law in our constitution for us to act in these cases."

Thailand had wanted the OCA to impose tough penalties on Saudi Arabia for its last-minute pullout.

The withdrawal soured already bitter relations between Bangkok and Riyadh and threw Thailand's preparations into turmoil just nine days before the Games opening ceremony.

Saudi Arabia's decision has been widely linked to the theft of jewels from a Saudi prince and the murder of three Saudi diplomats in 1990.

The OCA president said the issue had been discussed with the Rules Committee at Saturday's Board meeting.

"We will try and to install some rule or bye-law to deal with these cases in the future, but for now we cannot take any action because there is no relevant article in our constitution."

Sheikh Ahmad was also concerned with the disruption caused by countries withdrawing teams from certain sports. This created many problems and impacted badly on marketing.

Some officials called for a system of rigid deadlines.

"We have to discuss this very carefully because of the number of cases we had in Bangkok," the Sheikh said.

"After we know which NOCs will participate, how many teams in each sport, we make the draw. But then we had a lot of withdrawals from a lot of teams forcing us to change the draw, change the TV program and change the air time.

"This is not good for the professional system we are trying to reach and this is also a negative point for our marketing program. We must find a solution to add to our constitution, as a law or bye-law for the future," he added.

Records

Despite the withdrawals, the Bangkok Games will still attract a record entry of 41 countries and 9,700 athletes and officials.

The number of sports at the Asian Games, with the focus on regional popularity, has always been a point of issue.

Bangkok will stage 34 sports, six more than the Olympic Games and many of them have been included to give certain countries at least a chance of winning a medal.

The subject is likely to be raised again at the Dec. 8 General Assembly, but the Sheikh favors a wait-and-see policy.

South Korea's Pusan, host city for the 2002 Asian Games, has proposed cutting the list to 32 sports.

"This proposal is for discussion at next year's General Assembly. At the end of the Bangkok Games we will examine the program. Let us wait to see how Bangkok act with 34 sports. Then we can decide, can we continue with these huge number of sports or do we have to choose less for the future," he said.

He described the marketing program for the games as successful and even exceeding targets despite the economic crisis.

Sheikh Ahmad said US$78 million had been realized from the games corporate partners, and another $10 million from the sales of television broadcast rights.

He also emphasized hopes for drug-free competition here. Eleven athletes, all from the Chins, tested positive in doping tests at the last Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, four years ago.

"I hope for good results, new records and no doping," he said.

He said the OCA signed a formal memorandum Saturday confirming that the 2002 Winter Asian Games would be held in Aomori, Japan.

He also gave further details of the Afro-Asian Games planned for New Delhi, India, in 2001.

In talks since the go-ahead for such games was given a year ago, it was agreed that the event would include six sports, he said.

Swimming, track and field and soccer would be on the program, host India had proposed tennis, Asian countries had added shooting, and Africa was believed to want boxing, said Sheik Ahmad.