Sheikh Talal banned from running in OCA re-election to select new President
Sheikh Talal Fahad al-Ahmad al-Sabah will not be allowed to stand for President to succeed brother Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah when the disputed Ol... Sheikh Talal was banned from running in the upcoming re-election to select new President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following an investigation into the controversial General Assembly held in Bangkok. The House of Sabah will almost likely lose control of the OCA for the first time since it was founded in 1982. The International Olympic Council (IAOC) recommended that Talal be prevented from participating in any future election. The report also found that Sheikh Ahmad had unfairly influenced the election outcome. Both Sheikh Ahmad and Sheikh Talal have appealed against the IOC decisions following the elections.
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Exclusive: Sheikh Talal banned from running in OCA re-election to select new President
The decision means that the House of Sabah will almost certainly lose control of the OCA for the first time since it was founded in 1982 by the brothers' father Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
The OCA Executive Board voted to accept the recommendations published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following an investigation into the controversial General Assembly held in Bangkok on July 8.
The main recommendation was that Sheikh Talal should be prevented from taking part in any future election.
The findings of the report, presented to the IOC Executive Board during its meeting in Mumbai last week and which insidethegames has obtained a copy of, established that Sheikh Ahmad had unfairly influenced the outcome of the election.
Sheikh Talal replaced Sheikh Ahmad, who had led the OCA for 30 years until 2021, when he beat fellow Kuwaiti Husain Al-Musallam, the organisation's director general and President of World Aquatics, at the General Assembly by 24 votes to 20.
Sheikh Ahmed stepped aside as President of the OCA following a guilty verdict against him by a Geneva court in a forgery case, which he is now waiting to hear the outcome of an appeal.
Sheikh Ahmad, now a senior member of the Kuwait Government, had travelled to the capital in Thailand to lobby on behalf of his brother in direct opposition to a warning not to from the IOC's chief ethics and compliance officer Pâquerette Girard Zappelli.
She had claimed that it "could be considered as an interference within the OCA activities".
In the IOC report, Zappelli criticised the lack of action taken by the OCA about Sheikh Talaal before and following the election.
The IOC report claimed that they gathered evidence from several witnesses which "demonstrated the instances of interference by Sheikh Ahmad personally and through his Governmental positions as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, in particular via the intervention of the Embassies of Kuwait abroad."
The report claimed that Sheikh Ahmad had travelled to the election in Bangkok on a private jet via New Delhi, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tashkent and Dushanbe, Tajikistan's capital where he met Emomali Rahmon, President of both the country and its National Olympic Committee.
He was accompanied by Haider Farman, the OCA's former director for Asian Games, it is alleged.
Following events in Bangkok, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, already self-suspended as a member of IOC as a result of his conviction in Switzerland, was banned for three years.
Sheikh Ahmad and Sheikh Talal last month both filed appeals to the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) against the IOC decisions following the elections.
Sheikh Talal had not cooperated with the IOC during the investigation, claiming he wanted to wait first for the outcome of the hearing at the Lausanne-based CAS.
Al-Musallam is exonerated in the report and seems likely to stand again when the election is finally re-run.
India's Randhir Singh is currently operating as Acting President of the OCA after the IOC had asked him to step in.