SportAccord Report -- Summer Olympic Federations Seek More $; Logos on Uniforms

Federations Clamor for New Distribution Plan for Olympic Revenues

The international summer Olympic federations want a review of how $375 million in Olympic revenues are distributed to the 26 sports on the program for the London Games.

Meeting in Dubai Tuesday at the SportAccord convention, the federations voted unanimously for the review, with a decision following the 2012 London Olympics.

"We want to review all the categories according to the TV rating," Julio Maglione, president of FINA, the international aquatics federation, said at the conclusion of the ASOIF General Assembly.

"If you study the rating, we are in very good position," he said.

Maglione said FINA isn't the only federation that wants to change a system that has stayed mostly the same since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

In its presentation to the IOC Executive Board on Wednesday, ASOIF will recommend the formation of a review group.

"That people want to change something is clear," Maglione said.

He preferred making the change prior to London, but said he understood that it might be more equitable to discuss later.

There are four groups, with athletics earning the most, $35 million. In the next group, aquatics, football basketball, cycling, tennis and volleyball receive $18 million. Sports in the third and fourth groups receive $13 million and $11 million.

"As always, some federations think they deserve to be in a higher group," said Bob Elphinston, president of FIBA, the international basketball federation.

"Other federations think the gap between the top group and the others should be reduced."

Elphinston said information from television coverage of the Beijing Games was "very inadequate" because it only touched on certain markets around the world, and did not include the key U.S. market.

International Federations Want Logos at Olympics

ASOIF will ask the IOC to put international federation logos on their Olympic uniforms.

"The international federations have continually wanted to have a higher public profile at the Olympics Games," Elphinston said.

That includes larger signs in or around the field of play at both the Youth Olympic and Olympics and a small identification on the athlete uniforms.

"At the moment, the federations get no recognition on the athlete uniforms for their sport," he said.

Elphinston said the sticking point is the NOCs, who in the Olympic charter have the right to send athletesto the Games.

"They go on behalf of an NOC, not on behalf of an international federation, even though they come from federations," Elphinston said. "That's always a very sensitive issue."

Doping Whereabouts Rule

An independent expert group is reviewing WADA's controversial "whereabouts" rule and will report to the WADA Executive Committee on May 8-9 in Montreal.

"We think there's more work to be done in the whole process, " David Howman, WADA Director General, told the ASOIF assembly, emphasizing that the rule was supposed to be studied for a year.

"We will look at being pragmatic," Howman said, "and make sure we have a system that works..If the cheating athletes not being found s a result of the system, then we ought to reflect on why we're using it."

He also said the much-maligned T/E ratio is under review, with the intention of moving away from it. "A T/E ratio of 6 will not detect the athletes who are now cheating using patches and gel," he said.

Howman said WADA has told the Spanish government that it must change its doping law in which the IFs must obtain permission. "It's non-compliant, it's non-effective and it's wrong," he said.

CAS Too Costly?

Howman said the Court of Arbitration for Sport "worries" WADA because "at the moment, it's not a tribunal delivering speedy, cheap justice".

He said it costs about $30,000 "just to get the door open into the court".

He believes that a challenge eventually will be made by athletes who find CAS too expensive and too distant to effectively achieve justice.

Games Progress Reports

Sebastian Coe delivered London's "822 days to go," report, while Agberto Guimarães gave the first progress report on Rio de Janeiro to ASOIF since the Games were awarded to Brazil last October.

Briefs

...IOC member Francesco Ricci Bitti and International Tennis Federation president requested that the ASOIF president to ask the IOC for a status report on its revenue-sharing negotiations with the USOC. That was the only mention of the topic following a contentious SportAccord last year in Denver.

...The summer federations unanimously added golf and rugby, the two new 2016 sports, to the roster, but amended the constitution so they would not share in the revenue from London.

Written by Karen Rosen in Dubai.