By Andrew Warshaw
November 19 – Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, one of the most influential powerbrokers in world sport who not so long ago was a major player at FIFA, is “temporarily” stepping aside from his International Olympic Committee duties after he was charged with forgery in Switzerland.
Le Temps newspaper said Sheikh Ahmad stands accused with four others of an intricate forgery scheme linked to his efforts to prove that Kuwait’s former prime minister and speaker of parliament were guilty of coup-plotting and corruption.
Lawyers for different plaintiffs in the case confirmed to AFP that Sheikh Ahmad, head of Association of National Olympic Commitees (ANOC), was one of those charged.
The case against Sheikh Ahmad, a nephew of Kuwait’s ruler, Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, is set to go to court in Geneva next year.
A former government minister, Sheikh Ahmad said he “strenuously denies any wrongdoing”, calling the allegations “maliciously motivated by political factions within Kuwait”. However he said he was halting his work with the IOC until he had been investigated by the body’s ethics commission.
“Sheikh Ahmad has today decided to step aside temporarily from his roles and responsibilities as an IOC member and chairman of Olympic Solidarity Commission, pending the outcome of an IOC Ethics Commission hearing,” said a statement from his office.
Sheikh Ahmad resigned from the FIFA council in April last year after being drawn into the widespread corruption scandal to hit the game’s governing body.
The sheikh, who had been seeking re-election, was suspected of being a co-conspirator in the case of disgraced Guam football FA boss Richard Lai, who also led the AFC Marketing Committee.
Although Sheikh Ahmad, who was a member of the Asian Football Confederation’s executive committee, was not identified by name, agency reports at the time said Lai’s hearing transcript quoted him saying “co-conspirator #2 was also the president of the Olympic Council of Asia.”
Lai pleaded guilty to receiving nearly $1 million in bribes between 2009 and 2014 from a group of unnamed officials in the AFC region. He has since been banned for life by FIFA for whom, ironically, he was a one-time member of its audit and compliance committee.
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