Pound aims for CAS presidency

2008-04-02 15:19

Berne - Former anti-doping chief Dick Pound will be running for sport's highest judicial position on Thursday when an election takes place to name the new president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The 19 members of CAS's governing body, ICAS, are due to hold a secret ballot in Monaco with Pound the most high-profile of the four candidates bidding for the post.

A tax lawyer by profession, Pound, 66, made a name for himself when he headed up the International Olympic Committee (IOC) investigation into the Salt Lake City Olympic bidding scandal.

He gained further attention as the outspoken president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), heading the organisation from its inception in 1999 until the end of his second term of office in November 2007.

While never shying away from confrontational statements during his time at Wada, the Canadian may have to convince Thursday's selectors that he would take a more conciliatory approach to the running of CAS.

The court, which serves as the final court of appeal for most of the major international sporting bodies including all the Olympic sports federations, is heavily reliant on its reputation for discretion and impartiality.

Renewed questions

In 1993, a Swiss federal court ruling went so far as to warn the Lausanne-based court that it could only be recognised as an impartial tribunal if it severed its ties with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under whose umbrella it originally operated.

Subsequent reforms to the structure of CAS, including the setting-up of ICAS, helped bring the court into line with that ruling but Pound's former role with Wada and his continuing membership of the IOC could lead to renewed questions over the court's independence.

Pound is up against Swiss international lawyer Robert Briner, former International Swimming Federation secretary Gunnar Werner of Sweden and Italian lawyer Mino Auletta.

Auletta, a former legal advisor to the International Athletics Federation, has presided over CAS since the death of the court's original president Keba Mbaye in January 2007.

All four candidates are members of ICAS and the winner of Thursday's election will become president of both bodies.

The role of the CAS president is largely honorary and if elected Pound would exercise considerably less direct influence than he did at Wada.

List of arbitrators

According to the court's governing code, the president is not allowed to play an active role in any of the individual cases heard by the court and is instead expected to concentrate on its financing and general administration.

He does have a say in composing the list of CAS arbitrators, currently numbering around 300, but only in consultation with the other four members of the ICAS board.

Despite the limited powers attached to the position, the possible appointment of Pound could nevertheless attract opposition from some of the sporting bodies whom he has provoked in the past.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has been particularly critical of Pound's manner, announcing last month that it was suing the former Wada president.

The UCI said it was taking Pound to court for "continual injurious and biased comments" against the world cycling's governing body and its president Hein Verbruggen.

A final obstacle to Pound's candidacy could be his relative youth - at least in terms of judges.

If Thursday's ballot ends in a tie between one or more of the candidates, the presidency will go to the most senior. Pound's three rivals, according to CAS, are all aged 77.

- Reuters