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Pound quits marketing post
Updated: Tuesday July 17, 2001 12:15 AM MOSCOW (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee has become overly dominated by Europe and block voting within the organization has become a problem, according to Dick Pound, a losing candidate in Monday's IOC presidency elections. Pound -- who resigned as the IOC's marketing chief and head of the World Anti-Doping Agency following his defeat to Jacques Rogge in the presidential vote -- believed the Belgian won the election on the strength of his European powerbase. "I think this was a decision by a eurocentric organization, that they wanted a European president," Pound said. "They were quite united and then they persuaded a few others from other parts of the world to agree with them. It's pretty eurocentric." The Canadian said the IOC ought to be "careful" because the trend might become a problem. "I'm worried about block voting," Pound said. "I think every member should try and decide every question on the basis of what he or she thinks is best for the movement and should not be regional." Rogge won the election with 59 votes. The IOC, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, is politically centered in Europe, with 57 members. South Korea's Kim Un-yong finished runnerup with 23 votes, ahead of Pound with 22. Hungarian Pal Schmitt was fourth with six and American Anita DeFrantz was eliminated in the first round. Kim remained one of the presidential front-runners despite receiving a "most severe warning" during the IOC's internal inquiry into the Salt Lake City bribery scandal. The South Korean was also embroiled in an ethics flap just 24 hours before the vote when it was reported he had promised members at least $50,000 a year in Olympic-related expenses if he was elected president. The case was dismissed by the IOC ethics commission after Kim denied ever proposing any specific sum, saying he had only recommended providing delegates with enough funds to maintain offices in their own countries. "That's an area that I think the president will have to address," Pound said. "We've got to make sure that the organization behaves like it should. "It was a disappointment [to finish behind Kim]. Losing to Jacques Rogge was certainly something foreseeable and calculable..." Pound also said he felt it was "quite clear" that Juan Antonio Samaranch had been pulling strings for Rogge to win the election, though the outgoing president never publicly identified his choice. "I don't think it's a betrayal," Pound said. "I might have hoped he would have seen me as his successor but he had his reasons, and they may be perfectly good reasons, I don't know." While many fear Samaranch's power and influence will extend into Rogge's presidency, Pound simply shrugged. "There's an expression that says there's nothing as past as a past president," he said. Canada lost out a first time Friday when the IOC awarded the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing. Asked by Canadian journalists what Canada had to do to become "a friend of Canada," Pound answered "speak Spanish?" Asked what it would take for the IOC to ever elect an American
or Canadian president, Pound answered "move to Europe?"
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