Pentathlon leaders have applied to the IOC for a second Olympic discipline: Ninja 100m. They blame a compressed IOC timeline for the speed of the internal decision. Though, Vice President Viacheslav Malishev says the Executive Board had been kept in the dark about the IOC’s letter for eleven days.
The Olympic fencing federation FIE and its Hamburg lawyer announced a purported legal victory over Reuters to the world. I obtained both court orders and read them against that propaganda. Very little of what the federation and its lawyer claim about these decisions survives the comparison.
All 55 UEFA associations stand as one: no European national team will play in a FIFA competition for as long as Infantino's plan to sell stakes in the World Cup stands. In 30 years I cannot recall a threat of this magnitude. Read the full statement — and FIFA's own 25-page FFE presentation.
Has FIFA and IOC fiend Gianni Infantino gone too far this time? Or will he manage it once again: to split the football world with his plan to spin off FIFA's assets into a company part-owned by dubious investors, and at the same time bait the majority of member associations with money?
Olympic bids and the Olympic programme: At its 146th Session in Lausanne, the IOC has abandoned several key elements of the Thomas Bach era and is returning to a number of principles that were largely developed under the Belgian Jacques Rogge.
An open letter addressed to IOC President Kirsty Coventry and the leadership of the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime has been signed by 2,981 people from at least 94 countries. Never before has a community within an Olympic IF mounted resistance and a demand for accountability of this scale.
The panel is comfortably satisfied that former Olympic powerbroker Ahmad interfered in the 2023 election in favor of his brother Talal. The award reveals a parallel civil suit quietly filed in Lausanne. An appeal against his separate 15-year IOC ban is being litigated in proceedings of its own.
Investigative unit THE INSIDER exposes another shocking detail, yet not fully surprising: Russia’s Olympic doping and political hit squads are run by the same FSB unit. Discover how operatives manipulate sports while deploying nerve agents against Kremlin targets like Alexei Navalny.
Change in IOC’s administration is set to begin with a SharePoint site and joint morning coffee catchups: unsettled staff can ask any questions they like, says the IOC President. During a video meeting attended by almost 600 employees, Coventry warned against negativity, rumours and silo thinking.
EXCLUSIVE: Why did the Greek Emmanuel Katsiadakis unexpectedly resign as interim president of the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) in April 2025? Read the answer here: because he refused to send a letter to US President Trump asking for the sanctions against Alisher Usmanov to be lifted.
Why the Algerian is allowed to lead ANOCA and remain an IOC member despite his history of scandals and allegations of corruption has been an unresolved question for many years. What does Berraf have on IOC leaders? Now, allegations of sexual harassment are being made again in the ANOCA sphere.
What is the status of the Olympic Truce right now? Does anyone remember it? IOC Napoleon Thomas Bach once wanted to unite divided Korea at the Winter Games and dreamed of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. His chosen successor, Kirsty Coventry, remains silent in these days of war, of course.
The IOC has survived the 2026 Winter Games but faces enormous challenges: Trump, LA 2028, the search for TOP sponsors, the hospitality disasters, the toxic climate in the administration, program reform, and the abolition of the Olympic Channel. Doubts about president Kirsty Coventry are growing.
Imagine if that were to happen at the next IOC session in June. Rumors to that effect are currently circulating within the Olympic family. In one fell swoop, Germany would lose 73 percent of all Olympic winter sports medals, for which hundreds of millions of euros are paid. A catastrophe.
What I outlined in Thursday's newsletter has been confirmed by CAS' Ad Hoc Division: Denis Oswald made the decision on Wednesday on behalf of the IOC Disciplinary Commission. The IBSF jury was instructed to act in accordance with IOC guidelines. The next day, the IOC pulled off its deception again.
The reporting on Nazi symbolism in The Olympic Shop deserves some background information and documentation. So here is a story about how the IOC basically blackmailed (German) Olympic bidders and how much money the IOC Group paid for the 1936 Olympic films financed by Joseph Goebbels.
