Brent helped us understand what it was exactly that the CAS does. He explained that in the past, many people complained about athletes doping. But where would that get you? Corruption was high in European countries and athletes where using substances to improve their performance and there was no rule to disallow it. People finally decided that there had to be an end to this. They thought if you go the national court, you may not see a judge for months or years, a time period in which the athletes can still perform if they are taking drugs. The IOC said that they needed a place to handle disputes quickly so that by the next day or the next competition, the athlete will know if he or her can compete. The CAS was created for quick, effective justice. Now, cases can be heard and resolved in 24 hours.
In 1985, the CAS consisted of 60 IOC members and national federations. This happened for 10 years, but it was still unfair to the athletes because they were not represented in court. The ICAS (International Court of Arbitration for Sport) now has 360 arbitrators and everybody is represented, including match officials and referees.
According to Brent, 60-70% of the cases at ICAS are FIFA related. These cases include breaching of contracts, media marketing, and transfer appeals. I found this funny because I love FIFA but we all know that there is some hard core corruption going on behind the scenes (FIFA is a profit organization which made $2 billion just this year). Other cases the CAS handles involve broadcasting and marketing rights. In terms of the next Olympics in Rio, all sponsoring contracts, vending contracts, or any type of contract for that matter, will go to CAS.
When there is a major event like the FIFA World Cup or the Olympic Games, the CAS provides "pop-up" charters in the hosting cities while the events take place to handle real-time cases. CAS is not as popular in the U.S. because there is a players union, although unions are not necessarily the best choice for athletes.
Brent asked everyone what their interests are. When it got to me, I said that I just graduated as a Health and Exercise Science major and am looking to go into Physical Therapy. Right away he stopped me and offered me an opportunity to go the Men's International Lacrosse Championship and help the Swiss National team to tape, wrap and stretch on the sidelines. I was really excited when he said that he was looking for students interested in PT, and especially when he said that the tournament will be held in Syracuse (the International Federation for Lacrosse headquarters is in Canada- its Canada's national sport!). I definitely look forward for the opportunity!
After we had lunch, we took the bus to the IOC. We met with Susanne and Didier, representatives for the marketing sector of the IOC (TMS). The major talking points that we hit about the Olympic movement included:
- The Olympic Platform
- The Olympic Movement Structure
- IOC TMS Structure
- Commercial Partners
- Rights holder
- Broadcasting
- TOP partners
- Power of the Olympic Rings
- Olympic positioning
There was also an intern with Susanne and Didier. Her name was Jasmine and she participated in the Sochi Winter Games as a women's bobsled competitor. When talking about the Olympic Platform, she said, "Whether you know sports or not, during these two weeks, you are a fan of the world". Based on the presentation that we saw, it seems to be that this is the basis for vision of the Olympics. People come together for the duration of the Games to see the best from different nations compete.
Didier spoke about the power of the Olympic Rings. He mentioned that 74% of people recognize the Olympic symbol and a smaller percentage (I can't remember the figure) recognized the World Cup logo for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Didier also said that the World Cup has a smaller audience than the Olympics. While I can't prove that this is false, I didn't like these stats because when I questioned him he said the they took the stats right after the Olympics or before the World Cup would start, so automatically the Olympic rings logo (which doesn't change, meanwhile the World Cup logo changes every tournament) is more recognized than the Brazil World Cup. I wanted to question him more about these stats because I have read several times that the World Cup is more popular than the Olympics. When they did these stats, which people are they asking? Are they asking people in secluded tribes around the world? Are they asking people in areas with less access to see these events on TV? Are they asking American viewers, which is a population that does not favor soccer? Are they asking people in Lausanne, the city where the Olympic Rings can be seen on almost every corner? If Didier was more clear about the source of his data, I would have been more convinced but as a futbol (soccer for my fellow Americans) fan, I still stand by the World Cup being a bigger even than the Olympic Games.
The last part of the day was dedicated to visiting the Olympic Research Center. Here, two women on staff helped us go through the different sections of the library to be better able to find the books that we need for our research papers. Another woman who works in the archives section of the library showed us a document from when the Winter Olympics were in Lake Placid. A letter was written by the Senator of New York, who at the time was Franklin D. Roosevelt. We all thought that was pretty interesting. The size of the archives was very impressive considering they throw out the majority of things that they get.
Today was the busiest day so far. I couldn't possibly be able to write about everything that happened but if we are taking away anything from this day, its that I will support FIFA even in an IOC conference room!
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