For the second time in five years, Kuwait is being suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for political interference, leaving its athletes in limbo for next year's Rio Games.
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti who heads the global association of national Olympic committees and is a senior IOC member, told AP the Gulf country would be sanctioned on Tuesday.
The move comes after Kuwait failed to amend its disputed sports legislation by the October 27 deadline set by the IOC. FIFA suspended Kuwait's soccer association two weeks ago over the same issue.
"As a Kuwaiti, I am very sad," Sheikh Ahmad said on Monday night in an interview. "All of us are upset. It's a very sad story. It's (due to) human mistakes."
The IOC is concerned about government meddling in the running of Kuwait's Olympic Committee and national sports federations. The IOC says the new sports law threatened the autonomy of the sports bodies and would mean Kuwait would no longer comply with the Olympic Charter.
The suspension comes with Sheikh Ahmad in Washington to chair this week's general assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). He does not sit on the Kuwaiti body and was not directly involved in negotiations between the IOC and Kuwait on the issue.
The sheikh said Kuwait was one of the 206 national Olympic committees due to attend the ANOC meeting on Thursday and Friday. He said the Kuwaiti delegates would be allowed to stay but without any voting rights.
"I hope there will be an understanding very soon," Sheikh Ahmad said, warning that otherwise a "whole generation of athletes" would suffer.
If the suspension is not lifted before next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Kuwaiti athletes will be barred from representing their country at the Games. The IOC would have to give them special dispensation to compete as individuals under the Olympic flag.
"I will give my full support to bring them," the sheikh said.
Kuwait was suspended by the IOC in 2010, also in a dispute over government interference. The country was reinstated in 2012 ahead of the London Games after Kuwait's ruler, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, pledged autonomy for the Olympic Committee and promised new legislation for institutions governing sports.
Sheikh Ahmad said he couldn't understand why Kuwait would now establish a law that goes back on the ruler's pledge to the IOC.
In recent years, the IOC also suspended the national Olympic bodies of India, Ghana and Panama for political interference, but all were eventually reinstated.
The IOC recently gave Sri Lanka until the end of the year to revise its sports legislation or face suspension.
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