Ftsis 2007: Pound – Sport ‘lacks Fight’ On Doping

In his last public address as chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Dick
Pound told the gathered delegates at the FT Sport Industry Summit 2007 that he
believed most people in the industry lacked the ‘stomach for the fight’ to take
on the doping issue.

Pound urged the industry that leadership required the need to stick to
fundamental values and that poor leaders did not develop the necessary trust in
the relationship between either the company and its partners or, in sport’s
case, with the fan.

Citing examples during his time at the International Olympic Committee, Pound
explained that a ‘verbal contract was no less binding than a written one’ and
that without trust there was little in the way of the moral leadership that
sport requires.

He referred specifically to one TV rights negotiation with US broadcaster NBC
where the contract ended up being $60m more than originally agreed after the
lawyers had worked on it.

Pound said that the IOC waived the fee on the basis that sport’s governing
bodies should not be ‘opportunistic’ in its dealings – using this as an example
in the manner in which sport specifically should govern itself.