?The initiative of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) president Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa to form a ‘Sport Jury’, tasked at resolving sports disputes in the gulf region, was finally put down on paper.
This statement was announced after a four-member committee comprising general secretaries of GCC national Olympic Committees had their first meeting in Bahrain yesterday (December 1) to prepare the initiative draft.
Bahrain Olympic Committee general secretary Abdulrahman Askar chaired the meeting, which was also attended by general secretaries of national Olympic Committees in the GCC, namely Mohammed Al Kamali (UAE), Mohammed Al Meshel (Saudi Arabia) and Mishal Al Khalifa (Qatar).
In yesterday’s meeting, held at the InterContinental Regency Hotel, the legal and administrative framework were set up in order to prepare the draft of the ‘Sport Jury’, which will be under the umbrella of the GCC General Secretariat.
On his part, committee chairman Al Kamali will coordinate with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to get an up-close look at its experience in this area and in order for the ‘Sport Jury’ regulations to become compatible with those applied at CAS.
The initiative draft will now be sent out to all national GCC Olympic Committees as well as the GCC General Secretariat on December 7.
The purpose-formed committee will then wait for replies and any other observations from the Olympic Committees and the General Secretariat by December 20 before submitting the draft in its complete form onto the Executive Office for their meeting on December 26 in Kuwait to have it approved.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the sports affairs directorate at the GCC General Secretariat as well as several legal advisors from all the four regional sports committees.
