Sheikh Ahmad al-Sabah, whose influence and wealth made him one of the most powerful figures in the Olympic movement and football’s governing body, Fifa, has stood down as an International Olympic Committee member pending an ethics committee hearing into allegations of forgery.
The 55-year-old Kuwaiti, a softly spoken man with distinctive curly shoulder length hair who is never knowingly without his bodyguards, has been an IOC member since 1992 and chairs the Olympic Solidarity Commission which controls how money generated by the Games is allocated to national Olympic committees.
He is also the president of the Olympic Council of Asia and the Association of National Olympic Committees and was increasingly seen as a kingmaker in the corridors of the IOC, having helped deliver victories for Tokyo 2020, president Thomas Bach and wrestling in recent years.
However Sheikh Ahmad’s reputation took a knock last year when he resigned from Fifa’s ruling council after being linked with Richard Lai, the Fifa audit and compliance committee member who was banned for bribery.
And on Monday he stepped down from his IOC roles following allegations by Swiss prosecutors that he and four others made fake videos as part of a plot against two Kuwaiti government officials.
In a statement Sheikh Ahmad said he would be “willing and ready to attend the hearing as and when decided”.
“Sheikh Ahmad has every confidence and trust in the Swiss courts and IOC Ethics Commission’s impartial due processes and that he will be completely exonerated,” it added. “It should be remembered that Sheikh Ahmad has had the honour of being an IOC member for 26 years and he fully intends to continue serving the IOC again at the earliest opportunity.”
Last year when Sheikh Ahmad resigned from Fifa’s ruling council after being linked to Lai’s bribery and corruption case in the United States he “vigorously” denied any wrongdoing – and said he was stepping down to avoid becoming a distraction at Fifa.
Court documents in Lai’s case did not directly name Sheikh Ahmad but referred to someone who “at various times” was a “high-ranking official of Fifa, the Kuwait Football Association, and the Olympic Council of Asia”.
In a second statement announcing his resignation, Sheikh Ahmad said it was in Fifa’s “best interests” for him to go. Lai, who admitted taking $950,000 in bribes in a US court, later agreed to pay more than $1.1m in forfeiture and penalties.