Field of four candidates for sport court’s presidency

27 February 2008

LAUSANNE – Two more candidates have joined the race to become president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, bringing the number of contenders to four.

Current interim president Mino Auletta, an Italian lawyer, and Gunnar Werner, Sweden’s former honorary secretary of the International Amateur Swimming Federation (FINA), are being considered.

The International Olympic Committee makes the nominations.

“The IOC executive board is being consulted and can nominate candidates even though the board will not meet until April in Beijing”, IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said Tuesday.

The two previously declared candidates are Dick Pound, a senior IOC member from Canada and former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and Robert Briner, a Swiss international lawyer based in Geneva.

The presidency of the Lausanne-based court has been vacant since the death in January 2007 of Keba Mbaye, a Senegalese judge who led the organization since its creation by the IOC in 1984.

The 20-member council of CAS will elect the new president as its next meeting in Monaco on April 3.

The president will control the appointment of around 300 arbitrators who rule on an average of 200 disputes each year.

[Copyright ap 2008]