New president for sport court

3 April 2008

GENEVA – Italian lawyer Mino Auletta was elected president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday, beating out former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound.

Auletta, who has been acting president of CAS, said by telephone from Monaco that he received a majority of the votes at a meeting of the 19 members of the court’s governing body. At least 10 votes were needed to win.

Auletta, who will oversee the appointment of arbitrators for the sports world’s top appeals body, also defeated Swiss lawyer Robert Briner and Sweden’s Gunnar Werner to get the job.

The result was not immediately announced by CAS, but was confirmed by other members of the board at the meeting.

Auletta has been acting president since the death of Senegalese judge Keba Mbaye last year. He will now fill the role until the end of Mbaye’s term in 2010, after which CAS will elect a president for a full four-year term.

Pound, a Canadian lawyer and senior member of the International Olympic Committee, drew fire recently for his outspoken style. The International Cycling Union announced last month that it is suing Pound over comments he made about doping in the sport.

UCI president Pat McQuaid welcomed Thursday’s result and said he looked forward to working with Auletta.

“We will fight doping as hard as we can, we just hope that we end up with less and less resorting to CAS in actual fact,” McQuaid told The Associated Press by telephone.

Pound said he would remain on the court’s governing board.

The CAS president is required to be impartial in his oversight of the nearly 300 arbitrators who rule on about 200 disputes every year. The CAS presidency had been vacant since the death of 82-year-old Mbaye, who had been the body’s only president since its creation in 1984.

[AP / Expatica]