IOC imposes a 15-year ban on Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad for breach of oath

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) imposed a 15-year suspension on former Olympic power broker Sheikh Ahmad of Kuwait as his conviction for forgery has been upheld by a Swiss criminal appeals court in Geneva.

Ahmad's suspension for “a betrayal of his IOC Member’s oath, as well as the seriousness of the damage to the IOC’s reputation” was approved by the Olympic body’s executive board in a decision.

The suspension period starts from the date of his previous ban for a separate issue of unethical conduct, in an Olympic Council of Asia election. Ahmad has already been serving a three-year ban imposed on him on July 27 last year.

Ahmad will be 74 when his latest punishment expires. According to IOC rules, his membership will expire at the age of 80, but the Olympic Charter allows the executive body to expel a member for betraying their oath.

Ahmad, a former close ally of IOC president Thomas Bach, was in charge of the Olympic Council of Asia before joining the IOC in 1992. He was also a key campaign during Bach's election in 2013.

In January, Ahmad, his English former lawyer, a Kuwaiti aide and a lawyer based in Geneva had their convictions from September 2021 upheld on charges linked to orchestrating a sham arbitration case a decade ago.

Ahmad also was a senior FIFA official from 2015-17 until withdrawing his candidacy for re-election when implicated by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn in steering bribes to soccer officials in Asia. He denied wrongdoing and was not indicted.