Manama: Kuwait is taking the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Swiss courts for damages amounting to one billion dollars resulting from the IOC’s unjustifiable decision to suspend Kuwait Olympic Committee (KOC), a minister has said.

“It is totally unacceptable that Kuwait is treated in such an unfair way and that it is barred from international sports activities without conducting an appropriate probe,” Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Shaikh Salman Al Humoud Al Sabah said.

The minister was referring to the suspension of the Kuwait Olympic Committee announced by the IOC Executive Board (EB) in the Swiss city of Lausanne on October 29.

The OIC said the suspension was “in order to protect the Olympic Movement in Kuwait from undue government interference”.

Under the ban, the KOC “is not entitled to participate in any activity connected with the Olympic Movement or exercise any right conferred upon it by the Olympic Charter or the IOC”.

Shaikh Salman, who was speaking on the sidelines of a “ghabqa” hosted at the Public Authority for Sports Affairs on Wednesday night, said that Kuwait tried to put its viewpoint across and explain how the authorities did not interfere in sports.

“From the very beginning, Kuwait did its utmost to prevent the OIC EB decision and showed a sincere desire to cooperate, but it was all to no avail. We sent a UN-sponsored delegation to Geneva to explain to the world sports body that the Kuwaiti government did not interfere in the sports activities. However, we were put in an embarrassing situation in the eyes of the international sports circles and looked as if we were outlaws,” he said, quoted by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).

Regarding the stances of the KOC and Kuwait Football Association (KFA) towards the decision, Shaikh Salman regretted that the two bodies “called for the suspension and were happy about it”.

“It is strange that the KOC and KFA officials, who rose to eminence only through the support of the Kuwaiti government and who are supposed to represent us, revealed documents only after the ICO EB made their decision,” he said.

The minister expressed hope that the amendments to the sports laws, recently introduced by the parliament, will prepare the ground for creating a common vision for the development of the sports activities in a more orderly way.

The complaints from within Kuwait led to unprecedented and unfair decisions by the international sports bodies without any respect for the status of Kuwait, he added.

Shaikh Salman reaffirmed that the Kuwaiti sports regulations banned any government interference in the administrative and technical affairs of the local sports bodies. “There is only positive interference in the form of support and backing for the sports bodies meant to promote the Olympic movement,” he said, quoted by the official news agency.

“Looking ahead, we stress the need for a common stance and cooperation involving all concerned parties without excluding anybody. All of us have to put the higher interests of Kuwait above all other considerations, spare no effort to promote sports and bring back the youth to the international sports events.”