I don`t have confidence on the current set-up of IOA: Maken

Ajay Maken said he doesn`t have the confidence that the IOA will be able to live up to the standards of transparency.

New Delhi: Sport Minister Ajay Maken on Thursday said he doesn`t have the confidence that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will be able to live up to the standards of transparency that hosting an international event such as Olympics or Asian Games demand.

"Hosting an event such as Olympics or Asian Games demands transparency and involves handling a huge sum of money and as the sports minister of India, I don`t have much confidence on the present set-up of IOA," said Maken while addressing FICCI`s 3rd Global Sports Summit `TURF 2011`: International Convention on the Business of Sport. "We can organise Asian Games much before the Olympics but we don`t have the confidence of handing over such huge sum of money to such organisations for international events, so we can`t commit to it," Maken said. The Sport Minister believes implementing the National Sports Development Bill could bring in that transparency. "Implementing this Bill would mean bringing in transparency. We can have a new set of clean and younger lot, who would be replace the current bunch of office-bearers in the IOA. This will give confidence to the government as well as to the corporates to invest in such organisations," he said. "The corporate bodies invest on athletes but they don`t give money to the sports federations directly because they are not confident if the money actually goes to the sports and not to the office-bearers of the federations. Unless we provide them that sort of confidence, the corporates sector will never invest in sports," Maken said. Asked about the possibility of India hosting the 2012 South Asian Games, Maken said, "We are looking forward to hosting the SAG in 2012 but I am concerned what will happen if the president of the IOA, who is currently in jail on corruption charges, comes out and resumes his position and organises the SAG," he said. PTI