Caribbean sports bodies need to reassess their models -- CANOC president

President of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) Keith Joseph has questioned whether regional bodies are contemplating proposals to place before the international governing body to change their current model.

Joseph said his personal opinion is that the Olympics model is in need of change.

“I think it has exhausted its usefulness,” he said while speaking on the TalkSports programme with Michael Bascombe on Saturday.

As an example, Joseph pointed to the since abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan proposed by Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, the world governing body for football.

The FFE was expected to be a private investment scheme that would sell a commercial stake in major tournaments like the FIFA World Cup.

It was abandoned after facing strong opposition from powerful football associations around the world.

Joseph said other international associations are “thinking along the same lines.”

“They just have not articulated it in the way he has,” he opined, making reference to the FIFA president.

As a result, the CANOC president questioned what are regional federations doing “in terms of readying ourselves to respond to those challenges that are being raised?”

“What are our Olympics committee doing in order to bring to the table of the International Olympic Committee, where we are already under-represented, to change the model that we are using?” he questioned.

The answers to those questions, he suggested, must be based on fundamental research and continuing analyses of the role of the regional bodies within a changing international environment.

“And if we don’t do it now as a Caribbean grouping we will get left behind,” he warned.

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