EBetween the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the international sports federations (FIS), relations have rarely been fun. The IOC is fortunate to have appeared in 1894, before international sport was organized. Most of the FIS were formed between 1904 and 1913, and the Olympic Games (OG) have long served as world championships for many sports: until 1928 for football and 1980 for athletics. On three occasions, the FIS demanded to participate in the management of the IOC. Each time, the latter managed to keep them at bay.
In 1921, judging the IOC too undemocratic, the presidents of the most professional sports federations joined forces within a permanent office to try to place the organization of international competitions under the supervision of the recent League of Nations (1920 -1946). Pierre de Coubertin tried to put out the fire by proposing a conciliation congress in Prague in 1925. The IOC then granted the FIS the organization and regulation of their sport, but did not consider bringing the leaders into its circle.
Until the 1970s, the IOC could put the FIS in competition by composing the Olympic program as it wished, or by excluding federations that it considered too permissive under its own regulations on sports amateurism. The balance of power will be reversed with the development of the sports television market. Spurred on by the cycling federation, linked to the media and commercial brands from the beginning, a Global Assembly of the FIS (Agfis) was created in 1967.
As they did not obtain satisfaction at a new conciliation congress in Varna (Bulgaria) in 1973, certain FIS set up first contracts with the German sports equipment manufacturer Adidas (football, athletics, swimming). For its part, the IOC is pushed against the wall by the American television channels which finance most of the Olympics, and by the CIA which wants to propel American professional athletes ahead of those from Eastern countries.
Juan Antonio Samaranch (President of the IOC from 1980 to 2001) is obliged to adopt a new economic and sporting model. Under the influence of Horst Dassler, boss of Adidas and the Swiss marketing company International Sport and Leisure, and with the help of two business lawyers, the Swiss François Carrard and the Canadian Richard Pound, Samaranch launched in 1985 “The Olympic Partner”, a sponsorship program which gives exclusivity to around ten American, Japanese and South Korean multinational firms.
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