Rogge hits out at three countries for gender discrimination

By Gerard Meagher, Sportsbeat

 INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has hit out at three countries for not supporting their female athletes in sport.

 LADIES' MAN: IOC President Jacques Rogge speaks out over gender discrimination in sport

Rogge, who was reelected for a final four-year term on Friday, did not name the three nations but claimed they all pose ‘religious, cultural and political difficulties' for women in sport.

He added that he hopes to report good results from two of those countries but does not hold much hope for the third.

"There are three countries that according to our analysis that are causing problems for women in sport and we are urging them to adopt a more liberal approach," he said.

"With two of them I am hoping to report on good progress by the end of next year but to name names would make the task a far harder one."   

Several Arab countries have previously refused to send women to the Olympic Games but among them Oman, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates all sent female athletes to Beijing 2008.

Qatar sent a male-only team to the Beijing Games, although they do not prohibit women from taking part unlike Saudi Arabia, who Anita DeFrantz, head of the IOC women and sports commission, has publicly criticised.

DeFrantz has called for Saudi Arabia to either drop their gender discrimination policy or be dropped from the London 2012 Olympics.

Meanwhile, Rogge also defended the presence of former International Sport and Leisure chairman Jean Marie Weber at the IOC Session in Copenhagen.

Weber was heavily involved in a bribery scandal when in charge of ISL, which allegedly paid £77m to leading sporting officials to secure marketing and television rights.

During his eight-year tenure, Rogge has significant contributed to the cleaning up of the IOC's image, following the Salt Lake City scandal, which saw several IOC members receive bribes to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in the American city.

Weber's presence in Copenhagen re-opened the debate, as did the conflict of interest that could occur following the inception of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark into the IOC, but Rogge was quick to refute such claims.    

"I can categorically say that the IOC played no part in the ISL affair, I cannot make that any clearer, it was mainly between FIFA and them," said Rogge.

"I will look into why he was present here but we cannot know everything that is going on in Copenhagen this week.

"With regards to Crown Prince Frederik, it could not be simpler. Should a conflict of interest occur the members simply abstain from voting.

"I remember when we were voting on the future of baseball and softball and one member was heavily involved with a company that made baseball bats so they abstained."