Rogge ready to stand down as IOC chief after London 2012

JACQUES Rogge has claimed he is ready to stand down as International Olympic Committee president after the London 2012 Olympics.

READY TO QUIT: IOC president Jacques Rogge was in Berlin last week in the build-up to the World Athletics Championships. He has hinted he may step down in 2013 (Getty Images)

Rogge succeeded Juan Antonio Samaranch in 2001 and is expected to be reelected to a four-year term at the IOC Congress in Copenhagen later this year.

But his comments to American website, Around the Rings, will spark a battle for succession that could dominate Olympic politics for years to come.

“If re-elected, my term would last until 2013 and I would still have I think about nine years lease of life as an IOC member,” said Rogge.

“But I think that would not be proper. I think when you have led an organisation, you become a past or honorary president.”

And in comments that may be interrupted as a snub to Samaranch, who has remained active in IOC matters as life president, Rogge added: “I think at the end of my term it will be time for me to resign from the IOC and for the IOC to decide what to do with me.

“I think the first quality of a past president is to shut up.”