In an exclusive interview in a Lausanne hotel suite with a spectacular view over Lake Geneva ahead of last week's meeting of the ANOC Executive Council, Sheikh Ahmad looked back over developments since he succeeded Mexico's Mario Vázquez Raña as President and ahead to the remaining months of what he has described as a "critical" year for the organisation.

This period will include Presidential elections in November in Bangkok at which the former OPEC chairman is set to run for a new four-year term.

Sheikh Ahmad addresses the ANOC Executive Council alongside Thomas Bach and ANOC secretary general Gunilla Lindberg ©ANOC


"I think now we are already finished with the structure of the organisation," he tells me, in reference to the changes introduced since 2012.

"The headquarters, the constitution, the commissions: this is the main thing to start off with - a good infrastructure.

"I think the second move will be our events and how we can deliver extra value for the athletes."

Two events in particular - one altogether new, one expanded to global status - loom large in ANOC's future.

The first of these is the inaugural ANOC Gala Awards dinner, to be staged in Bangkok in November, coinciding with the 2014 General Assembly.

Sheikh Ahmad makes no attempt to mask the scale his ambitions for this event.

"We will mix it with the culture of the five continents," he says.

"This is the idea: it will be like the Oscars of sport...

"It will be a way of showing appreciation for our athletes, coaches and NOCs for what they are doing in the Movement."

Awards will include best male and female athletes and teams, coach of the year, most successful NOC and best breakthrough NOC.

The inaugural awards will cover both the London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.

The second event is the World Beach Games, which ANOC has been planning to launch with SportAccord, the body headed by Marius Vizer, at a yet-to-be-determined time and place.

ANOC is planning to launch the World Beach Games with SportAccord, the body headed by Marius Vizer (pictured right) ©SportAccord



"The Beach Games has been created in Asia many years ago," he tells me - and indeed the latest Asian Beach Games, the fourth, is set for the Thai resort of Phuket in November.

"But now it starts to be more universal...

"We are looking to build on a very strong start.

"For that reason we are very keen about the choice of city and the sports programme.

"We think the event has a very big potential.

"We are thinking about where best to start to make the World Beach Games a new landmark among events in the Movement."

He discloses that ANOC is in communication with cities on four continents.

Asked about timing, he suggests that this might be decided at the next General Assembly.

"We have to make sure that the NOCs are ready for the first Games," he tells me.

"We have to see what they prefer."

I put it to him that all these initiatives must be costing money and ask whether ANOC has sufficient from its established Olympic Movement sources, or if he is looking to exploit new channels, such as corporate sponsorship.

"First," he replies, "we are in a very stable financial situation with the programme of the IOC.

"We have started to act in a very economical way: we spend two-thirds and keep one-third as a reserve.

"All that we are keeping now; we have our own investment."

Sheikh Ahmad announced at the last IOC Session in Buenos Aires, in his capacity as chairman of the Olympic Solidarity Commission which manages and distributes IOC broadcasting income due to NOCs via a variety of programmes, that Olympic Solidarity was establishing a $200 million (£117 million/€148 million) reserve.

"Nobody knows what will happen in the next four years," he told IOC members in Argentina.

The rate of growth of the IOC's overall broadcasting income is set to slow markedly in 2013-2016 after the jump registered in the previous quadrennium.

"We are not in a bad situation," the Sheikh continues, "but we are also looking to find another finance channel.

"Not for Solidarity...but I think underdeveloped countries need more focus, and maybe these funds can help those NOCs.

"If we can have another channel of income, of course we will share it with our partners in the Games.

"Whatever comes to ANOC should be only to help underdeveloped NOCs and athletes and to grow the Movement."

He professes to be "100 per cent" confident that this new finance channel can be developed by starting the Gala and the World Beach Games.

But the Gala is quite soon, I interject, this doesn't leave you much time to find sponsors or other backing.

"The first one we have to invest," he retorts, with the air of a man who has travelled similar roads before.

"If you are looking for business support, first in the beginning, we have to invest.

"Then you can find the people to be a part of it."

Much interest surrounding the 2014 General Assembly is linked to the election and the Gala, but it is the location of next year's event - Washington DC - that already looks to be one of its most intriguing features.

The 2015 ANOC General Assembly will take place in Washington DC ©AFP/Getty Images


The event will come at a particularly significant juncture, amid continuing signs of a marked dilution of the anti-American sentiment that has been detectable in the Movement for a number of years now.

It should also be clearer by then whether there will be a US bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.

The designated candidate might even be Washington itself: the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) last month named Washington as one of four shortlisted candidates for a potential bid, the others being Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

"It will be a very exciting session to go back to the United States," he told me.

"We think it will be good added-value for us and also for them to bring back the trust of the sports movement to the States which is very important.

"This is very important for us.

"We know the psychology of sport because we are a part of it.

"I think our job is not only to organise events and to be in office...

"We believe we are part of the IOC and part of the Movement and if we can make people start to have more trust or confidence about any psychological problem, this will be a great help for the Movement because in the end we are a family, a united family - International Federations, the IOC and the NOCs."

Among Sheikh Ahmad's other sports administration roles, he is long-time President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and honorary life President of the Kuwait Football Association.

So I ask whether, after the power struggles that have characterised Asian football in recent times, he thinks that a more harmonious period may finally be at hand.

He replies: "I think what has been happening in Asia is there was a very big change because a lot of people wanted to change the system and want to be anti-corruption, and I think they have already reached a lot of goals from this plan.

"For that reason, I think in the 2015 [Asian Football Confederation Presidential] election, you will found the unity of Asia."

Kuwait publicly backed Bahrain's Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, clear-cut winner of the last AFC Presidential election in 2013.

Nonetheless, sitting in his Lausanne hotel suite, Sheikh Ahmad voices encouragement for Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, who recently lost out to Shaikh Salman over who should hold Asia's FIFA vice-presidency.

Sheikh Ahmad has voiced encouragement for Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein to continue as a member of FIFA ©Getty Images


"Ali can represent Asia - I support Ali to be a member of FIFA as an individual," he says.

"It was only the change of structure: that the President should be the FIFA vice-president."

He goes on: "Ali starts to have experience now."

The Jordanian campaigned successfully for the ban on Muslim women footballers wearing the hijab to be lifted.

"Hijab was good - and also he starts to analyse the culture of FIFA.

"We need people in FIFA who know the culture of FIFA and other continents, not only Asia.

"Ali is one of those people."

The Sheikh is known as one of IOC President Bach's staunchest allies.

So it will perhaps come as little surprise that he has warm words for Olympic Agenda 2020 and what it promises to accomplish.

"I am very proud about what President Bach is doing," he says.

"I think it is the right time to think about the future of the Movement.

"A lot of people in the Movement have mentioned before that the world is changing and we have to be flexible with those changes.

"I think President Bach gave them an opportunity with his new vision 2020 - and not only that, but he also started the mechanism."

Sheikh Ahmad has said nothing will be cancelled when talking about the Youth Olympic Games, which is the brain child of former IOC President Jacques Rogge (pictured left) ©AFP/Getty Images


He steers me away from the notion that I had picked up somewhere along the way, that the Youth Games might be discontinued or cancelled.

"I don't know what the committee will decide in the end...but I think we cannot say cancelled.

"Nothing will be cancelled."

But he does think that, when decisions are taken in December at an extraordinary IOC Session in Monte Carlo, change will be substantial and widespread.

"It will be in many sectors and a lot of changes," he says.

ANOC, clearly, is not the only arm of the Olympic Movement for which 2014 is shaping up to be a "critical" year.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.