Old ruling gods of Mount Olympus should make way for the new

ON Sunday, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates blamed Australia's disappointing performance at the London Games on sports administrators in this country. Maybe he's right. But another, more important review is long overdue.

Let us lift our gaze to the summit of Mount Olympus, where too many people have reigned for far too long at the AOC and the International Olympic Committee. Why don't we take a broom to these elite sports administrators? In fact, bring a crowbar. Getting them out of their cushy, highly paid, perk-laden Olympic jobs won't be easy.

Companies change their chief executives on a regular basis to avoid complacency, hubris and decay setting in. We change prime ministers for the same reason. Yet Coates has been president of the AOC for 22 years while five Australian prime ministers have come and gone. To be sure, Julia Gillard hasn't gone yet, but if you're a betting man, Coates will survive her too. Why should running the AOC be any different from running a company or running a nation? New ideas from a newcomer does wonders for a company and a nation. Ditto at the AOC.

If you think Coates has had a long run, look at the IOC where Coates is regarded as a potential vice-president. Our own Kevan Gosper has been on the IOC since 1977, serving as vice-president and on various committees. That's 35 years as a top IOC official.

Gosper started at the IOC when Malcolm Fraser was running the country. He has lasted almost three times longer than Franklin D. Roosevelt, the longest serving US president whose four terms convinced Americans to limit future US presidents to two terms.

No doubt Gosper and Coates have contributed much to the Olympic movement. But surely 35 years is long enough aboard the IOC gravy train. In London, IOC members stayed in $2000-a-night rooms. They were collected by sleek limousines, travelling down IOC lanes that even British politicians refused to use for fear of looking too elite. IOC members shared cocktails with the Queen and some sat close by Her Majesty at the Games. Recall, too, that Gosper's daughter carried the Olympic flame at the Athens Olympics. The "Olympic family" is certainly a large one.

Maybe we should be grateful that IOC members are no longer appointed for life. There is only one lifer left. Appointed in 1971, Russian IOC member Vitaly Smirnov is still there, enjoying the IOC hospitality. Alas, Gosper must retire next year at the age of 80 but he is almost assured of becoming an honorary IOC member. He will take his place alongside former Australian IOC member Phil Coles, who joined other honorary passengers on the IOC gravy plane attending the Games, IOC congresses and IOC sessions. Please send me an application form for this lifetime of perks.

Organisations that have people on top for too long can be susceptible to instances of corruption. There is absolutely no suggestion this is the case with Coates and Gosper; however, some IOC officials have forgotten to abide by the IOC preamble: "Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles."

Take Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid de Havelange. The Brazilian was appointed a member of the IOC in 1963 and resigned only last year -- at 95 -- when he faced corruption findings by the IOC ethics committee.

Havelange, also the former president of the international football federation, FIFA, managed to outstay megalomaniac African dictators such as president Zine El Abedine Ben Ali of Tunisa, who ruled for a mere 23 years; Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, who fell after 30 years; and the "Brother Leader" of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, and president Omar Bongo of Gabon, who both ruled for 42 years. Havelange remained a top IOC official for 48 years.

Then there's Ivan Slavkov, appointed to the IOC in 1987. He was a relative IOC newcomer when undercover reporters with the BBC's Panorama filmed the Bulgarian in 2004 expressing his willingness to vote for London's 2012 bid -- and elicit votes from other IOC members to do the same -- in exchange for bribes. Again, the IOC ethics committee investigated and recommended Slavkov's expulsion.

Remember, though, that the IOC ethics committee was set up only after the Salt Lake City scandals where IOC members allegedly enjoyed perks worth millions of dollars as part of the bidding process for the 2002 winter Olympics. An internal inquiry found evidence that 20 of the 110 IOC members had been bribed to vote for the Salt Lake City bid. Ten were expelled. The rest were sanctioned. Indeed, corruption has beset the IOC movement from top to bottom with greedy employees embezzling $US1.6 million ($1.52m) from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Ethical behaviour must start at the top. Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC president for 21 years, was the second longest serving IOC boss after Pierre de Coubertin's 29 years in the top job. The Spaniard, who ran the IOC as a fiefdom and preferred the title Your Excellency, was photographed saluting Spanish dictator Francisco Franco at the 38th anniversary of the general's coup.

An investigative reporter and author of three books about Olympic corruption, Andrew Jennings, has written at length about the rampant corruption during Samaranch's reign. And when Jacques Rogge was appointed IOC president in 2001, Jennings said the IOC remained "a private club where democracy and morality are low priorities".

Rogge won't be IOC boss for as long as Samaranch was. The IOC president is now appointed for an eight-year term, renewable once for four years. But that is still too long. There are also new retirement ages and new term limits for IOC members. New IOC members are now elected for eight years and terms can be renewed. These limits are also insufficient.

Even the most august administrators must move on. Accordingly, Coates and Gosper should step down from all their Olympic posts to make way for fresh faces and new ideas. Indeed, the gravy train must come to a stop at an earlier station for all IOC members. It's time for new rules so that the IOC conductors, ticket collectors and other perk-laden IOC administrators get a shorter ride.