Former IOC director-general and FIFA reformer Carrard dies

François Carrard was also chairman of the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation. © Keystone / Anthony Anex

The former director-general of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), François Carrard, passed away in Lausanne on Sunday at the age of 83.

The Swiss lawyer, who was a specialist in sports law, was IOC director-general from 1989 to 2003. Prior to that, he worked as a legal advisor to the Olympic organisation from 1979 alongside the presidents Juan Antonio Samaranch and Jacques Rogge.

Carrard, who was born in Lausanne in 1938, played a key role in sports ethics and governance and was an influential figure behind the scenes.

“François Carrard was a brilliant man with immense analytic skills and a very wide horizon. President Samaranch and the entire Olympic Movement could always rely on his invaluable advice. He was not only a man of law and sport, but also a great man of culture,” said IOC President Thomas Bach in a tributeExternal link on Monday. 

Carrard presided over the bribery scandal concerning Salt Lake City being awarded the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and the subsequent governance clean-up.

He also led the taskforce that drew up FIFA reforms following the corruption scandal which hit football’s global governing body in 2015.

“I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of François Carrard,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Monday. “Mr Carrard was a man with the utmost integrity and a unique ability to unite, no matter how testing the circumstances.”

Global sports advisor

Carrard was also a leading figure in the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency and advised various international sports federations, including the International Swimming Federation (FINA), FIFA and the International Boxing Association.

In an interview with him just a few months prior to his death, Carrard told SWI swissinfo.ch about the challenges facing international sports federations as they enter a “new era”.

“International sports federations, which pretend to govern sport more and more, face serious problems of governance, some of corruption, some of incompetence, but not all of them,” he said.

They “may be losing their grip” as large financial groups try to control sports via investors, he added.

Carrard’s death was announced by the International Sports Press Association, of which Carrard was a member of the Ethics Commission.

The Geneva newspaper Le TempssaidExternal link Carrard epitomised a typically Swiss savoir-faire, “a mix of solid legal training, and an innate sense of diplomacy and discreet efficiency”.

Carrard continued to advise the IOC until his death while heading the Lausanne-based legal firm Kellerhals Carrard.

Campaigning journalist dies

Investigative journalist Andrew Jennings, whose work helped expose malpractice at both the IOC and FIFA, also died at the weekend – on January 8 at the age of 78.

His investigations covered the period that Carrard worked at the IOC and in reforming FIFA.

The British journalist brought public attention to shady practices within the IOC with his 1992 book “The Lords of the Rings”, followed by the “New Lords of the Rings” in 1996 and “The Great Olympic Swindle” in 2000.

Jennings then turned his attention to FIFA, having been handed incriminating documents by a whistleblower. This led to the 2006 book “FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals” that blew the lid on corruption at world football’s governing body.