The World Aquatics Integrity Unit has provisionally suspended the Secretary General of the Lebanese Swimming Federation, Farid Abi Raad.
The AQIU says that the suspension was “due to a potential violation of Articles 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 9.9 of the World Aquatics Integrity Code.”
“This decision was taken to safeguard public confidence in the integrity of aquatics and to protect the safety of Federation officials,” the statement continues.
The labeled sections of the World Aquatics Integrity Code are vague and don’t give many hints as to the accusations levied against Abi Raad.
From the Integrity Code:
5.1 Covered Persons must always act honestly, fairly, impartially and in accordance with the highest ethical standards of integrity and transparency.
5.2 Covered Persons must avoid any conduct that is inconsistent with or that undermines in any way the objectives of this Integrity Code.
5.3 Covered Persons must avoid acts or omissions that give the appearance of impropriety, or that disparage World Aquatics, or that bring (or have the potential to bring) World Aquatics, Aquatics and/or sport generally into disrepute.
9.9 Covered Persons must not abuse their position within Aquatics in any way, especially for their own aims or objectives.
The suspension prevents him from holding any position within World Aquatics or any World Aquatics Member Federation, including the Lebanese Swimming Federation, or participate in any aquatic-related activities and/or events.
Abi Raad was previously a member of the FINA Masters Committee.
The official letter from the AQIU says that Abi Raad has been accused by an official within the Lebanese Federation of making threats, including to influence decisions on training programs and the selection of swimmers in Lebanon. He has until January 3, 2025 to respond to the accusations against him.
The announcement was made shortly after the conclusion of the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest where Lebanese swimmers broke national records in eight events. Abi Raad has been part of Lebanon’s official delegation at several recent championships, including the meet in Budapest.
In total, the country’s swimmers broke records in 28 events in 2024.
Many officials in the Lebanon try to use their power to influence decisions like who gets to go to certain competitions. Some qualified swimmers have been swimming competitively for 15 years and still hasn’t had the chance to participate in major events due to people in the federation with power. Every two years a mandatory Change is required in federation. Then integrity reins.
Again World Aquatics tries to come across as it’s taking the moral high ground by suspending small players from nations without any aquatic prowess. They should focus on the bigwigs who are obvious hostile like Zhou Jihong from China. But doing something about that would hurt their bank account
Zhou has lost her position in China now.
I know this.If they start suspending all the people who are involved in their countries swimming decisions for corruption, there might not be many people left.I,ve lived in some of these countries..I can,t think of 1 that isn,t almost 100 percent corrupt.
And yet the Chinese got to compete at World Championships……