New IOC president to remain unpaid volunteer: Rogge

The successor to International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge will remain an unpaid volunteer after all six presidential hopefuls turned down the idea of a salary, Rogge said on Friday.

Rogge, who steps down in September after 12 years in charge, had recently suggested that the IOC Presidency should be a paid position as the duties of leading the world's biggest multi-sports organisation amounted to a full-time job.

Six candidates have stepped forward to succeed the Belgian with elections set for September 10 at the IOC session in Buenos Aires.

"We discussed the issue of remuneration and I explained why I launched the idea," Rogge told reporters after an executive board meeting.

"There could be a circumstance that the candidate is of a young age and would have to take care of his family," Rogge, a surgeon by profession, said.

"All six of them said they did not want to be remunerated, so that settles the matter for these elections."

IOC Vice Presidents Thomas Bach of Germany and Singaporean Ng Ser Miang are running for the top job, along with Puerto Rican Richard Carrion, who heads the IOC finance commission, former Olympic pole vault champion Sergei Bubka, international boxing federation chief C.K. Wu and rowing chief Denis Oswald.

"I am definitely in my last stretch (of the presidency) and I can see the finish line and the ribbon which says September 10," Rogge said.

"I hope to cross it in good shape...and that I will have fulfilled my duty. I have no concerns. I rejoice that any of the six would be very good presidents."

The executive board agreed on Friday to allow candidates to present their plans to IOC members on the sidelines of a session in Lausanne in July, before the vote in September.

"There will be a presentation of the six candidates. "There they will present their manifesto to the members," Rogge said.

Photograph: Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters