New boss Bach lays out his priorities
IOC chief to tackle match-fixing and challenge of energising young to take more interest in sports
When newly elected International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach moves into his office in Lausanne on Tuesday he will be looking to build on predecessor Jacques Rogge's considerable legacy and also keen to set his own agenda.
The 59-year-old German - who last Tuesday won an overwhelming victory seeing off his five rivals to win in the second round of voting by his fellow IOC members - will have the Sochi Winter Olympics, which open in February, to focus his mind immediately.
However, in his post-victory press conference the affable lawyer - the first Olympic gold medallist to be elected to the most powerful job in sport - pinpointed match-fixing and engaging the young to practise more sport as two of the problems he will seek to tackle in his eight-year term.
Bach, who won team foil gold in fencing at the 1976 Olympics, said that while the battles against match-fixing and doping shared some characteristics the latter was easier to detect.
We should open up a dialogue with the younger generation, via the media and to listen very, very carefully
He also said it would be wrong to classify Asia as the problem area when it came to match-fixing. "I would not like to relate it [match-fixing] to a region of the world because the fight against match-fixing has to be an international one, this is a global fight," said Bach.