Opinion piece |08 January 2024

Indian Ocean Islands Games – a sporting legacy or a complete waste of time?

Background

The Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) have been a memorable yardstick in the annals of the history of sports in Seychelles and within the countries in the region that have participated in and organised in this part of the Indian Ocean.

Several athletes have braced the stage provided to them to showcase their talents in this showpiece event. As we come to the start of the fifth decade of this regional "islanders encounter", it is far time to reflect on the state of play of the past 40 years and how it has shaped sporting careers and other legacies it produced on that quite lengthy path. This reflection also came about as Seychelles began to debate the future of sports in our country and the challenges/pressure faced when international sports results were not entirely favourable.

I wish to mention at the very beginning that this paper is based on my own observations. I am a long-serving sports public servant who has participated as a team official in several editions of the games as well as had a hand in the organisation of two editions of this regional event.

History

It is extremely important to take a tour down memory lane to project how these games began and to understand the journey until today. From excerpts obtained from Wikipedia, there had been some kind of regular regional football fixtures between Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion as far back as 1947. It was dubbed the ‘Indian Ocean Triangular Games’. These matches were played quite regularly but were abruptly interrupted in 1963, following a match between Madagascar and Mauritius, which was tied at 1-1 and had to be abandoned in the 54th minute. After the arguments, Mauritius refused to play, and Madagascar declared themselves the winners of the match. As one can imagine, this did not go well with the other two countries, and the triangular tournament was stopped. Still, according to Wikipedia, it was the Reunion Island that brought about the idea of holding an Indian Ocean Games in 1974. The Games were then created by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1976.  Since the idea was prompted by Reunion, it was without doubt that the island staged the first Games in 1979. Interestingly, Sri Lanka, who was part of the initial discussions, did not take part in the Games and has not done so until today.

Thus started the regional sports festival with Mauritius taking over in 1985, Madagascar in 1990, Seychelles in 1993, Reunion in 1998, Mauritius in 2003, Madagascar in 2007, Seychelles in 2011, Reunion in 2015, Mauritius in 2019, and Madagascar in 2023.  The original idea was that the Games would take place every four years, but that has not been the case throughout. We may also notice that mainly four countries; notably Reunion, Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar have hosted the Games until now. Other island nations won the right to host the Games, but always, it has been one of the “big four” that had to step in to save and organise the event at the eleventh hour.

Legal context

As we move beyond mere sports participation, and taking cognisance of the Olympic ideal, that it is not medals that are important, but having participated (….) towards a more professionalised mega sports industry, one wonders about the status of the legal standing of our much beloved Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG).

Question 1: Who owns the IOIG?

Question 2: Is the IOIG a legal entity? Is it incorporated? If yes, in which jurisdiction? If no, what are the consequences that such non-legally instituted body has on all the previous IOIG editions to date?

Question 3: What could be the best way forward?

Who owns the IOIG?

In all my years as a sports staff of the National Sports Council (NSC), and eventually as a member of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga) previously Seychelles National Olympic Committee (Snoc), I was made to understand that the Olympic Committee (OC) is in charge of the IOIG. I emphasise on this point to state that being in charge doesn’t mean ownership. I know that for some people, it means the same thing, but to think in such a way is being economical with the truth. If the Olympic Committees own the Games, firstly, where is the record of the meeting where the item was discussed, and where such a decision was reached?  

Firstly, the only information I found on the foundation of the IOIG is that the constitutive meeting of the IOIG was held on October 14 and 15, 1977 in Reunion. No further details were furnished.

Secondly, I believe that such meetings were attended by both the Olympic committees and the public authorities (government representatives). Did the governments agree to this arrangement?

How was such a decision reached? If such was the case, meaning Olympic committees own the Games, why is it that their contributions to the organisation of the Games and athletes’ participation have been so little and meaningless?

Is the IOIG a legal entity? Is it incorporated? If yes, in which jurisdiction? If no, what are the consequences that such non-legally instituted body have on all the previous IOIG held to date?

As per the Wikipedia report, it was the ‘Comité Régional Olympique et Sportif’ (CROS) of Reunion which instituted the Indian Ocean Games, as they were formally known. The report also mentioned that CROS informed the IOC, and the latter accepted the Games.

Now this is an interesting point. Does that mean that the IOIG is a legal entity and incorporated in Reunion? I have checked the CROS website and there is no mention of the IOIG being a body corporate. Let us say, the IOIG is incorporated in Reunion. Since Reunion is a French department in the Indian Ocean, so anything that is done in Reunion should be sanctioned by the highest authorities in Paris, France. So, does that mean that Fance incorporates an entity that the members are not aware of, or did not agree to it? Note – I am just throwing off possible scenarios here, in the absence of information. I do welcome anyone who has the proper information to come forward and share, I couldn't find any myself, since the IOIG has no permanent secretariat and has no website to confirm any material needed.

Let us say France has jurisdiction over the IOIG, where did it get that mandate from? Are the regional Olympic Committees, supposedly owners of these Games (through France), aware of this arrangement? If there is such an arrangement, what is its legal standing?

As far as I know and I stand to be corrected, the only sort of legal document that is available is the IOIG Games charter.

The charter gives power to the Comité International des Jeux (CIJ) to oversee the organisation of the Games. The question is; where did this charter come from originally?  We could safely say that this could have been a simplified version of the Olympic Charter presented by France in the constitutive meeting and everybody agreed to it since there was nothing else to go to at that time. There again, could it be insinuated that France has a high stake or an upper hand in the IOIG business? Once again, I can't find any record of the meeting (if there were any) for proper verification.

Another interesting question is does the IOIG have a secretariat? A permanent one that oversees the proper administrative structure of the Games? This secretariat should be equipped with professional staff from each country of the region. If there is, how come other countries, in that case I mean Seychelles, do not have the possibility to have staff working in the secretariat?

On the other hand, who funds the secretariat?

There is an understanding that the temporary secretariat of the IOIG normally resides in the country that is presiding the Comité International des Jeux (CIJ). Again, for this, I also have not come across any record to substantiate that statement and during my time at Socga, I do not remember such arrangement.

I believe, somehow, that countries hosting the IOIG have some kind of legal framework which allows for the Games to take place in their local jurisdiction. This sort of gives some kind of legitimacy to the results performed and provides some kind of credibility to the event. However, it remains an anomaly that the IOIG does not have a permanent secretariat during all the time of its existence.

According to historical archives concerning the preparation, organisation, and holding of these Games, a document published in 2012, the IOC has created several Games from 1920 to 1988. These include the West African Games in 1976, the South African Games in 1969, and the Bolivian Games in 1938, among several others. Many of those Games are still in existence today, however from almost everyone I researched about, they operate under certain common criteria:

•          They have a permanent Games secretariat
•          They are held under the jurisdiction of a regional games federation/association of some sort, meaning they are a recognised legal entity.
•          They are recognised by a continental sport framework or the IOC itself.

Now if the IOIG was never an official legal entity of any sort, does that mean all the results of previous IOIG are meaningless and count for nothing? Where does that leave our athletes who have considered the IOIG as our regional mini-Olympic all these years?

Let's take this from another angle. If the games were recognised by the IOC, why is it that up to now the IOIG has never been considered a qualifier for higher continental competition, let alone the Olympic Games? Here, I would also like to point out that no international organisation, let alone the sports federations, recognise the IOIG as a regional event. This might be mainly because the Games have never been organised and maintained a proper quadrennial cycle, hence if taken into consideration, it would throw the international sports calendar into disarray.

Next, who holds the broadcasting rights to the Games? We are made to understand that there is a regional broadcasting organisation named ARTOI, which is heavily involved in the Games’ broadcasting space.

The question remains. Who owns the broadcasting rights of the Games? Is it ARTOI? Is it the national broadcasting house in the country where the Games take place or is it CIJ, or even CROS?

It is not clear.

From the same angle, are the image rights being protected, does the Games have a data protection policy?

Where do we go from here?

I wish to once again mention that the object of this article is to open a national or even regional debate on the state of play of the IOIG. My intention is not to point fingers at anyone but to stimulate ideas for us to re-engineer the IOIG in the 21st century when sports have moved on from being mere play to a global phenomenon. I have not found any real study about the impact of the Games on communities, infrastructure development, and tourism. We might say in Seychelles we have seen such developments, but what kind of real data do we have to substantiate that discourse? Have countries benefited from hosting the Games, or it has been a major economic setback? Is that the reason that some countries of the region have not been able to host the Games or refuse to participate altogether?

I have raised many questions, with few answers. As it is customary in our Seychellois way to state that it is good to criticise but what are the alternatives? I will not pretend that I have all the answers, but I can propose the following:

1. Clarity on ownership of IOIG – There is a need to establish the ownership of the IOIG in a structured and legal manner.

2. Establish a legal framework for the entity (incorporation, and permanent secretariat) – the IOIG should have a permanent secretariat, clearly defined and agreed upon by the owners, and should be manned by staff from the countries recognised to be part of the IOIG by established legal framework.

3. Regional body/organisation (of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) or otherwise/ amplify the role of CIJ) to manage the Games during and in between Games period.

4. Assure the IOIG is a qualifier for the African Games (at least)

5. Ensure management of other regional Games (example CJSOI Games)

6. Establish proper Games broadcasting and marketing rights so that the Games become more sustainable for countries to host.

7. Ensure image rights and data protection mechanisms.

These few modest proposals and others that will come after this debate, I believe, will surely provide a platform for more engagement in improving our IOIG. We cannot pretend that everything is OK. We need to move away from our comfort zone and face the truth head-on. With Seychelles on the verge of hosting the next Games, we can, in our usual way, take the lead on this matter.

Robert Auguste

Sport Consultant