After reports of missing Kuwaiti funds surfaced this week, World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam has declared his innocence, claiming that an ethics committee in Kuwait has already cleared him of wrongdoing in the matter.
A leaked letter revealed that millions of dollars from Kuwait’s Public Authority for Sport never ended up making it into Asia Aquatics’ bank account. Asia Aquatics secretary general Taha Al Kishry wrote that the funds had apparently been sent to Asia Aquatics president Sheikh Khalid Al-Sabah, and requested the issue be addressed at World Aquatics’ upcoming General Congress on Monday in Doha.
According to Ahmad Alsalami, a freelance journalist from the United Kingdom, the missing Kuwaiti funds amount to $7 million from 2010-16. Sheikh Khalid has served as president of Asia Aquatics since 2009.
These are all politically motivated allegations that date back to the Olympic Council of Asia presidential election in Bangkok in July 2023, and the subsequent findings in an International Olympic Committee investigation of wrongdoing by the other candidate in the election, and the annulment of the result, Al-Musallam told Swimming World, though that article has since been removed. There remains a small group of people in Kuwait that is intent on damaging my reputation, for political purposes.
Al-Musallam alluded to the recent allegations being related to an ongoing dispute with Kuwait’s ruling family, the Al-Sabahs. Last July, Al-Musallam lost the Olympic Council of Asia’s presidential election by four votes to Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Sabah, but the results were later deemed illegitimate by the International Olympic Committee because the suspended Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah intervened on behalf of his brother.
The allegations are baseless, Al-Musallam said of the newest accusation. After receiving all the requested documentation from all parties, the Ethics Committee of the Kuwait Olympic Committee looked at them as a matter of urgency, and has given a clear ruling that there has been no violation of the rules. I am delighted that my name has been cleared. I urge all those involved in Kuwait sport to work together for the betterment of our athletes, rather than waste time making unfounded, politically-motivated allegations.
Al-Musallam was a longtime aide to Sheikh Ahmad, a kingmaker in international sports elections, before they were targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice for suspected bribery related to international soccer politics. Sheikh Ahmad remains suspended from Olympic involvement for forgery, part of a coup plot to implicate political rivals in Kuwait, though he avoided jail time on appeal in January.
