Pound nominated to head CAS

Dick Pound, former chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, has been nominated to be the new head of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the Canadian Globe and Mail has reported. The International Olympic Committee submitted his name and that of Swiss lawyer Robert Briner. A date for a vote has not yet been set, according to CAS spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau.

The CAS is the highest court for Olympic and amateur sport, where decisions by national and international federations can be appealed. The president of the Court has the power to appoint arbitrators who rule on disputes.

Pound, 65, represented Canada in the 1960 summer Olympics. He ultimately became President of the Canadian Olympic Committee and in 1978 was named to the International Olympic Committee. He ran for the IOC presidency in 2001, and became head of the WADA after losing that race.

Briner is Chairman of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, is with the law firm Lenz & Staehelin in Geneva, and is former President of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, among other things. He has extensive background in the arbitration field.

The CAS had previously been led by Keba Mbaye of Senegal, who was the court's only president since its creation in 1984, until his death in 2007.