IOC Takes Pro <i> and </i> Con Positions on Pros

In the ongoing debate over whether to allow professionals into the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has adopted a schizophrenic approach.

While urging international ice hockey and soccer federations to accept professionals, arguing that the Olympics should be contested by the world’s best athletes, IOC officials have resisted efforts by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to include professionals.

ITF officials have been so frustrated by the IOC’s position that they have threatened to withdraw tennis from the 1988 Summer Olympics at Seoul, South Korea.

In its October session at Lausanne, Switzerland, the IOC voted to table the tennis issue until its meeting next May at Istanbul, Turkey.

During the same session at Lausanne, the IOC rejected a soccer eligibility proposal by the International Football Assn. (FIFA) because it was not liberal enough. FIFA suggested that the Olympic soccer competition involve only players 23 and younger. The IOC has encouraged FIFA to open the Olympics to all players.

They have reached a compromise for Seoul, where all players except those who have competed in World Cup competition for either European or South American teams will be eligible.

Although it appeared earlier this year that the International Basketball Assn. (FIBA) would admit professionals for world championships and the Olympics, FIBA’s world congress rejected the proposal last June at Barcelona, Spain. FIBA, however, will reconsider in February whether to admit Continental Basketball Assn. players.

According to Bill Wall, executive director of the Amateur Basketball Assn. of the United States, the issue of whether to allow National Basketball Assn. players into the Olympics will not come before the world congress again before 1990.