IOC face calls to ban Saudi Arabia from Olympics after they ruled out sending women to London

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UPDATED:

17:46 GMT, 5 April 2012

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) faced calls on Thursday to ban Saudi Arabia from London 2012 after the country's Olympic chief ruled out sending women athletes to the Games.

Saudi Olympic Committee president Prince Nawaf bin Faisal said he was 'not endorsing' female participation in London as part of the official delegation.

Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF), said that was unacceptable.

Tried and failed: IOC President Jacques Rogge seems to have failed to convince Saudi Arabia to lift their ban on women

Tibballs said: 'Saudi Arabia's current refusal to send sportswomen to the Olympics puts them directly at odds with one of the IOC's fundamental principles as laid out within the Olympic Charter.

'It reads that 'any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement'.

'If today's reports are to be believed, we would expect the IOC to defend the Olympic Charter and exclude Saudi Arabia from IOC membership and the London 2012 Olympic Games.'

The IOC excluded Afghanistan from the Sydney 2000 Olympics due to its discrimination of women under the Taliban regime.

'The IOC needs to send a clear message to Saudi Arabia that they will not tolerate continued gender discrimination,' Tibballs added.

IOC president Jacques Rogge has been working hard to persuade Saudi Arabia to lift their ban on women athletes for London, but appears to have failed.

Nawaf, who is a member of the IOC, told a news conference in Jeddah: 'We are not endorsing any Saudi female participation at the moment in the Olympics or other international championships.

No show: As it stands no Saudi Arabian women will be able to compete at the London Games

'There are hundreds, if not thousands, of [Saudi] women who practice sports, but in private.'

Nawaf left it open for Saudi women to possibly compete on their own outside the official delegation, as happened at the Youth Olympics in 2010.

Saudi equestrian competitor Dalma Rushdi Malhas, the only likely possible qualifier for London, won a bronze medal in show jumping at the youth event.

The IOC said in a statement: 'We are still in discussion and working to ensure the participation of Saudi women at the Games in London.'

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei have all never had a female athlete at the Olympics. Qatar, who are bidding for the 2020 Olympics, have signalled their intention to have female athletes in London.