Husain Al-Musallam said that esports needs one governing body before it can become a medal sport.GETTY IMAGES
The Olympic Council of Asia said that whether esports will be included as an official medal sport for the 2022 Asian Games is not yet confirmed, according to Sara Elsam of THE ESPORTS OBSERVER. The OCA exec committee met in Jakarta earlier this month to approve a program of around 40 sports for the 2022 Asian Games. According to OCA Dir General Husain Al-Musallam, esports requires a single int'l federation "before it can be included as a medal sport." Current esports competitions are organized by "a diverse range of entities," from third-party tournament platforms to the publishers of the games, with "no one unifying regulatory body that oversees standards." Al-Musallam said, "They have to get together to decide one governing body." He added that being "one international sport" was the key to making esports "official" (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 8/21).
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UNIFIED KOREA TEAMS: KYODO reported OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said that he is "hoping to see an increased number of unified North and South Korea teams competing in world sports events," working toward the goal of having them turn out together at Tokyo 2020. He said, "We are now working with them and we have meetings with them. This is our task. ... We are working with this direction." He also said that he will "100 percent" support the idea of the divided Koreas co-hosting the Asian Winter Games in '21 (KYODO, 8/21).
