Alex Thomson CHANNEL 4
IOC communication director IN TROUBLE!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuE6LSiaLNk
please someone help her ...she is going to cry!!!!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I.O.C members.....are for sure not simple men!!
IOC members include
ex-government sports ministers,
retired military generals,
a former defense minister in Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime,
an ex-head of the South Korean CIA
and a former member of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police.
Prince Albert of Monaco,
Britain's Princess Anne,
Prince Faisal Fahd Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia,
the crown prince of the Netherlands and Prince Henri of Luxembourg are members,
as is Boris Yeltsin's former private tennis coach, Shamil Tarpishev.
As one former IOC member described the organisation:
"It lives among itself. The members are like cardinals in the Vatican. Governments come and go, it doesn't matter to us."
ex-government sports ministers,
retired military generals,
a former defense minister in Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime,
an ex-head of the South Korean CIA
and a former member of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police.
Prince Albert of Monaco,
Britain's Princess Anne,
Prince Faisal Fahd Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia,
the crown prince of the Netherlands and Prince Henri of Luxembourg are members,
as is Boris Yeltsin's former private tennis coach, Shamil Tarpishev.
As one former IOC member described the organisation:
"It lives among itself. The members are like cardinals in the Vatican. Governments come and go, it doesn't matter to us."
Samaranch the Francoist Fascist
Samaranch, the son of wealthy Barcelona textile family, has headed the IOC for the last 19 years.
Samaranch joined Spain's fascist movement in his teens and was appointed that country's Sports Minister by General Franco in 1966.
He remained a loyal Francoist until the dictator's death in 1975 and two years later was made ambassador to Russia--a position he used to establish contacts with Soviet sporting bureaucrats, thus securing the votes he needed to be elected IOC president in 1980
Samaranch joined Spain's fascist movement in his teens and was appointed that country's Sports Minister by General Franco in 1966.
He remained a loyal Francoist until the dictator's death in 1975 and two years later was made ambassador to Russia--a position he used to establish contacts with Soviet sporting bureaucrats, thus securing the votes he needed to be elected IOC president in 1980
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
I.O.C.'s Big Mouth Strikes Again for BEIJING 2008
THIS PUPPET "MOUTH" IS VERY BIG
"We believe that the Olympic Games will have definitely a positive, lasting effect on the Chinese society." Jacques Rogge, International Olympic Committee President, quoted by Reuters on August 5, 2007
“We should all remember that the Games are not judged solely by the technical proficiency of the project, but also through the perception that the world has of the Games.”
Jacques Rogge, addressing an IOC coordination commission meeting on October 24, 2006 and quoted in China Daily, October 25, 2006
"I said to the Chinese political leaders, the IOC urges you to improve as much as possible human rights, as soon as possible... I have said we will be in close contact with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, and they will report to us and tell us what they feel... The IOC is a responsible organization, be it in the field of human rights, be it in the field of just logistics and delivering what is necessary to have good Games, be it in the field of human rights or any other major issue that would make the Games difficult or impossible for young athletes to participate in, then we will act."
Jacques Rogge, in an interview with BBC News 24’s Hardtalk on April 23, 2002
"We feel that bringing the Games here — in general without going into detail on any political issue — will be beneficial for the social and economic development of this country," he said. "Would any political situation be better here were we not coming with the Games to China? Certainly that would not be the case." Hein Verbruggen, head of the IOC coordination commission for the Beijing Games,quoted in The International Herald Tribune, April 25, 2007
“It is not within our mandate to act as an agent for concerned groups. Journalists are imprisoned all over the world, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad reasons.” Gilbert Felli, IOC Olympic Games Executive Director, speaking to a delegation of the Committee to Protect Journalists on November 15, 2006
“In this country there are laws and they have to be respected. … As long as the media behaves in the normal way, then I’m sure there will be no problems. … If it’s in the law, then it is in the law.” Hein Verbruggen, at a May 18, 2006, press conference in Beijing, quoted by The Guardian’s website
"We are not in a position that we can give instructions to governments as to how they ought to behave." Hein Verbruggen, quoted in The Washington Post, April 30, 2007
Published by the International Olympic Committee in October 2007
Available at http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_122.pdf
Fundamental Principles of Olympism (p. 11):
“Olympism is a philosophy of life… Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for fundamental ethical principles.”
First Fundamental Principle of Olympism
“The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”
Second Fundamental Principle of Olympism
“Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement."
Fifth Fundamental Principle of Olympism
Mission and Role of the IOC (p. 14-15):
The mission of the IOC is to promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic Movement. The IOC’s role is:
[…]
6. to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement;
[…]
14. to promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host cities and host countries.
Rule 49, Media Coverage of the Olympic Games (p. 96-97):
1. The IOC takes all necessary steps in order to ensure the fullest coverage by the different media and the widest possible audience in the world for the Olympic Games.Bye-law to Rule 491. It is an objective of the Olympic Movement that, through its contents, the media coverage of the Olympic Games should spread and promote the principles and values of Olympism.
"We believe that the Olympic Games will have definitely a positive, lasting effect on the Chinese society." Jacques Rogge, International Olympic Committee President, quoted by Reuters on August 5, 2007
“We should all remember that the Games are not judged solely by the technical proficiency of the project, but also through the perception that the world has of the Games.”
Jacques Rogge, addressing an IOC coordination commission meeting on October 24, 2006 and quoted in China Daily, October 25, 2006
"I said to the Chinese political leaders, the IOC urges you to improve as much as possible human rights, as soon as possible... I have said we will be in close contact with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, and they will report to us and tell us what they feel... The IOC is a responsible organization, be it in the field of human rights, be it in the field of just logistics and delivering what is necessary to have good Games, be it in the field of human rights or any other major issue that would make the Games difficult or impossible for young athletes to participate in, then we will act."
Jacques Rogge, in an interview with BBC News 24’s Hardtalk on April 23, 2002
"We feel that bringing the Games here — in general without going into detail on any political issue — will be beneficial for the social and economic development of this country," he said. "Would any political situation be better here were we not coming with the Games to China? Certainly that would not be the case." Hein Verbruggen, head of the IOC coordination commission for the Beijing Games,quoted in The International Herald Tribune, April 25, 2007
“It is not within our mandate to act as an agent for concerned groups. Journalists are imprisoned all over the world, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad reasons.” Gilbert Felli, IOC Olympic Games Executive Director, speaking to a delegation of the Committee to Protect Journalists on November 15, 2006
“In this country there are laws and they have to be respected. … As long as the media behaves in the normal way, then I’m sure there will be no problems. … If it’s in the law, then it is in the law.” Hein Verbruggen, at a May 18, 2006, press conference in Beijing, quoted by The Guardian’s website
"We are not in a position that we can give instructions to governments as to how they ought to behave." Hein Verbruggen, quoted in The Washington Post, April 30, 2007
Published by the International Olympic Committee in October 2007
Available at http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_122.pdf
Fundamental Principles of Olympism (p. 11):
“Olympism is a philosophy of life… Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for fundamental ethical principles.”
First Fundamental Principle of Olympism
“The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”
Second Fundamental Principle of Olympism
“Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement."
Fifth Fundamental Principle of Olympism
Mission and Role of the IOC (p. 14-15):
The mission of the IOC is to promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic Movement. The IOC’s role is:
[…]
6. to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement;
[…]
14. to promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host cities and host countries.
Rule 49, Media Coverage of the Olympic Games (p. 96-97):
1. The IOC takes all necessary steps in order to ensure the fullest coverage by the different media and the widest possible audience in the world for the Olympic Games.Bye-law to Rule 491. It is an objective of the Olympic Movement that, through its contents, the media coverage of the Olympic Games should spread and promote the principles and values of Olympism.
Monday, April 21, 2008
EU parliament V I.O.C operations in CHINA
27.03 - European parliament Greens wear Reporters Without Borders colours
All of the members of the Green group in the European parliament wore the Beijing 2008 campaign T-shirt with Olympic handcuffs during yesterday’s plenary session. The Green group’s joint president, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, gave a speech calling for politicians to get in involved in the debate on human rights in China, including Tibet.
All of the members of the Green group in the European parliament wore the Beijing 2008 campaign T-shirt with Olympic handcuffs during yesterday’s plenary session. The Green group’s joint president, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, gave a speech calling for politicians to get in involved in the debate on human rights in China, including Tibet.
talking to a DEAF / hopeless letter in a bottle
Mr. Jacques Roggue
President of the International Olympic Committee
Paris, the 28th of June
Dear Mr. President,
As the International Olympic Committee prepares for its next session in Guatemala City, from 4 to 7 July, international public opinion is puzzled by the IOC’s silence about the human rights situation in China. The 2008 Summer Olympics are due to start in Beijing in just over a year’s time but the Chinese government, despite its explicit promises, refuses to make improvements in basic rights and freedom.
Throughout the world, concern is growing about the holding of these Olympics, which have been taken hostage by a government that balks at taking action to guarantee freedom of expression and respect for the Olympic Charter’s humanistic values.
The Chinese authorities promised in Moscow in 2001 to improve the human rights situation. The representative of the Beijing Candidate Committee said: “By entrusting the holding of the Olympic Games to Beijing, you will contribute to the development of human rights.” Six years later, Reporters Without Borders has registered no lasting improvement in press freedom or online free expression. Foreign journalists obtained a temporary improvement in their status on 1 January but that will end in October. Strong pressure would have been needed to get the government to abandon the authoritarian and suspicious habits that make China one of the most backward countries for the international press.
China continues to be by far the world’s biggest prison for journalists, press freedom activists, cyber-dissidents and Internet users. Nearly 100 of them are serving sentences imposed without due process. Most of them are being held in terrible conditions. The journalist Shi Tao, for example, is forced to work in the prison where he is serving a 10-year sentence. How can you accept that Chinese who have campaigned for more freedom will have to impotently watch the world’s most important sports event from their cells?
China’s journalists continue to have to accept the dictates of the Propaganda Department, which imposes censorship on a wide range of subjects. The state maintains broad control of news and uses authoritarian laws to punish violators. Charges of subversion, divulging state secrets and espionage continue to rain down on journalists and editors working for the most liberal media. Self-censorship is the rule in editorial rooms. Chinese-language media based abroad are blocked, harassed or jammed, preventing the emergence of any media pluralism,
The laws governing the Internet have been made even tougher in the course of the past six years, turning the Chinese Internet into a space that is subject to surveillance and censorship. These restrictions also apply to foreign Internet companies.
We have never remained silent in the face of these massive free speech violations. In response to the situation’s urgency, we are this week launching a new international campaign on freedom violations in China. Like us, many human rights groups throughout the world are preparing for the 8 August rendez-vous in different ways. Activists plan to demonstrate in Beijing and elsewhere. Not out of hostility towards the Olympic Games, but to condemn the Chinese government’s refusal to keep its promises.
Athletes are already voicing their dismay about the situation in China, including the death penalty, the fate of Tibetans, religious persecution and censorship. Do not put sportsmen and sportswomen in a difficult situation by refusing to deal with the problem head-on. The companies that sponsor the Olympic Games are also liable to be put on the spot as result of news media putting human rights at the centre of their coverage of these Olympics.
Who will be able to say that the Olympic Games are a great sports event when thousands of prisoners of conscious are languishing in Chinese detention centres? Who is going to be able to believe in the 2008 Olympics slogan “One World, One Dream,” when Tibetan and Uyghur minorities are subject to serious discrimination?
If nothing is done, the Olympic Games will be marred by the tragic situation of freedoms in China. It is not reasonable to accuse human rights groups of taking the Olympic Games hostage. On the contrary, it is the Chinese government that has kidnapped the Olympic ideal along with this sports event. Our belief that this is the case is reinforced each day by the virulence of the authorities towards those who make a link between the Olympics and human rights. The cynicism of senior Chinese officials on all matters related to human rights requires a firm response.
You know better than anyone that the Chinese government and Communist Party attach the utmost importance to the success of the Olympic Games for their own sakes, but without keeping any of the promises they have made. Mr. President, it is not too late to get the Chinese organisers, who are for the most part also senior political officials, to release prisoners of conscience, reform repressive laws and end censorship. We expect firm action from you. It is time to say clearly to the Chinese authorities that the contempt with which they treat the international community is unacceptable.
With the entire Olympic community gathered in Guatemala City, it will no longer be a time for timid, whispered comments. The hour has come for the IOC, through you, to speak clearly about the problems. Your demands will be heard and the Olympic movement will emerge strengthened from it.
You know that the Olympic games have in the past been able to help establish freedoms in countries newly emerged from authoritarianism. Today, the absence of efforts by the IOC and the international community as regards China could dash these hopes. If nothing is said during the session in Guatemala City, the Olympic ideal will again be in danger of being led astray.
Reporters Without Borders knows the strength of sports when they are put at the service of peace and democracy. We have in the past participated in sports initiatives in Sarajevo and Kabul to promote this ideal. And we know how sensitive athletes are to matters affecting freedom. We see this each time journalists are taken hostage.
Mr. President, we do not doubt your commitment to freedom of expression. We believe that your convictions and those of the entire Olympic movement will enable you to quickly do what everyone is expecting of you - to take action on behalf of freedoms in China before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games.
We feel sure you will take account of our comments.
Sincerely,
Robert Ménard Secretary-General
President of the International Olympic Committee
Paris, the 28th of June
Dear Mr. President,
As the International Olympic Committee prepares for its next session in Guatemala City, from 4 to 7 July, international public opinion is puzzled by the IOC’s silence about the human rights situation in China. The 2008 Summer Olympics are due to start in Beijing in just over a year’s time but the Chinese government, despite its explicit promises, refuses to make improvements in basic rights and freedom.
Throughout the world, concern is growing about the holding of these Olympics, which have been taken hostage by a government that balks at taking action to guarantee freedom of expression and respect for the Olympic Charter’s humanistic values.
The Chinese authorities promised in Moscow in 2001 to improve the human rights situation. The representative of the Beijing Candidate Committee said: “By entrusting the holding of the Olympic Games to Beijing, you will contribute to the development of human rights.” Six years later, Reporters Without Borders has registered no lasting improvement in press freedom or online free expression. Foreign journalists obtained a temporary improvement in their status on 1 January but that will end in October. Strong pressure would have been needed to get the government to abandon the authoritarian and suspicious habits that make China one of the most backward countries for the international press.
China continues to be by far the world’s biggest prison for journalists, press freedom activists, cyber-dissidents and Internet users. Nearly 100 of them are serving sentences imposed without due process. Most of them are being held in terrible conditions. The journalist Shi Tao, for example, is forced to work in the prison where he is serving a 10-year sentence. How can you accept that Chinese who have campaigned for more freedom will have to impotently watch the world’s most important sports event from their cells?
China’s journalists continue to have to accept the dictates of the Propaganda Department, which imposes censorship on a wide range of subjects. The state maintains broad control of news and uses authoritarian laws to punish violators. Charges of subversion, divulging state secrets and espionage continue to rain down on journalists and editors working for the most liberal media. Self-censorship is the rule in editorial rooms. Chinese-language media based abroad are blocked, harassed or jammed, preventing the emergence of any media pluralism,
The laws governing the Internet have been made even tougher in the course of the past six years, turning the Chinese Internet into a space that is subject to surveillance and censorship. These restrictions also apply to foreign Internet companies.
We have never remained silent in the face of these massive free speech violations. In response to the situation’s urgency, we are this week launching a new international campaign on freedom violations in China. Like us, many human rights groups throughout the world are preparing for the 8 August rendez-vous in different ways. Activists plan to demonstrate in Beijing and elsewhere. Not out of hostility towards the Olympic Games, but to condemn the Chinese government’s refusal to keep its promises.
Athletes are already voicing their dismay about the situation in China, including the death penalty, the fate of Tibetans, religious persecution and censorship. Do not put sportsmen and sportswomen in a difficult situation by refusing to deal with the problem head-on. The companies that sponsor the Olympic Games are also liable to be put on the spot as result of news media putting human rights at the centre of their coverage of these Olympics.
Who will be able to say that the Olympic Games are a great sports event when thousands of prisoners of conscious are languishing in Chinese detention centres? Who is going to be able to believe in the 2008 Olympics slogan “One World, One Dream,” when Tibetan and Uyghur minorities are subject to serious discrimination?
If nothing is done, the Olympic Games will be marred by the tragic situation of freedoms in China. It is not reasonable to accuse human rights groups of taking the Olympic Games hostage. On the contrary, it is the Chinese government that has kidnapped the Olympic ideal along with this sports event. Our belief that this is the case is reinforced each day by the virulence of the authorities towards those who make a link between the Olympics and human rights. The cynicism of senior Chinese officials on all matters related to human rights requires a firm response.
You know better than anyone that the Chinese government and Communist Party attach the utmost importance to the success of the Olympic Games for their own sakes, but without keeping any of the promises they have made. Mr. President, it is not too late to get the Chinese organisers, who are for the most part also senior political officials, to release prisoners of conscience, reform repressive laws and end censorship. We expect firm action from you. It is time to say clearly to the Chinese authorities that the contempt with which they treat the international community is unacceptable.
With the entire Olympic community gathered in Guatemala City, it will no longer be a time for timid, whispered comments. The hour has come for the IOC, through you, to speak clearly about the problems. Your demands will be heard and the Olympic movement will emerge strengthened from it.
You know that the Olympic games have in the past been able to help establish freedoms in countries newly emerged from authoritarianism. Today, the absence of efforts by the IOC and the international community as regards China could dash these hopes. If nothing is said during the session in Guatemala City, the Olympic ideal will again be in danger of being led astray.
Reporters Without Borders knows the strength of sports when they are put at the service of peace and democracy. We have in the past participated in sports initiatives in Sarajevo and Kabul to promote this ideal. And we know how sensitive athletes are to matters affecting freedom. We see this each time journalists are taken hostage.
Mr. President, we do not doubt your commitment to freedom of expression. We believe that your convictions and those of the entire Olympic movement will enable you to quickly do what everyone is expecting of you - to take action on behalf of freedoms in China before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games.
We feel sure you will take account of our comments.
Sincerely,
Robert Ménard Secretary-General
Friday, April 18, 2008
GUY DRUT
Guy Drut (2006)A Former Olympic champion, French sports minister and IOC member was involved in a corruption scandal. President Jacques Chirac recently pardoned him, so Drut is now able to rejoin the International Olympic Committee.
Drut was given a 15-month suspended sentence last October and fined US $60,000 in a corruption and party-financing trial.
He benefited from a fictitious job at a construction company.
2005 the IOC provisionally suspended his membership.
Drut was given a 15-month suspended sentence last October and fined US $60,000 in a corruption and party-financing trial.
He benefited from a fictitious job at a construction company.
2005 the IOC provisionally suspended his membership.
YONG SUNG PARK
Yong Sung Park (2006)The IOC member Park embezzled millions in a family feud over control of South Korea's oldest conglomerate
Park was sentenced to a three- year suspended sentence in South Korea and a fine of US $8.3 million. In 2006 the IOC provisionally rescinded his IOC membership. He refuses to give up his membership.
Park Yong-sung restored as an IOC member after corruption scandal
7 May 2007
by Marie Venø Thesbjerg
IOC restores corrupt South Korean Park Yong-sung in IOC with no clear reason.
The IOC executive board announced in a meeting in Beijing that it decided to lift the suspension against South Korea 's Park Yong Sung, but did not cite a clear reason. Park Yong-sung, former chairman of the family-run Doosan Group, was restored as a member of the International Olympic Committee 13 months after the committee suspended his membership over a corruption scandal in March 2006.
T he IOC Executive Board approved the Ethics Commission's recommendation and decided that Park "violated the ethical principles set out in the Olympic Charter and the IOC code of Ethics, has tarnished the reputation of the Olympic Movement and was thereby in breach of the Olympic Charter and the IOC Code of Ethics," said a statement.
Park, 67, had been suspended as an IOC member after he was convicted of embezzling millions of dollars amidst a family dispute over the group's management control.
In February 2007, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun decided to give a special pardon for Park, among other business criminals. In 2005, Park was given a three-year suspended jail sentence and an $8.5 million fine by the Seoul District Court for raising slush funds and inflating balance sheets, writes the Korea Herald.
Park states in a press release that he will do his best now that South Korea are competing with Austria and Russia to host the Winter Olympics in 2014. After Park’s return, Pyeongchang and South Korea gets another vote, when the IOC decides who gets the Winter Olympics on 4th of July.
IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies told reporters that Park will have no right to be elected to any commission of the IOC for five years.
"It has been a lengthy process because he has been accused of certain issues in his country and he was appealing that he was in fact amnestied in his country. Nevertheless the Ethics Commission ruled that he had violated the ethical principles and hence the decision," said Davies to the news agency Xinhua.
Park was sentenced to a three- year suspended sentence in South Korea and a fine of US $8.3 million. In 2006 the IOC provisionally rescinded his IOC membership. He refuses to give up his membership.
Park Yong-sung restored as an IOC member after corruption scandal
7 May 2007
by Marie Venø Thesbjerg
IOC restores corrupt South Korean Park Yong-sung in IOC with no clear reason.
The IOC executive board announced in a meeting in Beijing that it decided to lift the suspension against South Korea 's Park Yong Sung, but did not cite a clear reason. Park Yong-sung, former chairman of the family-run Doosan Group, was restored as a member of the International Olympic Committee 13 months after the committee suspended his membership over a corruption scandal in March 2006.
T he IOC Executive Board approved the Ethics Commission's recommendation and decided that Park "violated the ethical principles set out in the Olympic Charter and the IOC code of Ethics, has tarnished the reputation of the Olympic Movement and was thereby in breach of the Olympic Charter and the IOC Code of Ethics," said a statement.
Park, 67, had been suspended as an IOC member after he was convicted of embezzling millions of dollars amidst a family dispute over the group's management control.
In February 2007, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun decided to give a special pardon for Park, among other business criminals. In 2005, Park was given a three-year suspended jail sentence and an $8.5 million fine by the Seoul District Court for raising slush funds and inflating balance sheets, writes the Korea Herald.
Park states in a press release that he will do his best now that South Korea are competing with Austria and Russia to host the Winter Olympics in 2014. After Park’s return, Pyeongchang and South Korea gets another vote, when the IOC decides who gets the Winter Olympics on 4th of July.
IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies told reporters that Park will have no right to be elected to any commission of the IOC for five years.
"It has been a lengthy process because he has been accused of certain issues in his country and he was appealing that he was in fact amnestied in his country. Nevertheless the Ethics Commission ruled that he had violated the ethical principles and hence the decision," said Davies to the news agency Xinhua.
KIM UN-yong
Kim Un-yong (2005)Former IOC vice president Kim Un-yong was accused of having embezzled several million dollars from the World Taekwondo Federation.
Kim was convicted in South Korea and was sentenced to two and a half years. He resigned from IOC 2005
Kim was convicted in South Korea and was sentenced to two and a half years. He resigned from IOC 2005
IVAN SLAKOV
Ivan Slavkov (2005)IOC member involved in a vote-buying scandal
Expelled from IOC 2005. No conviction
Expelled from IOC 2005. No conviction
MOHAMAD BOB HASAN
Mohamad (Bob) Hasan (2004)Former IOC Member from Indonesia was involved in a scandal concerning a forest-mapping project in the 1990s.
Hasan was convicted in his home country for embezzling more than US $200 million. He was sentenced to 6 years and was expelled from IOC.
Hasan was convicted in his home country for embezzling more than US $200 million. He was sentenced to 6 years and was expelled from IOC.
I.O.C. F.I.F.A. devils SCANDALS & CONVICTIONS
Whether in football or any other sport, and even in international sport associations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC), convictions are often for anything other than accepting bribes in an athletic context.
The parallels to the difficulties in convicting organised crime bosses are striking. Robert Hoyzer, for example, the main offender in the infamous German match-rigging scandal, was actually convicted for fraud. Two Brazilian referees who were proven to have fixed matches are currently facing charges of fraud, conspiracy and financial crime. The case of Bruce Grobbelaar, the former Liverpool goalkeeper, highlights the complexity of the issue. After numerous legal battles, Britain’s highest court decided it could not be shown that he fixed matches even though it had been shown he took bribes. There was no conviction.
Bribery scandals involving members of the International Olympic Committee are follow this disturbing pattern. A number of IOC members, such as Guy Drut or former IOC vice president Kim Un-yong, have been convicted on charges of business corruption or embezzlement. Cases directly involving the IOC like the Salt Lake City vote-buying scandal or the case of Ivan Slavkov (Bulgaria) never culminated in convictions. One of the reasons for this is very simple: There is no law against corruption in sport, making the sector ideal for professional swindlers.
Another complicating factor is a flexible interpretation of the rule of law within international sport associations. The prominent sports journalist Jens Weinreich describes FIFA as an organisation operating “within its strange own system of law”, choosing to resolve problems within the “family”. Until legislation begins to take account of the reality of corruption in sports and sports associations really go on the offensive, there stands to be little change.
See a table of sport scandals and convictions here.
http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2006/corruption_sports/scandals_and_convictions
The parallels to the difficulties in convicting organised crime bosses are striking. Robert Hoyzer, for example, the main offender in the infamous German match-rigging scandal, was actually convicted for fraud. Two Brazilian referees who were proven to have fixed matches are currently facing charges of fraud, conspiracy and financial crime. The case of Bruce Grobbelaar, the former Liverpool goalkeeper, highlights the complexity of the issue. After numerous legal battles, Britain’s highest court decided it could not be shown that he fixed matches even though it had been shown he took bribes. There was no conviction.
Bribery scandals involving members of the International Olympic Committee are follow this disturbing pattern. A number of IOC members, such as Guy Drut or former IOC vice president Kim Un-yong, have been convicted on charges of business corruption or embezzlement. Cases directly involving the IOC like the Salt Lake City vote-buying scandal or the case of Ivan Slavkov (Bulgaria) never culminated in convictions. One of the reasons for this is very simple: There is no law against corruption in sport, making the sector ideal for professional swindlers.
Another complicating factor is a flexible interpretation of the rule of law within international sport associations. The prominent sports journalist Jens Weinreich describes FIFA as an organisation operating “within its strange own system of law”, choosing to resolve problems within the “family”. Until legislation begins to take account of the reality of corruption in sports and sports associations really go on the offensive, there stands to be little change.
See a table of sport scandals and convictions here.
http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2006/corruption_sports/scandals_and_convictions
HOW? to buy THE olympics!!!!
OSM investigation
How to buy the Olympics
Congo's IOC delegate, known as the 'human vacuum cleaner', took $250,000 as Salt Lake City won the right to host next month's Winter Olympics. He was not alone. In this special OSM investigation, the men who signed the cheques talk for the first time about how they spent $10m rigging an election. It is the inside story of how greed, deception and corruption dealt a fatal blow to the Olympic ideal
Jonathan Calvert
Sunday January 6, 2002
The Observer
When Tom Welch greets me in the foyer of Salt Lake City's Marriott hotel, he is dressed in black from head to toe. His face is podgy and there are worry lines gouged into his thick cheeks but his handshake has a firmness of intent. He sits with his back to the wall, periodically nodding to the hotel staff who appear intrigued. You can almost hear them whispering: 'Isn't that the guy who...' For two years he has evaded the world's press, silent on the issue that has made him a pariah, but now he has agreed to give OSM his first in-depth interview. It is soon clear he is dying to tell his side of the story.
In five weeks, Salt Lake City will host the XIXth Winter Olympic Games. Welch was the chairman of the Utah city's Olympic bid team. When they finally won the race for the 2002 Games, Welch had spent more than $10 million, lavishing gifts on members of the International Olympic Committee to win precious votes. The gargantuan scale of corruption might never have become public had Welch, a Mormon bishop, not had a stand-up public row with his wife over presents he had bought for his mistress. The police were called and, in moral-minded Utah, this scandal forced him out of his job and ultimately led to the detailed revelation of the avarice of the IOC and its members. At one time the tales of sleaze became so extraordinary, so damning, that they seemed to place a question mark over the Games taking place at all. However, a one-month investigation by the IOC resulted in a handful expulsions and reprimands and the Olympic movement pronounced itself cleansed. All the same, a 22-month inquiry by the Salt Lake Organising Committee's Board of Ethics, which reported its findings a month, later makes grim reading.
Welch is unrepentant. 'I didn't believe what I was doing was unethical. My community had spent a lot of money on this and it would have been unethical of me not to have done everything in my power to win.' That meant 'playing the game' as every other bidding city played it. But with Salt Lake the game spiralled out of control.
The handwritten memo arrived on 10 October 1994, and began 'Dear Dave'. It spilled out of a fax machine on the top floor of the high-rise offices looking down on South State Street, Salt Lake City. David Johnson read it and passed it on to Tom Welch. Yet another member of the IOC was asking for money. This time it was General Zein Gadir, the Sudanese representative who had entertained them with amusing stories while making liberal use of their credit card with his drinks bill during his last visit to the city.
The memo was from a middle man, the Kuwait-based director of the Olympic Council of Asia, Muttaleb Ahmad, to whom Johnson and Welch had paid a lobbying fee of nearly £50,000 to help secure the support of the Middle Eastern and North African IOC members. 'Finally got through to Gadir,' Muttaleb wrote in his broken English. 'On a personal level. He has a daughter in UK. Help may be extended. He expect $1,000 only a month to Zema Gadir.'
To the outsider, unfamiliar with the Machiavellian world of Olympic politics, Gadir may have seemed a surprising choice as his country's IOC representative. After all, his sporting connections were tenuous, to say the least. He had founded Sudan's parachute regiment and spent years as a political prisoner before rising through the ranks of the brutal military junta to become a Minister for Youth, among other things. (The sporting connection came from a stint in the national military football team many years ago.)
But a lifelong interest in, let alone talent for, sport is a hardly a prerequisite for IOC membership. The 126 IOC members come from all backgrounds, including arms dealers, former spies, politicians, lawyers and royals - though there are a few plain old sports administrators. Their power is enormous because there are so few of them and they hold the destination of the Games in their hands. Each of the IOC members casts a single vote when deciding on the venue for the Games. The vote is made in person at an IOC meeting and is secret; at no time are the votes attributed to a specific person and there is no procedure to make the individual votes public. Given that such a choice can be worth millions, perhaps billions, of pounds and that up to a dozen cities will be competing for either the Summer or Winter Olympics at any one time, theirs is surely the most potentially corruptible role in world sport.
Like many of his fellow IOC members, Gadir owed his position on the committee to its president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, who effectively controlled nominations. Once a member, it wasn't long before Gadir started taking advantage of his position. The team from one bidding city, Stockholm, for instance, found his behaviour so detestable that they wrote to the IOC complaining that he was constantly drunk during a visit to the city and behaved offensively to fellow guests. In Berlin, his hotel room service bill alone cost more than £1,000.
But despite Gadir's reputation Welch and Johnson didn't think twice about the memo. After all, they were already committed to spending $17,000 in college fees for another of his eight children. That was because Gadir was important. There were seven months to go before he and his fellow IOC members were due to meet in Budapest to decide which city would host the 2002 Winter Games. The African vote was crucial, especially as the Salt Lake team were assuming the Europeans would, as always, vote against an American city.
They immediately began wiring the cash to Zema's bank account in London. The last of their seven payments was made only days before the IOC met on 16 June 1995 to vote on the venue for the Winter Olympics.
It was only much later that the scale of Gadir's corruption was revealed. Perhaps if Welch and Johnson had taken a closer look at his full name they would have rumbled him: Zein El Abdin Mohamed Ahmed. Zema was a pseudonym - a rough abbreviation of his forenames. Zema did not exist. The money was meant for Gadir.
Gadir's tale is but one example of many which show that, for all its idealism, the modern Olympic movement has as much to do with money and commerce as it does with sporting excellence. If they didn't realise this already, the truth dawned on Salt Lake City's team when, in 1986, they put together a bid for the 1998 Winter Games. The bid was entrusted to Welch, a millionaire who had made his money from property and as corporate lawyer for his father-in-law's grocery store chain. Welch describes himself as 'not the brightest light on the block' but his new role threw him together with a smart and savvy young blue-eyed community sports director called David Johnson. They were to become firm friends. The relationship was cemented by marriage, when Johnson married a young television reporter in Welch's congregation at the Latter Day Saints nineteenth ward.
Welch and Johnson threw themselves into the campaign with zeal, and after three years they had wrested the crucial US bid city status from Anchorage. At the same time they were initiated into the extraordinary world of the Olympic family. As recorded by the Salt Lake Board of Ethics report, Salt Lake was outclassed by the Nagano bid which they said was 'more sophisticated and extravagant' and pampered the IOC membership, with a greeting that included Geisha girls. Japanese companies arranged for $15m in donations to be paid to Samaranch's pet project, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
When they arrived in Birmingham, England, in June 1991 for the final vote, Salt Lake gave each IOC member a disposable camera as part of a welcome package but Nagano outbid them again, handing out video cameras. The Mormons almost got knocked out in the first round of voting but recovered to get within four votes of Nagano. For the Salt Lake City team, this failure was to prove a watershed.
They would bid again, for the 2002 Games, and this time they would do it properly. Four months after losing out to Nagano, Welch's mission statement made everything crystal clear. They would 'establish and maintain long-term, vote-influencing relationships with IOC members'. This would involve extensive use of the corporate credit card and would seriously test the integrity - or should that be greed? - of the men and women on the IOC. (The Salt Lake Board of Ethics report later exonerated the Salt Lake trustees, absolving them of any knowledge of payments to IOC members or their families, but criticising their failure to control Welch and Johnson.) Welch and Johnson were eager to please Samaranch. The former official in Franco's fascist regime ran the IOC as a private fiefdom wielding tremendous influence over the membership who were, in effect, his appointees. His regal first-class jaunts may have been seen by some IOC members as an indication of the lifestyle they could expect. But Samaranch did not receive gifts or money in breach of the IOC's rules.
Welch and Johnson soon got the hang of things. A key figure on the IOC executive committee, had just bought a new house. He went shopping with the Salt Lake organisers for wallpaper, doorknobs and other household items at their expense. A note in the accounts shows that the doorknobs alone cost $673 and that at least $30,000 was spent on similar shopping trips for IOC officials and their families. The list of items bought included lawn equipment, bathroom fixtures, hardware and even a refrigerator.
But it wasn't just gifts. Many IOC members simply asked for cash - some suggesting it would be used for their athletes at home. Welch wired a total of $29,450 to the the personal account of Kenya's Charles Mukora, after a request for 'personal financial assistance'. Another $20,000 was wired to Chile's Sergio Santander-Fantini, who said he used it for his political campaign. (He later told the IOC he thought it was a personal gift to his political campaign from Welch and his wife, otherwise he would not have accepted it.) Cameroon's Professor Rene Essomba was given four separate payments by cheque and wire totalling $15,000.
However, their rewards were dwarfed by those received by Congo's Jean-Claude Ganga, who became known as 'the human vacuum cleaner' because of his ability to hoover up Salt Lake's generosity (see panel). Chastened by past failures, Salt Lake had a straightforward policy to the requests of IOC members, no matter how outlandish. They would always say yes. Ganga proved the exception to the rule, but not before they had spent a quarter of a million dollars on him.
But it wasn't just gifts and cash. In January 1992, Salt Lake introduced a 'Scholarship Program' to 'provide opportunities for National Olympic Committees to nominate outstanding individuals to attend universities and colleges in Utah'. In truth, while some funds were used for this purpose, the really outstanding individuals to benefit were the sons, daughters and friends of IOC members. Sibo Sibandze, whose father David was the member for Swaziland, received $111,389 for his education at the University of Utah. Nancy Arroyo, the daughter of the Ecuadorian IOC member, was given $23,000 in living expenses even though she didn't enrol on a course. A supposed relative of the Algerian member, Mohamed Zerguini, was paid $14,500 to live in Atlanta and Essomba (again), managed to get $108,350 towards his daughter's rent, expenses and fees while studying at Washington's American University.
When John Kim, the son of the influential Korean IOC member Kim Un-Yong, lost his job in New York, Welch was there to help. He found John a job with a local telecommunications firm and struck a deal whereby the Salt Lake bid committee would pay the young man's salary, minus any commission he earned. John stayed in New York and didn't earn much commission. Salt Lake ended up paying his employer between $75,000 and $100,000. John's father Kim Un-Yong told the Salt Lake Board of Ethics that he was 'unaware of any relationship between the [firm] and the Salt Lake City bid committee' and that 'John Kim never knowingly received any sums from anyone associated with the ...bid committee.'
On one occasion Welch wired more than £20,000 of his own money to the wife of the IOC member from Western Somoa, Seiuli Paul Wallwork, who had written asking for a loan. Other members of the IOC were given free health and dental care. Bjarne Haggman, the husband of Finnish IOC member Pirjo Haggman, received a total of $33,750 from the Salt Lake bid committee for producing a report on forestry for a Utah engineering firm. All requests for assistance from Salt Lake came from Bjarne directly and the ethics committee report found no direct evidence of Pirjo's involvement.
Allegations also surfaced that some members enjoyed the services of escort girls. The owners of Salt Lake's Snow White Escorts were later to claim that their girl had done her bit for the bid effort, stripping naked in the hotel rooms of two IOC members.
By June 1995, when the IOC met in Budapest, Welch and Johnson had done their jobs brilliantly, if expensively. The lessons of the previous campaign had been learnt, more than $10m had been spent, and the election was in the bag. Salt Lake won by a landslide - 54 votes to the 14 of its nearest competitors Ostersund and Sion. God had been on the side of the Mormons.
Salt Lake's massive sweetener campaign would almost certainly have remained secret had it not been for one person's sexual weakness amid this sea of financial corruption: Tom Welch's marriage was in trouble. First there had been a fling with the Canadian IOC member Anne Letheren during the bid. It was frowned upon by his colleagues, but didn't present a conflict of interest because she was always going to vote for Quebec. Then Welch met Nancy Fay Money, a four-times divorced waitress, at Lumpys Social Club in Salt Lake and she became his mistress.
The situation might have been containable until a farcical scene was played out at Welch's home in Sherwood Circle, an affluent Salt Lake suburb on the afternoon of 9 July, 1997. Welch was sitting on the boot of his BMW as his wife Alma, dressed in just a towel, frantically tried to prise it open. Inside the the boot were presents for Nancy: something slinky from Victoria's Secrets lingerie store and some perfume with an attached note saying: 'Please don't use this with anyone else but me.' Alma was hysterical. She had been in the shower but had crept downstairs to see what Welch was up to. She had long suspected her husband was having an affair and the pink frippery she glimpsed in the boot appeared to confirm it. She managed to seize one of the notes to his mistress.
Tom slammed the boot shut and a struggle took place. The police were called. The Mormon city fathers who had backed Welch were particularly sensitive on the question of women, so when the news broke that Welch was being investigated by police for assaulting his wife there was a power struggle on the organising committee and Welch was forced to resign.
Welch was no longer in a position to keep a lid on things. He was replaced by Frank Joklik, a former mine boss with a quick temper. Within months Joklik's autocratic style was antagonising members of the committee's staff, with the result that one of them sent a letter to an investigative reporter at a local TV station that contained details of a scholarship arrangement with an IOC member.
Still the story did not excite much interest, until Howard Berkes, a reporter for Salt Lake's National Public Radio, phoned Marc Hodler, a senior IOC member and probably the committee's leading anti-corruption campaigner. 'This is the information we need,' said Hodler, promising that it would be used to identify and punish corrupt members. The Salt Lake bid committee was forced to accept that at least six IOC members' relatives had received 'humanitarian aid' through the scholarship programme totalling half a million dollars, although they denied bribery. It was the spark the story needed. Soon journalists everywhere were rooting out Olympic corruption stories in their own backyard. Reports of IOC excesses came from Stockholm, Berlin, Atlanta and Sydney. Hodler, a former Swiss skiing champion now in his sixties, was giving interviews to everyone. 'There is a list of IOC members who can be bought,' Hodler told one reporter. But the IOC report concluded that everything Hodler knew was simply hearsay, 'the truth of which he was unable to verify personally'.
The pressure on Salt Lake was enormous. Joklik, too, was forced to resign in January 1999. He denied knowledge of the cash-for-votes scheme but he had been a trustee during the bid years and was therefore tainted. The ethics committee report concluded that the trustees should have been more vigorous in their supervision. Jolik demanded that David Johnson go with him. Welch had already gone. As the world's press bombarded Welch and Johnson for comments, the duo remained silent.
The organising committee, however, opened up its files to its own ethics committee which began to scrutinise the actions of its employees. The result was a damning report in February 1999 which held Welch and Johnson to blame for almost everything. However, it was regarded by some as a damage limitation exercise. It's hard to imagine who the scale of the hospitality being offered to IOC members could have gone unnoticed. A Utah police investigation into the scandal was quickly overtaken by an FBI inquiry. In the summer of 2000, Welch and Johnson were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bribing the IOC by paying members and their relatives a million dollars in cash, travel and perks.
Earlier, in January 1999, the IOC had produced its own report on the matter. It had been forced to act because its corporate sponsors were demanding action to clean up the tarnished image of the Games. This resulted in the expulsions of members from Mali, Ecuador, Sudan, Chile, Congo and Samoa. (The members from Finland, Swaziland and Kenya fell on their own swords.) Newspapers across Europe called the investigation a whitewash and the Africans claimed they had been made scapegoats. Later a US Olympic committee panel, headed by Senator George Mitchell, concluded that the the IOC had turned a blind eye to the corruption that was 'flourishing.' They still were. Samaranch admitted the revelations had 'seriously damaged the reputation' of the Olympic movement. He asked the members to submit further evidence of wrongdoing in other bids.
Meanwhile the criminal case against Welch and Johnson continued until last November when Utah district judge David Sam dismissed all charges. Bribing Olympic officials may be unethical, he decided, but it is not criminal. Federal prosecutors have indicated that they may appeal against the judge's decision.
Tom Welch, now aged 55, has a new girlfriend and has moved to California. There is contempt in his voice when you ask him why only six IOC members were expelled. 'It was all for show,' he says in a deep Utah drawl. 'Those were the small people. They were weak, expendable with relatively little power in the IOC structure. If what those expelled members did was wrong and everyone else on the IOC was to be judged by the same standards, then probably 80 per cent should have been kicked out.'
This calculation is based on years of witnessing the freeloading by IOC members. The 80 per cent were those that were 'imposing themselves on you, asking for things and pushing for lavish hospitality.'
There were exceptions - there is no criticism of the British members' conduct, for example - but the vast majority expected something from the bid cities they visited. 'Of course you felt used and abused,' he says. 'But you were abused by the process. The expectations of the IOC members had been created over years. They grew to accept these things as normal practice.' Turning to Gadir and his mysterious daughter, Welch is at a loss to explain the actions of a man he had grown to like. 'Should I have challenged him and asked him for verification? If you are going to offend him, the whole thing is pointless. If you complain or rock the boat, all you will do is ensure that you will lose.'
Many would regard Welch's willingness to hand over the cash as reprehensible but he is defensive on this point, claiming that he was just being practical. Utah had spent more than $60m building bobsleigh runs and ski jumps for the Games and the only way to recoup that was to bring the Olympics to Salt Lake.'
David Johnson shares the same views, though the two men's friendship didn't survive the revelations of Welch's extramarital affairs. Their wives are very close. It was a snowy Sunday evening when I met Johnson, 41, at his smart suburban home. He was outside the house clearing the drive with a ride-on snow mobile.
Inside his immaculately kept living room are four violins for his children and a grand piano which his wife plays. There is no tea or coffee in the house as strict Mormons don't indulge in caffeine. Johnson and his wife Kim are pillars of the local community.
His lawyers had hired private detectives to get the dirt on the other bid cities as part of his defence for the criminal trial. 'You have to get this in perspective,' he says. His body language is that of a man who is not used to people judging him harshly and he is clearly frustrated that he hasn't been able to put his case until now.
'There were 12 cities lobbying the same hundred people. We found that, within the window of just one year, a total of $100m was spent on those people. Salt Lake was not alone in what it did.'
His eyes were opened to the venal nature of the Olympic movement when he and Welch attended their first IOC meeting in Puerto Rico in August, 1989. 'We had never seen anything like it in our lives. There were Lear jets waiting to whisk the IOC members off to Atlanta. Toronto had reserved whole swimming pools and was giving out free drinks. Carts entered the hotel stacked with gifts for the members. A huge motorcade swept in and we thought this must be someone important. But it was just a couple of IOC members arriving from the airport.'
The Salt Lake duo had already made their first mistake by failing to book the same hotel as the IOC. They couldn't get close to the mighty IOC members. Eager to learn, they booked a short meeting with Samaranch. His message was simple: 'He told us to concentrate on the people who voted,' says Johnson. According the the Board of Ethics report, Samaranch advised them to become personally acquainted with as many IOC members as possible, for the purpose of impressing them with the strength of the Salt Lake bid.
Welch and Johnson interpretted this advice pretty crudely: they decided to spend all their considerable funds on the members themselves. According to Welch: 'We had to become these people's best friends. It was pointless talking about how good our infrastructure was. We had to build the best goodwill and the closest relationships.'
Johnson, a former Saab salesman with a charming smile, devoted six years of his life to tracking down and getting close to IOC members. He would fly to far away cities on the off-chance that one of them might be there. He was away from home for 270 days in one year, jetting from country to country and running expenses on his Mastercard of up to $40,000 a month.
'I would go to Sydney because I would have heard that an IOC member was in town. You had to go because you feared that if you weren't there, one of the other bid cities might get a whole weekend alone with one of the members.' Although teetotal, he would spend many long nights in bars or restaurants as IOC members wined and dined on his credit card. It had to be done. His all-American smile even worked on Princess Anne, one of the British IOC members, who the bid cities found frustratingly aloof. 'She returned all her gifts and was very difficult to talk to,' he says. 'But I kept showing up at so many functions just so she knew my face. It was worth it because, after the vote in Budapest, she stopped to talk to me for the first time, and said she had done the right thing.'
The votes for the host city are secret which is a great help to some of the double-dealing IOC members who are able to fool several bid cities into believing they have voted for them. It was for this reason that Welch had fallen out with the Russian, Smirnov, a vice-president of the IOC. 'He told us he voted for us in 1991 and I later found out he hadn't,' says Welch.
Pulling power of the human vacuum cleaner
Jean-Claude Ganga was so interested in Salt Lake City's bid for the Winter Olympics that he flew into Utah six times in two years. It was a chance to stay in a nice hotel away from his 10 children and do a bit of shopping with his wife Eugenie. But every time the couple went near Walmart, the staff of Salt Lake's bid committee drew in a deep breath.
Mrs Ganga needed carpets, rugs, curtains and a few things for her kitchen back home in the Republic of Congo. The price of the goods didn't matter because Jason Gull, a young bid committee executive, was always in attendance. It was Salt Lake's policy to give International Olympic Committee members and their wives anything their hearts desired, but Mrs Ganga sometimes became a bit tiresome because she loved to shop and always ran up Gull's charge card 'to the maximum'.
Ganga, a 67-year-old former ambassador to China, seemed to see milking the bid cities as a multidiscipline event: persuading them to pay for his shopping, for holidays, to help with his property deals; pay for his children's education; to pick up his medical fees (and those of his mother-in-law) not to mention wiring thousands of pounds into his personal account. Ganga's vote alone was to cost Salt Lake City well in excess $250,000.
Behind his back, the Mormons called Ganga 'the human vacuum cleaner' because he had 'an unending list of needs'. His travel expenses alone amounted to $115,000, his meals and hotels cost $14,000 and then there was his medical treatment for hepatitis and some knee replacement surgery for his mother-in-law. Salt Lake even paid for his wife's cosmetic surgery. Ganga opened an account at First Security Bank and Salt Lake started paying chunks of $10,000 into it. As the crucial vote drew closer, the cheques got bigger, rising to $30,000.
When Ganga was finally expelled by the IOC for breaking the rules on accepting lavish gifts, he claimed the money had gone to sporting projects in Africa. 'The Olympic Games are organised by individuals,' he said. 'They are not angels and saints. If you want angels and saints, go organise the Olympic Games in heaven, not on earth.'
The Swedish dossier
The dossier on IOC members compiled by the Swedish team bidding to bring the Summer Olympics to Stockholm in 2004 shows the extent to which it felt it necessary to lobby IOC members.
Mohamed Mzali, TunisiaBackground: Vice president of the IOC (1976-1980). Prime Minister of Tunisia (1980-1986)Other info: Right now Mzali, lives in political exile in Paris. Mzali is very interested in politics and one of the main reasons that he still represents Tunisia in the IOC is that he tries to cling firmly to some kind of international part. He should always be taken out for dinner on visits to Paris.
Prince Alexander de Merode, BelgiumBackground: IOC Vice-PresidentOther info: Considered 'difficult' and is in general rather unknown outside the Olympic world. The prince has medical problems, and that is why he doesn't smoke any longer. You should not smoke when he's around.
Louis Guirandou-N'Diaye, the Ivory CoastBackground: IOC Chief of protocol (1985-).Other info: Known as snobbish and appreciates exclusive clothes, cigars etc. It is told that at the Committee of Evaluation's visit in Ostersund he refused to take off his crocodile skin shoes and therefore had to be carried around.
Vitaly Smirnov, RussiaBackground: Sports administration.Other info: Yeltsin's right-hand man in Russia. His NOC has a huge lack of money. Smirnov is known as a bit odd. Has good opportunities to affect the former East European countries. He is also well standing with Samaranch.
Ashwini Kumar, IndiaBackground: Career military man.Other info: Is said to know 'everybody'. Perhaps we should invite him to Stockholm. Kumar is head of security, but is by many judged to be too old and disorganised to have that mission.
Peter Julius Tallberg, Finland.Background: President of the IOC Sportsmen Committee (1981-).Other info: Tallberg has recently had a financial crash. He sold his company and went in for golf courses which didn't succeed. Known as a 'cold fish', who also is in need of support. He should 'be observed' and be selected for some kind of advisory mission.
Richard Kevan Gosper, Australia.Background: Former top athlete. President of the IOC Press Committee (1989-).Other info: Considered completely honest. His wife is supposed to be nice. Gosper is forceful. 'Don't BS him!'
General Zein El Abdin Abdel Gadir, Sudan.Background:Military and politics.Other info: Gadir was imprisoned 10 years because of political reasons. He is considered 'noicy' (sic) and 'hard'. He is easily affected by Jean-Claude Ganga. He is known for appreciating delicious food and drinking.
How to buy the Olympics
Congo's IOC delegate, known as the 'human vacuum cleaner', took $250,000 as Salt Lake City won the right to host next month's Winter Olympics. He was not alone. In this special OSM investigation, the men who signed the cheques talk for the first time about how they spent $10m rigging an election. It is the inside story of how greed, deception and corruption dealt a fatal blow to the Olympic ideal
Jonathan Calvert
Sunday January 6, 2002
The Observer
When Tom Welch greets me in the foyer of Salt Lake City's Marriott hotel, he is dressed in black from head to toe. His face is podgy and there are worry lines gouged into his thick cheeks but his handshake has a firmness of intent. He sits with his back to the wall, periodically nodding to the hotel staff who appear intrigued. You can almost hear them whispering: 'Isn't that the guy who...' For two years he has evaded the world's press, silent on the issue that has made him a pariah, but now he has agreed to give OSM his first in-depth interview. It is soon clear he is dying to tell his side of the story.
In five weeks, Salt Lake City will host the XIXth Winter Olympic Games. Welch was the chairman of the Utah city's Olympic bid team. When they finally won the race for the 2002 Games, Welch had spent more than $10 million, lavishing gifts on members of the International Olympic Committee to win precious votes. The gargantuan scale of corruption might never have become public had Welch, a Mormon bishop, not had a stand-up public row with his wife over presents he had bought for his mistress. The police were called and, in moral-minded Utah, this scandal forced him out of his job and ultimately led to the detailed revelation of the avarice of the IOC and its members. At one time the tales of sleaze became so extraordinary, so damning, that they seemed to place a question mark over the Games taking place at all. However, a one-month investigation by the IOC resulted in a handful expulsions and reprimands and the Olympic movement pronounced itself cleansed. All the same, a 22-month inquiry by the Salt Lake Organising Committee's Board of Ethics, which reported its findings a month, later makes grim reading.
Welch is unrepentant. 'I didn't believe what I was doing was unethical. My community had spent a lot of money on this and it would have been unethical of me not to have done everything in my power to win.' That meant 'playing the game' as every other bidding city played it. But with Salt Lake the game spiralled out of control.
The handwritten memo arrived on 10 October 1994, and began 'Dear Dave'. It spilled out of a fax machine on the top floor of the high-rise offices looking down on South State Street, Salt Lake City. David Johnson read it and passed it on to Tom Welch. Yet another member of the IOC was asking for money. This time it was General Zein Gadir, the Sudanese representative who had entertained them with amusing stories while making liberal use of their credit card with his drinks bill during his last visit to the city.
The memo was from a middle man, the Kuwait-based director of the Olympic Council of Asia, Muttaleb Ahmad, to whom Johnson and Welch had paid a lobbying fee of nearly £50,000 to help secure the support of the Middle Eastern and North African IOC members. 'Finally got through to Gadir,' Muttaleb wrote in his broken English. 'On a personal level. He has a daughter in UK. Help may be extended. He expect $1,000 only a month to Zema Gadir.'
To the outsider, unfamiliar with the Machiavellian world of Olympic politics, Gadir may have seemed a surprising choice as his country's IOC representative. After all, his sporting connections were tenuous, to say the least. He had founded Sudan's parachute regiment and spent years as a political prisoner before rising through the ranks of the brutal military junta to become a Minister for Youth, among other things. (The sporting connection came from a stint in the national military football team many years ago.)
But a lifelong interest in, let alone talent for, sport is a hardly a prerequisite for IOC membership. The 126 IOC members come from all backgrounds, including arms dealers, former spies, politicians, lawyers and royals - though there are a few plain old sports administrators. Their power is enormous because there are so few of them and they hold the destination of the Games in their hands. Each of the IOC members casts a single vote when deciding on the venue for the Games. The vote is made in person at an IOC meeting and is secret; at no time are the votes attributed to a specific person and there is no procedure to make the individual votes public. Given that such a choice can be worth millions, perhaps billions, of pounds and that up to a dozen cities will be competing for either the Summer or Winter Olympics at any one time, theirs is surely the most potentially corruptible role in world sport.
Like many of his fellow IOC members, Gadir owed his position on the committee to its president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, who effectively controlled nominations. Once a member, it wasn't long before Gadir started taking advantage of his position. The team from one bidding city, Stockholm, for instance, found his behaviour so detestable that they wrote to the IOC complaining that he was constantly drunk during a visit to the city and behaved offensively to fellow guests. In Berlin, his hotel room service bill alone cost more than £1,000.
But despite Gadir's reputation Welch and Johnson didn't think twice about the memo. After all, they were already committed to spending $17,000 in college fees for another of his eight children. That was because Gadir was important. There were seven months to go before he and his fellow IOC members were due to meet in Budapest to decide which city would host the 2002 Winter Games. The African vote was crucial, especially as the Salt Lake team were assuming the Europeans would, as always, vote against an American city.
They immediately began wiring the cash to Zema's bank account in London. The last of their seven payments was made only days before the IOC met on 16 June 1995 to vote on the venue for the Winter Olympics.
It was only much later that the scale of Gadir's corruption was revealed. Perhaps if Welch and Johnson had taken a closer look at his full name they would have rumbled him: Zein El Abdin Mohamed Ahmed. Zema was a pseudonym - a rough abbreviation of his forenames. Zema did not exist. The money was meant for Gadir.
Gadir's tale is but one example of many which show that, for all its idealism, the modern Olympic movement has as much to do with money and commerce as it does with sporting excellence. If they didn't realise this already, the truth dawned on Salt Lake City's team when, in 1986, they put together a bid for the 1998 Winter Games. The bid was entrusted to Welch, a millionaire who had made his money from property and as corporate lawyer for his father-in-law's grocery store chain. Welch describes himself as 'not the brightest light on the block' but his new role threw him together with a smart and savvy young blue-eyed community sports director called David Johnson. They were to become firm friends. The relationship was cemented by marriage, when Johnson married a young television reporter in Welch's congregation at the Latter Day Saints nineteenth ward.
Welch and Johnson threw themselves into the campaign with zeal, and after three years they had wrested the crucial US bid city status from Anchorage. At the same time they were initiated into the extraordinary world of the Olympic family. As recorded by the Salt Lake Board of Ethics report, Salt Lake was outclassed by the Nagano bid which they said was 'more sophisticated and extravagant' and pampered the IOC membership, with a greeting that included Geisha girls. Japanese companies arranged for $15m in donations to be paid to Samaranch's pet project, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
When they arrived in Birmingham, England, in June 1991 for the final vote, Salt Lake gave each IOC member a disposable camera as part of a welcome package but Nagano outbid them again, handing out video cameras. The Mormons almost got knocked out in the first round of voting but recovered to get within four votes of Nagano. For the Salt Lake City team, this failure was to prove a watershed.
They would bid again, for the 2002 Games, and this time they would do it properly. Four months after losing out to Nagano, Welch's mission statement made everything crystal clear. They would 'establish and maintain long-term, vote-influencing relationships with IOC members'. This would involve extensive use of the corporate credit card and would seriously test the integrity - or should that be greed? - of the men and women on the IOC. (The Salt Lake Board of Ethics report later exonerated the Salt Lake trustees, absolving them of any knowledge of payments to IOC members or their families, but criticising their failure to control Welch and Johnson.) Welch and Johnson were eager to please Samaranch. The former official in Franco's fascist regime ran the IOC as a private fiefdom wielding tremendous influence over the membership who were, in effect, his appointees. His regal first-class jaunts may have been seen by some IOC members as an indication of the lifestyle they could expect. But Samaranch did not receive gifts or money in breach of the IOC's rules.
Welch and Johnson soon got the hang of things. A key figure on the IOC executive committee, had just bought a new house. He went shopping with the Salt Lake organisers for wallpaper, doorknobs and other household items at their expense. A note in the accounts shows that the doorknobs alone cost $673 and that at least $30,000 was spent on similar shopping trips for IOC officials and their families. The list of items bought included lawn equipment, bathroom fixtures, hardware and even a refrigerator.
But it wasn't just gifts. Many IOC members simply asked for cash - some suggesting it would be used for their athletes at home. Welch wired a total of $29,450 to the the personal account of Kenya's Charles Mukora, after a request for 'personal financial assistance'. Another $20,000 was wired to Chile's Sergio Santander-Fantini, who said he used it for his political campaign. (He later told the IOC he thought it was a personal gift to his political campaign from Welch and his wife, otherwise he would not have accepted it.) Cameroon's Professor Rene Essomba was given four separate payments by cheque and wire totalling $15,000.
However, their rewards were dwarfed by those received by Congo's Jean-Claude Ganga, who became known as 'the human vacuum cleaner' because of his ability to hoover up Salt Lake's generosity (see panel). Chastened by past failures, Salt Lake had a straightforward policy to the requests of IOC members, no matter how outlandish. They would always say yes. Ganga proved the exception to the rule, but not before they had spent a quarter of a million dollars on him.
But it wasn't just gifts and cash. In January 1992, Salt Lake introduced a 'Scholarship Program' to 'provide opportunities for National Olympic Committees to nominate outstanding individuals to attend universities and colleges in Utah'. In truth, while some funds were used for this purpose, the really outstanding individuals to benefit were the sons, daughters and friends of IOC members. Sibo Sibandze, whose father David was the member for Swaziland, received $111,389 for his education at the University of Utah. Nancy Arroyo, the daughter of the Ecuadorian IOC member, was given $23,000 in living expenses even though she didn't enrol on a course. A supposed relative of the Algerian member, Mohamed Zerguini, was paid $14,500 to live in Atlanta and Essomba (again), managed to get $108,350 towards his daughter's rent, expenses and fees while studying at Washington's American University.
When John Kim, the son of the influential Korean IOC member Kim Un-Yong, lost his job in New York, Welch was there to help. He found John a job with a local telecommunications firm and struck a deal whereby the Salt Lake bid committee would pay the young man's salary, minus any commission he earned. John stayed in New York and didn't earn much commission. Salt Lake ended up paying his employer between $75,000 and $100,000. John's father Kim Un-Yong told the Salt Lake Board of Ethics that he was 'unaware of any relationship between the [firm] and the Salt Lake City bid committee' and that 'John Kim never knowingly received any sums from anyone associated with the ...bid committee.'
On one occasion Welch wired more than £20,000 of his own money to the wife of the IOC member from Western Somoa, Seiuli Paul Wallwork, who had written asking for a loan. Other members of the IOC were given free health and dental care. Bjarne Haggman, the husband of Finnish IOC member Pirjo Haggman, received a total of $33,750 from the Salt Lake bid committee for producing a report on forestry for a Utah engineering firm. All requests for assistance from Salt Lake came from Bjarne directly and the ethics committee report found no direct evidence of Pirjo's involvement.
Allegations also surfaced that some members enjoyed the services of escort girls. The owners of Salt Lake's Snow White Escorts were later to claim that their girl had done her bit for the bid effort, stripping naked in the hotel rooms of two IOC members.
By June 1995, when the IOC met in Budapest, Welch and Johnson had done their jobs brilliantly, if expensively. The lessons of the previous campaign had been learnt, more than $10m had been spent, and the election was in the bag. Salt Lake won by a landslide - 54 votes to the 14 of its nearest competitors Ostersund and Sion. God had been on the side of the Mormons.
Salt Lake's massive sweetener campaign would almost certainly have remained secret had it not been for one person's sexual weakness amid this sea of financial corruption: Tom Welch's marriage was in trouble. First there had been a fling with the Canadian IOC member Anne Letheren during the bid. It was frowned upon by his colleagues, but didn't present a conflict of interest because she was always going to vote for Quebec. Then Welch met Nancy Fay Money, a four-times divorced waitress, at Lumpys Social Club in Salt Lake and she became his mistress.
The situation might have been containable until a farcical scene was played out at Welch's home in Sherwood Circle, an affluent Salt Lake suburb on the afternoon of 9 July, 1997. Welch was sitting on the boot of his BMW as his wife Alma, dressed in just a towel, frantically tried to prise it open. Inside the the boot were presents for Nancy: something slinky from Victoria's Secrets lingerie store and some perfume with an attached note saying: 'Please don't use this with anyone else but me.' Alma was hysterical. She had been in the shower but had crept downstairs to see what Welch was up to. She had long suspected her husband was having an affair and the pink frippery she glimpsed in the boot appeared to confirm it. She managed to seize one of the notes to his mistress.
Tom slammed the boot shut and a struggle took place. The police were called. The Mormon city fathers who had backed Welch were particularly sensitive on the question of women, so when the news broke that Welch was being investigated by police for assaulting his wife there was a power struggle on the organising committee and Welch was forced to resign.
Welch was no longer in a position to keep a lid on things. He was replaced by Frank Joklik, a former mine boss with a quick temper. Within months Joklik's autocratic style was antagonising members of the committee's staff, with the result that one of them sent a letter to an investigative reporter at a local TV station that contained details of a scholarship arrangement with an IOC member.
Still the story did not excite much interest, until Howard Berkes, a reporter for Salt Lake's National Public Radio, phoned Marc Hodler, a senior IOC member and probably the committee's leading anti-corruption campaigner. 'This is the information we need,' said Hodler, promising that it would be used to identify and punish corrupt members. The Salt Lake bid committee was forced to accept that at least six IOC members' relatives had received 'humanitarian aid' through the scholarship programme totalling half a million dollars, although they denied bribery. It was the spark the story needed. Soon journalists everywhere were rooting out Olympic corruption stories in their own backyard. Reports of IOC excesses came from Stockholm, Berlin, Atlanta and Sydney. Hodler, a former Swiss skiing champion now in his sixties, was giving interviews to everyone. 'There is a list of IOC members who can be bought,' Hodler told one reporter. But the IOC report concluded that everything Hodler knew was simply hearsay, 'the truth of which he was unable to verify personally'.
The pressure on Salt Lake was enormous. Joklik, too, was forced to resign in January 1999. He denied knowledge of the cash-for-votes scheme but he had been a trustee during the bid years and was therefore tainted. The ethics committee report concluded that the trustees should have been more vigorous in their supervision. Jolik demanded that David Johnson go with him. Welch had already gone. As the world's press bombarded Welch and Johnson for comments, the duo remained silent.
The organising committee, however, opened up its files to its own ethics committee which began to scrutinise the actions of its employees. The result was a damning report in February 1999 which held Welch and Johnson to blame for almost everything. However, it was regarded by some as a damage limitation exercise. It's hard to imagine who the scale of the hospitality being offered to IOC members could have gone unnoticed. A Utah police investigation into the scandal was quickly overtaken by an FBI inquiry. In the summer of 2000, Welch and Johnson were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bribing the IOC by paying members and their relatives a million dollars in cash, travel and perks.
Earlier, in January 1999, the IOC had produced its own report on the matter. It had been forced to act because its corporate sponsors were demanding action to clean up the tarnished image of the Games. This resulted in the expulsions of members from Mali, Ecuador, Sudan, Chile, Congo and Samoa. (The members from Finland, Swaziland and Kenya fell on their own swords.) Newspapers across Europe called the investigation a whitewash and the Africans claimed they had been made scapegoats. Later a US Olympic committee panel, headed by Senator George Mitchell, concluded that the the IOC had turned a blind eye to the corruption that was 'flourishing.' They still were. Samaranch admitted the revelations had 'seriously damaged the reputation' of the Olympic movement. He asked the members to submit further evidence of wrongdoing in other bids.
Meanwhile the criminal case against Welch and Johnson continued until last November when Utah district judge David Sam dismissed all charges. Bribing Olympic officials may be unethical, he decided, but it is not criminal. Federal prosecutors have indicated that they may appeal against the judge's decision.
Tom Welch, now aged 55, has a new girlfriend and has moved to California. There is contempt in his voice when you ask him why only six IOC members were expelled. 'It was all for show,' he says in a deep Utah drawl. 'Those were the small people. They were weak, expendable with relatively little power in the IOC structure. If what those expelled members did was wrong and everyone else on the IOC was to be judged by the same standards, then probably 80 per cent should have been kicked out.'
This calculation is based on years of witnessing the freeloading by IOC members. The 80 per cent were those that were 'imposing themselves on you, asking for things and pushing for lavish hospitality.'
There were exceptions - there is no criticism of the British members' conduct, for example - but the vast majority expected something from the bid cities they visited. 'Of course you felt used and abused,' he says. 'But you were abused by the process. The expectations of the IOC members had been created over years. They grew to accept these things as normal practice.' Turning to Gadir and his mysterious daughter, Welch is at a loss to explain the actions of a man he had grown to like. 'Should I have challenged him and asked him for verification? If you are going to offend him, the whole thing is pointless. If you complain or rock the boat, all you will do is ensure that you will lose.'
Many would regard Welch's willingness to hand over the cash as reprehensible but he is defensive on this point, claiming that he was just being practical. Utah had spent more than $60m building bobsleigh runs and ski jumps for the Games and the only way to recoup that was to bring the Olympics to Salt Lake.'
David Johnson shares the same views, though the two men's friendship didn't survive the revelations of Welch's extramarital affairs. Their wives are very close. It was a snowy Sunday evening when I met Johnson, 41, at his smart suburban home. He was outside the house clearing the drive with a ride-on snow mobile.
Inside his immaculately kept living room are four violins for his children and a grand piano which his wife plays. There is no tea or coffee in the house as strict Mormons don't indulge in caffeine. Johnson and his wife Kim are pillars of the local community.
His lawyers had hired private detectives to get the dirt on the other bid cities as part of his defence for the criminal trial. 'You have to get this in perspective,' he says. His body language is that of a man who is not used to people judging him harshly and he is clearly frustrated that he hasn't been able to put his case until now.
'There were 12 cities lobbying the same hundred people. We found that, within the window of just one year, a total of $100m was spent on those people. Salt Lake was not alone in what it did.'
His eyes were opened to the venal nature of the Olympic movement when he and Welch attended their first IOC meeting in Puerto Rico in August, 1989. 'We had never seen anything like it in our lives. There were Lear jets waiting to whisk the IOC members off to Atlanta. Toronto had reserved whole swimming pools and was giving out free drinks. Carts entered the hotel stacked with gifts for the members. A huge motorcade swept in and we thought this must be someone important. But it was just a couple of IOC members arriving from the airport.'
The Salt Lake duo had already made their first mistake by failing to book the same hotel as the IOC. They couldn't get close to the mighty IOC members. Eager to learn, they booked a short meeting with Samaranch. His message was simple: 'He told us to concentrate on the people who voted,' says Johnson. According the the Board of Ethics report, Samaranch advised them to become personally acquainted with as many IOC members as possible, for the purpose of impressing them with the strength of the Salt Lake bid.
Welch and Johnson interpretted this advice pretty crudely: they decided to spend all their considerable funds on the members themselves. According to Welch: 'We had to become these people's best friends. It was pointless talking about how good our infrastructure was. We had to build the best goodwill and the closest relationships.'
Johnson, a former Saab salesman with a charming smile, devoted six years of his life to tracking down and getting close to IOC members. He would fly to far away cities on the off-chance that one of them might be there. He was away from home for 270 days in one year, jetting from country to country and running expenses on his Mastercard of up to $40,000 a month.
'I would go to Sydney because I would have heard that an IOC member was in town. You had to go because you feared that if you weren't there, one of the other bid cities might get a whole weekend alone with one of the members.' Although teetotal, he would spend many long nights in bars or restaurants as IOC members wined and dined on his credit card. It had to be done. His all-American smile even worked on Princess Anne, one of the British IOC members, who the bid cities found frustratingly aloof. 'She returned all her gifts and was very difficult to talk to,' he says. 'But I kept showing up at so many functions just so she knew my face. It was worth it because, after the vote in Budapest, she stopped to talk to me for the first time, and said she had done the right thing.'
The votes for the host city are secret which is a great help to some of the double-dealing IOC members who are able to fool several bid cities into believing they have voted for them. It was for this reason that Welch had fallen out with the Russian, Smirnov, a vice-president of the IOC. 'He told us he voted for us in 1991 and I later found out he hadn't,' says Welch.
Pulling power of the human vacuum cleaner
Jean-Claude Ganga was so interested in Salt Lake City's bid for the Winter Olympics that he flew into Utah six times in two years. It was a chance to stay in a nice hotel away from his 10 children and do a bit of shopping with his wife Eugenie. But every time the couple went near Walmart, the staff of Salt Lake's bid committee drew in a deep breath.
Mrs Ganga needed carpets, rugs, curtains and a few things for her kitchen back home in the Republic of Congo. The price of the goods didn't matter because Jason Gull, a young bid committee executive, was always in attendance. It was Salt Lake's policy to give International Olympic Committee members and their wives anything their hearts desired, but Mrs Ganga sometimes became a bit tiresome because she loved to shop and always ran up Gull's charge card 'to the maximum'.
Ganga, a 67-year-old former ambassador to China, seemed to see milking the bid cities as a multidiscipline event: persuading them to pay for his shopping, for holidays, to help with his property deals; pay for his children's education; to pick up his medical fees (and those of his mother-in-law) not to mention wiring thousands of pounds into his personal account. Ganga's vote alone was to cost Salt Lake City well in excess $250,000.
Behind his back, the Mormons called Ganga 'the human vacuum cleaner' because he had 'an unending list of needs'. His travel expenses alone amounted to $115,000, his meals and hotels cost $14,000 and then there was his medical treatment for hepatitis and some knee replacement surgery for his mother-in-law. Salt Lake even paid for his wife's cosmetic surgery. Ganga opened an account at First Security Bank and Salt Lake started paying chunks of $10,000 into it. As the crucial vote drew closer, the cheques got bigger, rising to $30,000.
When Ganga was finally expelled by the IOC for breaking the rules on accepting lavish gifts, he claimed the money had gone to sporting projects in Africa. 'The Olympic Games are organised by individuals,' he said. 'They are not angels and saints. If you want angels and saints, go organise the Olympic Games in heaven, not on earth.'
The Swedish dossier
The dossier on IOC members compiled by the Swedish team bidding to bring the Summer Olympics to Stockholm in 2004 shows the extent to which it felt it necessary to lobby IOC members.
Mohamed Mzali, TunisiaBackground: Vice president of the IOC (1976-1980). Prime Minister of Tunisia (1980-1986)Other info: Right now Mzali, lives in political exile in Paris. Mzali is very interested in politics and one of the main reasons that he still represents Tunisia in the IOC is that he tries to cling firmly to some kind of international part. He should always be taken out for dinner on visits to Paris.
Prince Alexander de Merode, BelgiumBackground: IOC Vice-PresidentOther info: Considered 'difficult' and is in general rather unknown outside the Olympic world. The prince has medical problems, and that is why he doesn't smoke any longer. You should not smoke when he's around.
Louis Guirandou-N'Diaye, the Ivory CoastBackground: IOC Chief of protocol (1985-).Other info: Known as snobbish and appreciates exclusive clothes, cigars etc. It is told that at the Committee of Evaluation's visit in Ostersund he refused to take off his crocodile skin shoes and therefore had to be carried around.
Vitaly Smirnov, RussiaBackground: Sports administration.Other info: Yeltsin's right-hand man in Russia. His NOC has a huge lack of money. Smirnov is known as a bit odd. Has good opportunities to affect the former East European countries. He is also well standing with Samaranch.
Ashwini Kumar, IndiaBackground: Career military man.Other info: Is said to know 'everybody'. Perhaps we should invite him to Stockholm. Kumar is head of security, but is by many judged to be too old and disorganised to have that mission.
Peter Julius Tallberg, Finland.Background: President of the IOC Sportsmen Committee (1981-).Other info: Tallberg has recently had a financial crash. He sold his company and went in for golf courses which didn't succeed. Known as a 'cold fish', who also is in need of support. He should 'be observed' and be selected for some kind of advisory mission.
Richard Kevan Gosper, Australia.Background: Former top athlete. President of the IOC Press Committee (1989-).Other info: Considered completely honest. His wife is supposed to be nice. Gosper is forceful. 'Don't BS him!'
General Zein El Abdin Abdel Gadir, Sudan.Background:Military and politics.Other info: Gadir was imprisoned 10 years because of political reasons. He is considered 'noicy' (sic) and 'hard'. He is easily affected by Jean-Claude Ganga. He is known for appreciating delicious food and drinking.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
I.O.C & F.I.F.A EVIL against European Sport Nations
IOC and FIFA in row with UEFA over EU intervention in sport
13 October 2006
By Jens Sejer Andersen
Yet another battle has broken out between UEFA and FIFA and this time FIFA is backed by IOC, spearheaded by Jacques Rogge. IOC and FIFA are unhappy that EU wants to get involved in the affairs of elite sport. UEFA on the other hand calls for stronger co-operation with the EU.
Simply put, UEFA does not believe that the international world of sport is equipped to tackle problems such as illegal gambling, illegal agents, trafficking of young athletes, match fixing and corruption on its own.
“A healthy future for sport in Europe can only be achieved by politics and sport working together,” was the message from UEFA and the Council of Europe after a conference on 29 September in Strassbourg.
Hereby UEFA supports the intentions in the Independent European Sport Review which calls for a closer link between EU and world sport. The review was initiated under the United Kingdoms ’ presidency of the EU and chaired by the former Portuguese Minister José Luís Arnaut.
”Many argue that governments should not interfere in sport, but this is a naive view”, the CEO of UEFA, Lars-Christer Olsson said in Strasbourg.
“Governments are already supporting sport by for instance providing infrastructure and giving support for individual talents”, Olsson said and stressed that co-operation was necessary to create legal certainty for clubs and associations.
Also, UEFA believes stronger co-operation could strengthen rather than weaken the autonomy of sport because it could define the boundaries of government intervention.
IOC and FIFA unhappy about planned EU White Paper
These positive messages from Strasbourg contrast sharply with the tensions at a meeting that took place earlier in September between EU commissioner Jan Figel and representatives for the IOC, FIFA and UEFA.
At the meeting, Jan Figel asked for ideas for the content of the upcoming EU ”White Paper” on sport.
According to information obtained by Play the Game, representatives from the IOC and FIFA loudly opposed the Independent European Sport Review at the meeting that was closed to the public.
Apparently, the atmosphere at the meeting was so that Commissioner Jan Figel acidly remarked that in the future the world of sport could look forward to seeing its questions answered at the European Court of Justice. In other words: It was not possible to envision political cooperation and disputes were therefore likely to end up being settled in court rooms.
IOC and FIFA warns EU to stay away from sports governance
To emphasize their unhappiness, IOC and FIFA sent a letter by fax addressed to Jan Figel two days later demanding that the EU only deals with sport political initiatives that ”should only be based on promoting the role of sports in the existing EU policy fields, as well as taking into account the specificity of sports whenever applying EU legislation on sport”.
In terms of issues of governance, EU should keep its hands off.
”We believe that the issue of governance is of outmost importance for the sports movement and that this issue should be dealt with by sports themselves based on the principle of the autonomy of the sports movement.”
The letter is signed by FIFA-president Sepp Blatter, IOC president Jacques Rogge as well as three other heavy weights in the Olympic movement: Mario Vázquez Raña, president of the Association of National Olympic Committees, Denis Oswald, president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and René Fasel, president of the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations.
And to underline the determination and importance of the letter, a copy was sent to all ministers of sport in all EU member countries.
It has not been possible to get comments from EU commissioner Jan Figel but a spokesperson says that the commissioner has not yet responded to the harsh letter from Lausanne.
Read the final statement from the “Play Fair with Sport” conference in Strassbourg
”In the first version of this article, we presented the Independent European Sport Review as an initiative by the European Commission. The Commission has asked us to rectify, since the initiative was taken under the UK presidency of the EU with the backing of the EU sports ministers, and the review was made without assistance or interference from the European Commission.”
13 October 2006
By Jens Sejer Andersen
Yet another battle has broken out between UEFA and FIFA and this time FIFA is backed by IOC, spearheaded by Jacques Rogge. IOC and FIFA are unhappy that EU wants to get involved in the affairs of elite sport. UEFA on the other hand calls for stronger co-operation with the EU.
Simply put, UEFA does not believe that the international world of sport is equipped to tackle problems such as illegal gambling, illegal agents, trafficking of young athletes, match fixing and corruption on its own.
“A healthy future for sport in Europe can only be achieved by politics and sport working together,” was the message from UEFA and the Council of Europe after a conference on 29 September in Strassbourg.
Hereby UEFA supports the intentions in the Independent European Sport Review which calls for a closer link between EU and world sport. The review was initiated under the United Kingdoms ’ presidency of the EU and chaired by the former Portuguese Minister José Luís Arnaut.
”Many argue that governments should not interfere in sport, but this is a naive view”, the CEO of UEFA, Lars-Christer Olsson said in Strasbourg.
“Governments are already supporting sport by for instance providing infrastructure and giving support for individual talents”, Olsson said and stressed that co-operation was necessary to create legal certainty for clubs and associations.
Also, UEFA believes stronger co-operation could strengthen rather than weaken the autonomy of sport because it could define the boundaries of government intervention.
IOC and FIFA unhappy about planned EU White Paper
These positive messages from Strasbourg contrast sharply with the tensions at a meeting that took place earlier in September between EU commissioner Jan Figel and representatives for the IOC, FIFA and UEFA.
At the meeting, Jan Figel asked for ideas for the content of the upcoming EU ”White Paper” on sport.
According to information obtained by Play the Game, representatives from the IOC and FIFA loudly opposed the Independent European Sport Review at the meeting that was closed to the public.
Apparently, the atmosphere at the meeting was so that Commissioner Jan Figel acidly remarked that in the future the world of sport could look forward to seeing its questions answered at the European Court of Justice. In other words: It was not possible to envision political cooperation and disputes were therefore likely to end up being settled in court rooms.
IOC and FIFA warns EU to stay away from sports governance
To emphasize their unhappiness, IOC and FIFA sent a letter by fax addressed to Jan Figel two days later demanding that the EU only deals with sport political initiatives that ”should only be based on promoting the role of sports in the existing EU policy fields, as well as taking into account the specificity of sports whenever applying EU legislation on sport”.
In terms of issues of governance, EU should keep its hands off.
”We believe that the issue of governance is of outmost importance for the sports movement and that this issue should be dealt with by sports themselves based on the principle of the autonomy of the sports movement.”
The letter is signed by FIFA-president Sepp Blatter, IOC president Jacques Rogge as well as three other heavy weights in the Olympic movement: Mario Vázquez Raña, president of the Association of National Olympic Committees, Denis Oswald, president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and René Fasel, president of the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations.
And to underline the determination and importance of the letter, a copy was sent to all ministers of sport in all EU member countries.
It has not been possible to get comments from EU commissioner Jan Figel but a spokesperson says that the commissioner has not yet responded to the harsh letter from Lausanne.
Read the final statement from the “Play Fair with Sport” conference in Strassbourg
”In the first version of this article, we presented the Independent European Sport Review as an initiative by the European Commission. The Commission has asked us to rectify, since the initiative was taken under the UK presidency of the EU with the backing of the EU sports ministers, and the review was made without assistance or interference from the European Commission.”
TRANSPARENCY AND I.O.C. THIS IS A JOKE!!
Transparency International has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to immediately compensate the cities whose time and voluntary efforts have been rendered abortive by those who bribed. Each of the unsuccessful cities should be fully reimbursed by the winning city, and not at the expense of the athletes by arranging this through the IOC, said the Chairman of Transparency International (TI), Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen.
Only where the winning city can clearly establish that a rival also bribed in its own attempts to win the votes should full compensation be denied. "Simply sacking a few IOC members will not solve the underlying problems", the Chairman of the international anti-corruption organisation said.
He also called for the immediate establishment of hospitality and gift registers by both the IOC and by future bidding cities, which would be kept as open and complete records of the hospitality and other benefits being afforded IOC members and their immediate family. This should also be applied to the president of the IOC, who though he has no vote is arguably the most influential figure within the entire IOC movement. "It is scandalous that President Samaranch should regard himself as being exempt from restrictions on the benefits received from bidding cities," Eigen said.
"The IOC bribery scandal is yet another example of the way in which the bribes of the rich are undermining the integrity of people in the developing world and distorting decision-making," states Peter Eigen.
"The spectacle of cities bribing to win the "business" of the Olympic Games lays bare the methodologies of international business against which our organisation has been constantly campaigning," Eigen continued.
"There is also a condescending tone vis-á-vis the South underlying much of the publicity, which infers that votes from poorer countries have to be won with bribes, not force of argument."
"This ignores the fact that some of those implicated come from the world’s richest countries, and that bribes offered to people living in the most poor are obviously much more tempting than to those who can afford to refuse them. The primary sin lies with those who offer these inducements."
Eigen also said that the current IOC scandal underlined the urgent need to deal with the problem of corruption within the private sector. "Most countries do not yet even make it a criminal offence for an employee of one private entity to bribe an official of another private institution. This gap remains even in cases such as the IOC scandal where the bribery entails massive damages to the public."
Peter Eigen added: "If public confidence in the Olympic movement is to be revived, it is essential that the operations and procedures of the IOC should become fully transparent. The IOC can no longer view itself as a private club if it is to best serve the public interest."
For further information ...
please contact
Mr. Frank Vogl,
TI Vice Chairman,
Tel. 1-202-331 8183,
Fax 1-202-331 8187
Mr. Jeff Lovitt,Head of Public Relations,Tel. 49-30-343 82 00,Fax 49-30-3470 3912,E-Mail: press@transparency.org
Only where the winning city can clearly establish that a rival also bribed in its own attempts to win the votes should full compensation be denied. "Simply sacking a few IOC members will not solve the underlying problems", the Chairman of the international anti-corruption organisation said.
He also called for the immediate establishment of hospitality and gift registers by both the IOC and by future bidding cities, which would be kept as open and complete records of the hospitality and other benefits being afforded IOC members and their immediate family. This should also be applied to the president of the IOC, who though he has no vote is arguably the most influential figure within the entire IOC movement. "It is scandalous that President Samaranch should regard himself as being exempt from restrictions on the benefits received from bidding cities," Eigen said.
"The IOC bribery scandal is yet another example of the way in which the bribes of the rich are undermining the integrity of people in the developing world and distorting decision-making," states Peter Eigen.
"The spectacle of cities bribing to win the "business" of the Olympic Games lays bare the methodologies of international business against which our organisation has been constantly campaigning," Eigen continued.
"There is also a condescending tone vis-á-vis the South underlying much of the publicity, which infers that votes from poorer countries have to be won with bribes, not force of argument."
"This ignores the fact that some of those implicated come from the world’s richest countries, and that bribes offered to people living in the most poor are obviously much more tempting than to those who can afford to refuse them. The primary sin lies with those who offer these inducements."
Eigen also said that the current IOC scandal underlined the urgent need to deal with the problem of corruption within the private sector. "Most countries do not yet even make it a criminal offence for an employee of one private entity to bribe an official of another private institution. This gap remains even in cases such as the IOC scandal where the bribery entails massive damages to the public."
Peter Eigen added: "If public confidence in the Olympic movement is to be revived, it is essential that the operations and procedures of the IOC should become fully transparent. The IOC can no longer view itself as a private club if it is to best serve the public interest."
For further information ...
please contact
Mr. Frank Vogl,
TI Vice Chairman,
Tel. 1-202-331 8183,
Fax 1-202-331 8187
Mr. Jeff Lovitt,Head of Public Relations,Tel. 49-30-343 82 00,Fax 49-30-3470 3912,E-Mail: press@transparency.org
FIFA + I.O.C partners against European Union sport policy
Red card for the FIFA family
A review of Andrew Jennings’ book, “FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals
It’s a story of money, power, family and football. The glittering cast: FIFA president Joseph “Sepp” Blatter in the starring role. Former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and Jean-Marie Weber as supporting players. Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) president Jack Warner as ‘enfant terrible’ and Horst “Q” Dassler as the unseen operative pulling strings behind the scenes.
Destroying this familial harmony is investigative reporter Andrew Jennings, revealing the opaque world of FIFA in his new book FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals.
Andrew Jennings is investigative sports reporter at the UK’s Daily Mail, and author of two controversial and successful books exposing malfeasance at the Olympics (The Lords of the Rings and The New Lords of the Rings). He specialises in uncovering what he sees as the main enemy of global sportsmanship: corruption. Since 2000 he has been aiming his investigative eye at FIFA and, more specifically, at its president Sepp Blatter in the “citadel” - FIFA headquarters - on Sunny Hill.
His investigation into the FIFA family tree begins with the ticking bomb of their bank records. The starting point – a 1998 payment of one million Swiss francs from marketing firm International Sports and Leisure (ISL) to a “senior official in football” was revealed just as that company’s bankruptcy hit the news in 2001. ISL is the company that held the FIFA World Cup marketing rights.
Jennings describes how money started to change FIFA as far back as 1974, following FIFA elections at the World Cup in Germany, when Joao Havelange assumed the organisation’s presidency. Taking over from Sir Stanley Rous, Havelange turned an honourary organisation into a professional one, with an annual business volume of US $660 million. Jennings’ main focus, however, lies in the various presidential elections, the networking and campaigning behind the scenes. He offers proof of vote rigging and explains how the organisation is run on the exchange of promises and favours. The story culminates in the 1998 elections, when Blatter took over from Havelange.
Family is one of Blatter’s most used expressions when referring to FIFA. It is a fitting description of the network of relations and interdependence in the organisation. Another member in this family plot is FIFA vice president and executive committee member Jack Warner, Blatter’s loyal friend. Warner has been involved in a series of dubious affairs, such as the under-17 World Championships in Trinidad and Tobago, and most recently selling tickets for the 2006 FIFA World Cup through his family business, Simpaul Travel. Yet, he has been able to keep his position as CONCACAF president, always finding a way out.
Jennings’ book provides lively, interesting and overdue insight into FIFA politics and how mismanagement, misbehaviour and the pursuit of personal gain seem to have had few consequences for its leaders. Its evidence and findings will certainly be fodder for further investigations. Unfortunately, Jennings sometimes appears locked in a private feud with Blatter. By concentrating so heavily on the FIFA president, the prose becomes tendentious and the full breadth of accountability issues in the organisation, such as the allegations against FIFA executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira, comes up short.
In fact, a lot of interesting material gets squeezed into the last two chapters, including the development and outcomes of investigations concerning embezzlement of funds at ISL and an inquiry at FIFA’s offices in 2005, a ‘spin-off’ probe based on information obtained during the ISL investigation.
Blatter, as FIFA’s main representative, still receives ‘boos’ at every public appearance. When tainted FIFA officials such as Teixeira and Warner can remain safely within the family fold despite official commitments to organisational transparency and the establishment of a code of ethics for FIFA officials, it is clear that much remains to be done. The best code of ethics is useless if there is no effective enforcement system to back it up. After ploughing through 360 pages, combing www.fifa.com and carefully scrutinising FIFA’s financial report, one key question remains unanswered: exactly how much does FIFA president Blatter make?
A review of Andrew Jennings’ book, “FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals
It’s a story of money, power, family and football. The glittering cast: FIFA president Joseph “Sepp” Blatter in the starring role. Former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and Jean-Marie Weber as supporting players. Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) president Jack Warner as ‘enfant terrible’ and Horst “Q” Dassler as the unseen operative pulling strings behind the scenes.
Destroying this familial harmony is investigative reporter Andrew Jennings, revealing the opaque world of FIFA in his new book FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals.
Andrew Jennings is investigative sports reporter at the UK’s Daily Mail, and author of two controversial and successful books exposing malfeasance at the Olympics (The Lords of the Rings and The New Lords of the Rings). He specialises in uncovering what he sees as the main enemy of global sportsmanship: corruption. Since 2000 he has been aiming his investigative eye at FIFA and, more specifically, at its president Sepp Blatter in the “citadel” - FIFA headquarters - on Sunny Hill.
His investigation into the FIFA family tree begins with the ticking bomb of their bank records. The starting point – a 1998 payment of one million Swiss francs from marketing firm International Sports and Leisure (ISL) to a “senior official in football” was revealed just as that company’s bankruptcy hit the news in 2001. ISL is the company that held the FIFA World Cup marketing rights.
Jennings describes how money started to change FIFA as far back as 1974, following FIFA elections at the World Cup in Germany, when Joao Havelange assumed the organisation’s presidency. Taking over from Sir Stanley Rous, Havelange turned an honourary organisation into a professional one, with an annual business volume of US $660 million. Jennings’ main focus, however, lies in the various presidential elections, the networking and campaigning behind the scenes. He offers proof of vote rigging and explains how the organisation is run on the exchange of promises and favours. The story culminates in the 1998 elections, when Blatter took over from Havelange.
Family is one of Blatter’s most used expressions when referring to FIFA. It is a fitting description of the network of relations and interdependence in the organisation. Another member in this family plot is FIFA vice president and executive committee member Jack Warner, Blatter’s loyal friend. Warner has been involved in a series of dubious affairs, such as the under-17 World Championships in Trinidad and Tobago, and most recently selling tickets for the 2006 FIFA World Cup through his family business, Simpaul Travel. Yet, he has been able to keep his position as CONCACAF president, always finding a way out.
Jennings’ book provides lively, interesting and overdue insight into FIFA politics and how mismanagement, misbehaviour and the pursuit of personal gain seem to have had few consequences for its leaders. Its evidence and findings will certainly be fodder for further investigations. Unfortunately, Jennings sometimes appears locked in a private feud with Blatter. By concentrating so heavily on the FIFA president, the prose becomes tendentious and the full breadth of accountability issues in the organisation, such as the allegations against FIFA executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira, comes up short.
In fact, a lot of interesting material gets squeezed into the last two chapters, including the development and outcomes of investigations concerning embezzlement of funds at ISL and an inquiry at FIFA’s offices in 2005, a ‘spin-off’ probe based on information obtained during the ISL investigation.
Blatter, as FIFA’s main representative, still receives ‘boos’ at every public appearance. When tainted FIFA officials such as Teixeira and Warner can remain safely within the family fold despite official commitments to organisational transparency and the establishment of a code of ethics for FIFA officials, it is clear that much remains to be done. The best code of ethics is useless if there is no effective enforcement system to back it up. After ploughing through 360 pages, combing www.fifa.com and carefully scrutinising FIFA’s financial report, one key question remains unanswered: exactly how much does FIFA president Blatter make?
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC BIDS
TI calls for independent body to restore 'integrity and fair play' to Olympic bids
Independent monitoring of IOC voting is vital for 2012 Olympics, says Transparency International.
TI in discussions to eliminate bribery in 2008 Beijing Games
Berlin, 05 August 2004
Allegations that members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) may have flouted strict rules on the selection process for the 2012 Olympic Games "fly in the face of the Olympian ideals of integrity and fair play", said David Nussbaum, Chief Executive of Transparency International (TI), today. The claims were made in BBC television's Panorama programme, "Buying the Games", broadcast on 4 August.
"The Athens Olympics are being presented as a return to the Olympian ideals," said Nussbaum. "In this context, and in the light of the scandals that have dogged the Games in the past, it is shocking to see that Olympic votes may still be for sale." TI is the leading international non-governmental organisation devoted to fighting corruption worldwide.
"If the claims aired by the BBC are borne out, this reinforces the urgent need for an independent external agency, including non-governmental representatives, to monitor the IOC's decision-making processes." In addition, said Nussbaum, "it is high time that there was more rigorous scrutiny of the process of bidding for contracts once the venue has been chosen."
TI has already launched discussions with the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games on curbing corruption once the host has been selected. According to TI Programme Officer for South Asia, Liao Ran, after discussions between TI and the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games, "the Beijing Organising Committee has agreed to introduce a code of conduct, including anti-corruption clauses, conflicts of interest rules and guidelines on taking gifts."
TI has proposed an Integrity Pact, an anti-bribery pact where bidders provide a binding assurance that they have not paid nor will they pay any bribes to obtain the contract. Pre-agreed sanctions, including blacklisting, come into force if the undertaking is breached. Liao Ran said: "The budget for the Athens Games amounts to US$12 billion, and we can expect similar sums to be spent on infrastructure construction and other services for the Beijing Games. To ensure that the bidding for such contracts is carried out as cleanly as possible, TI's contact in China, the Anti-Corruption and Governance Research Centre at Tsinghua University, is already in discussions with the Beijing Organising Committee about introducing the TI Integrity Pact into the implementing phases of the construction projects for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008."
According to the Panorama broadcast, almost one-quarter of the IOC's 124 members were open to bribery in return for their vote in the city-selection process for the games in 2012, pitting London, Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow against each other as potential hosts. Bulgarian IOC member Ivan Slavkov was secretly filmed by the television programme discussing openly with New London Ventures - a fake company set up by Panorama - questions about the "favours" that could sway the voting. Slavkov has denied any wrongdoing.
Vote-for-cash scandals are not new to the Olympics. IOC President Jacques Rogge promised to eliminate corruption following the 1998 Salt Lake City scandal in which 13 Olympic officials were accused of accepting bribes. A series of reforms were introduced following the scandal to crack down on bribery and gift-giving. IOC rules now forbid committee members from being "involved with firms or persons whose activity is inconsistent with the principles set out in the Olympic charter", and an ethics commission was set up to police the IOC.
Andrew Jennings, author of The Great Olympic Swindle, said today: "The IOC's in-house 'reform' of 1999 was a fig-leaf, largely for media consumption. Corruption can be checked only by bringing in an external agency that has the clout to sanction such clear abuses of power. The IOC ethics commission is clearly a smokescreen. Reform must be implemented, and it must be implemented immediately."
Media Contact:
Jeff Lovitt
Tel: +49-30-3438 2045
Fax: +49-30-3470 3912
press@transparency.org
Independent monitoring of IOC voting is vital for 2012 Olympics, says Transparency International.
TI in discussions to eliminate bribery in 2008 Beijing Games
Berlin, 05 August 2004
Allegations that members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) may have flouted strict rules on the selection process for the 2012 Olympic Games "fly in the face of the Olympian ideals of integrity and fair play", said David Nussbaum, Chief Executive of Transparency International (TI), today. The claims were made in BBC television's Panorama programme, "Buying the Games", broadcast on 4 August.
"The Athens Olympics are being presented as a return to the Olympian ideals," said Nussbaum. "In this context, and in the light of the scandals that have dogged the Games in the past, it is shocking to see that Olympic votes may still be for sale." TI is the leading international non-governmental organisation devoted to fighting corruption worldwide.
"If the claims aired by the BBC are borne out, this reinforces the urgent need for an independent external agency, including non-governmental representatives, to monitor the IOC's decision-making processes." In addition, said Nussbaum, "it is high time that there was more rigorous scrutiny of the process of bidding for contracts once the venue has been chosen."
TI has already launched discussions with the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games on curbing corruption once the host has been selected. According to TI Programme Officer for South Asia, Liao Ran, after discussions between TI and the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games, "the Beijing Organising Committee has agreed to introduce a code of conduct, including anti-corruption clauses, conflicts of interest rules and guidelines on taking gifts."
TI has proposed an Integrity Pact, an anti-bribery pact where bidders provide a binding assurance that they have not paid nor will they pay any bribes to obtain the contract. Pre-agreed sanctions, including blacklisting, come into force if the undertaking is breached. Liao Ran said: "The budget for the Athens Games amounts to US$12 billion, and we can expect similar sums to be spent on infrastructure construction and other services for the Beijing Games. To ensure that the bidding for such contracts is carried out as cleanly as possible, TI's contact in China, the Anti-Corruption and Governance Research Centre at Tsinghua University, is already in discussions with the Beijing Organising Committee about introducing the TI Integrity Pact into the implementing phases of the construction projects for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008."
According to the Panorama broadcast, almost one-quarter of the IOC's 124 members were open to bribery in return for their vote in the city-selection process for the games in 2012, pitting London, Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow against each other as potential hosts. Bulgarian IOC member Ivan Slavkov was secretly filmed by the television programme discussing openly with New London Ventures - a fake company set up by Panorama - questions about the "favours" that could sway the voting. Slavkov has denied any wrongdoing.
Vote-for-cash scandals are not new to the Olympics. IOC President Jacques Rogge promised to eliminate corruption following the 1998 Salt Lake City scandal in which 13 Olympic officials were accused of accepting bribes. A series of reforms were introduced following the scandal to crack down on bribery and gift-giving. IOC rules now forbid committee members from being "involved with firms or persons whose activity is inconsistent with the principles set out in the Olympic charter", and an ethics commission was set up to police the IOC.
Andrew Jennings, author of The Great Olympic Swindle, said today: "The IOC's in-house 'reform' of 1999 was a fig-leaf, largely for media consumption. Corruption can be checked only by bringing in an external agency that has the clout to sanction such clear abuses of power. The IOC ethics commission is clearly a smokescreen. Reform must be implemented, and it must be implemented immediately."
Media Contact:
Jeff Lovitt
Tel: +49-30-3438 2045
Fax: +49-30-3470 3912
press@transparency.org
winning the right to hold the 2008 Olympic Games, China
One year down, six to go:
a year on from winning the right to hold the 2008 Olympic Games,
China is still crushing dissent
A Free Tibet Campaign Report documents common attributes shared by Chinese government and IOC: unelected, unaccountable, plagued by corruption and obsessed with 'stability'Press Release, 10 July 2002
Download report:
'Beijing 2008: Taking a Bet on the Olympic Ideal.'
(Please note this file is approximately 1200Kb. It can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or later).
Or view
text only version
To mark the anniversary (13 July) of Beijing being granted the 2008 Olympic Games, Free Tibet Campaign has produced a report 'Beijing 2008: Taking a Bet on the Olympic Ideal.' This report documents the woeful lack of progress to date by China and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) towards realizing Executive Director Francois Carrard's infamous "bet" that the Olympics would be a force for good in China (see notes).
"Time is ticking away." said Anne Callaghan of Free Tibet Campaign. "Of course change doesn't happen overnight, but China isn't even going through the motions of making progress; rather it is striking out even harder against dissent. In the last twelve months, the IOC have refused to respond to our recommendations, which were made in good faith to try and avoid the IOC being severely compromised. Instead, the IOC is adopting China's tactics of dealing with international criticism: namely sticking its head in the sand and hoping that the criticisms will fade away."
Free Tibet Campaign calls on the IOC to apply the same duty of care to human rights as it does to the protection of the Olympic host city's environment. "If the IOC does nothing now, it will face increasing calls to remove the Games from Beijing" commented Ms Callaghan. "The IOC must take responsibility for its "bet", and one of the most positive steps the new IOC President Jacques Rogge could take is to set up a Human Rights Committee to advise the Coordination Commission."
Jacques Rogge, following the era of Juan Antonio Samaranch, has a mandate to expunge from the IOC the corruption that has plagued the organisation for so many years. Ironically, Beijing 2008 is another of Samaranch's legacies to the IOC; one which may prevent it from breaking free of the cycles of mistrust that have dogged its past. Worse than taking no action on Free Tibet Campaign's recommendations, the IOC is effectively encouraging negative behaviour on China's part by issuing a licence for 'zero tolerance' of protest. The host city contract contains a clause that there must be no demonstrations of political meetings held during the Olympic Games. In South Korea in 1988 and Mexico in 1968, peaceful demonstrations were brutally suppressed by regimes anxious to maintain a 'peaceful' Olympics. It is highly likely that the stability-obsessed Chinese regime will interpret the Olympic Charter's clause to promote a "peaceful society" as meaning a 'silent society', with freedom of expression rigidly controlled.
Last year, China argued that the decision to grant the Games should not be based on human rights, but was nonetheless quick to use the victory as an endorsement of its continued crackdown on dissent, thereby undermining the principles of the Olympic Charter. Vice Premier Li Lanqing announced after the decision that "we have won a great victory against Falun Gong...we have won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games. This shows that the international community has acknowledged the fact that China is marked by social stability and progress" (reported in The Australian, 23 July 2001).
Moreover, the Chair of the IOC's Coordination Commission which oversees Beijing's preparations, is labouring under the misapprehension that human rights have improved in China: "...we also acknowledge, as do nearly all governments, that there is already a positive trend of change within the country" (Letter from Hein Verbruggen, Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission to the International Tibet Support Network [ITSN], 20 June 2002). Free Tibet Campaign's report demonstrates that human rights have not only deteriorated further, but that governments recognise this deterioration. Beijing's one guarantee of media freedom is further away than ever. The report documents several examples of crackdowns on the media, most recently the blocking of BBC World Television.
"The more you think about it, the more obvious it is that the IOC and the Chinese government are perfect partners." said Anne Callaghan of Free Tibet Campaign. "Undemocratically elected, unaccountable, a history of corruption and an obsession with stability. Can the IOC make a break from its past or will the IOC and China spend six years telling the world to mind its own business if there are human rights abuses taking place in the name of the Olympics? If the IOC chooses this path, Free Tibet Campaign promises that it will face a very difficult six years."
For more information contact Anne Callaghan 020 7833 9958 Mobile 07905 922701.
Notes
1. Free Tibet Campaign is a member of the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN), a global body of Tibet related non-government organisations with a political mandate.
2. The report 'Beijing 2008: taking a bet on the Olympic Ideal' is available with photographs in pdf format or text-only format as a word document. It will be on Free Tibet Campaign's website, www.freetibet.org from 10 July 2002.
3. ITSN's recommendations are available separately from the report as a one page document. In addition to appointing a Human Rights Committee, and setting benchmarks to determine the basis for an eventual reconsideration of the location of the 2008 Olympics in the event of a lack of improvement or further deterioration of the human rights situation in China and Tibet, the recommendations to the IOC include:
Obtaining a written guarantee from the Chinese authorities that Chinese citizens and Tibetans will not be arrested for voicing dissent about the Olympics before, during and after the Games.
Making representations for the immediate release of Chinese citizens already arrested for actions related to the Beijing bid, including Shan Chengfeng, sentenced to two years in a labour camp.
Obtaining a written guarantee that all media will have full and free access to China and Tibet in the run-up to and during the Olympic Games.
Drawing up a code of conduct to guide IOC members, officials and sponsors, to prevent the IOC becoming a propaganda pawn for the Chinese authorities.
Raising the case of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama, one of the most senior figures in Tibetan Buddhism, was last seen in public in 1995.
4. IOC Executive Director Francois Carrard introduced the press conference held by the Beijing team on 13 July 2001 with the comment that there was only one issue under discussion: human rights, and that the IOC had taken "a bet" that the Games would lead to improvements in human rights in China and Tibet.
5. 1968 Mexico Olympics: between 100 and 325 protestors were killed in demonstrations ten days before the beginning of the Olympic Games. The then IOC President, Avery Brundage apparently warned the Mexican President that the Games would be removed from Mexico if there were demonstrations. (Andrew Jennings, The New Lords of the Rings, Pocket Books 1996, page 41)
a year on from winning the right to hold the 2008 Olympic Games,
China is still crushing dissent
A Free Tibet Campaign Report documents common attributes shared by Chinese government and IOC: unelected, unaccountable, plagued by corruption and obsessed with 'stability'Press Release, 10 July 2002
Download report:
'Beijing 2008: Taking a Bet on the Olympic Ideal.'
(Please note this file is approximately 1200Kb. It can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or later).
Or view
text only version
To mark the anniversary (13 July) of Beijing being granted the 2008 Olympic Games, Free Tibet Campaign has produced a report 'Beijing 2008: Taking a Bet on the Olympic Ideal.' This report documents the woeful lack of progress to date by China and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) towards realizing Executive Director Francois Carrard's infamous "bet" that the Olympics would be a force for good in China (see notes).
"Time is ticking away." said Anne Callaghan of Free Tibet Campaign. "Of course change doesn't happen overnight, but China isn't even going through the motions of making progress; rather it is striking out even harder against dissent. In the last twelve months, the IOC have refused to respond to our recommendations, which were made in good faith to try and avoid the IOC being severely compromised. Instead, the IOC is adopting China's tactics of dealing with international criticism: namely sticking its head in the sand and hoping that the criticisms will fade away."
Free Tibet Campaign calls on the IOC to apply the same duty of care to human rights as it does to the protection of the Olympic host city's environment. "If the IOC does nothing now, it will face increasing calls to remove the Games from Beijing" commented Ms Callaghan. "The IOC must take responsibility for its "bet", and one of the most positive steps the new IOC President Jacques Rogge could take is to set up a Human Rights Committee to advise the Coordination Commission."
Jacques Rogge, following the era of Juan Antonio Samaranch, has a mandate to expunge from the IOC the corruption that has plagued the organisation for so many years. Ironically, Beijing 2008 is another of Samaranch's legacies to the IOC; one which may prevent it from breaking free of the cycles of mistrust that have dogged its past. Worse than taking no action on Free Tibet Campaign's recommendations, the IOC is effectively encouraging negative behaviour on China's part by issuing a licence for 'zero tolerance' of protest. The host city contract contains a clause that there must be no demonstrations of political meetings held during the Olympic Games. In South Korea in 1988 and Mexico in 1968, peaceful demonstrations were brutally suppressed by regimes anxious to maintain a 'peaceful' Olympics. It is highly likely that the stability-obsessed Chinese regime will interpret the Olympic Charter's clause to promote a "peaceful society" as meaning a 'silent society', with freedom of expression rigidly controlled.
Last year, China argued that the decision to grant the Games should not be based on human rights, but was nonetheless quick to use the victory as an endorsement of its continued crackdown on dissent, thereby undermining the principles of the Olympic Charter. Vice Premier Li Lanqing announced after the decision that "we have won a great victory against Falun Gong...we have won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games. This shows that the international community has acknowledged the fact that China is marked by social stability and progress" (reported in The Australian, 23 July 2001).
Moreover, the Chair of the IOC's Coordination Commission which oversees Beijing's preparations, is labouring under the misapprehension that human rights have improved in China: "...we also acknowledge, as do nearly all governments, that there is already a positive trend of change within the country" (Letter from Hein Verbruggen, Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission to the International Tibet Support Network [ITSN], 20 June 2002). Free Tibet Campaign's report demonstrates that human rights have not only deteriorated further, but that governments recognise this deterioration. Beijing's one guarantee of media freedom is further away than ever. The report documents several examples of crackdowns on the media, most recently the blocking of BBC World Television.
"The more you think about it, the more obvious it is that the IOC and the Chinese government are perfect partners." said Anne Callaghan of Free Tibet Campaign. "Undemocratically elected, unaccountable, a history of corruption and an obsession with stability. Can the IOC make a break from its past or will the IOC and China spend six years telling the world to mind its own business if there are human rights abuses taking place in the name of the Olympics? If the IOC chooses this path, Free Tibet Campaign promises that it will face a very difficult six years."
For more information contact Anne Callaghan 020 7833 9958 Mobile 07905 922701.
Notes
1. Free Tibet Campaign is a member of the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN), a global body of Tibet related non-government organisations with a political mandate.
2. The report 'Beijing 2008: taking a bet on the Olympic Ideal' is available with photographs in pdf format or text-only format as a word document. It will be on Free Tibet Campaign's website, www.freetibet.org from 10 July 2002.
3. ITSN's recommendations are available separately from the report as a one page document. In addition to appointing a Human Rights Committee, and setting benchmarks to determine the basis for an eventual reconsideration of the location of the 2008 Olympics in the event of a lack of improvement or further deterioration of the human rights situation in China and Tibet, the recommendations to the IOC include:
Obtaining a written guarantee from the Chinese authorities that Chinese citizens and Tibetans will not be arrested for voicing dissent about the Olympics before, during and after the Games.
Making representations for the immediate release of Chinese citizens already arrested for actions related to the Beijing bid, including Shan Chengfeng, sentenced to two years in a labour camp.
Obtaining a written guarantee that all media will have full and free access to China and Tibet in the run-up to and during the Olympic Games.
Drawing up a code of conduct to guide IOC members, officials and sponsors, to prevent the IOC becoming a propaganda pawn for the Chinese authorities.
Raising the case of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama, one of the most senior figures in Tibetan Buddhism, was last seen in public in 1995.
4. IOC Executive Director Francois Carrard introduced the press conference held by the Beijing team on 13 July 2001 with the comment that there was only one issue under discussion: human rights, and that the IOC had taken "a bet" that the Games would lead to improvements in human rights in China and Tibet.
5. 1968 Mexico Olympics: between 100 and 325 protestors were killed in demonstrations ten days before the beginning of the Olympic Games. The then IOC President, Avery Brundage apparently warned the Mexican President that the Games would be removed from Mexico if there were demonstrations. (Andrew Jennings, The New Lords of the Rings, Pocket Books 1996, page 41)
BEIJING 2008 Shadow of corruption hangs over Olympics
06/13/2006 11:10
CHINA
Shadow of corruption hangs over Olympics
Beijing's vice-mayor, charged with the construction of new venues for the Olympics, has been arrested on corruption charges. China's Olympic committee: "He had no links with us."
Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Organizers of the Beijing Olympic Games have distanced themselves from the vice-mayor of the city, Liu Zhihua, arrested on 11 June on charges of corruption and a "decadent lifestyle".
The arrest of Liu, who was in charge of construction of new venues for the Olympics, has given rise to speculation about possible corruption cases in the lead-up to the Games.
The Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Bocog) – which has repeatedly pledged to make the event "free of corruption" – has rejected any such links with the disgraced politician. "Liu Zhihua was not a member of Bocog, nor did he hold any position in the organising committee," said Sun Weide, deputy director of Bocog's media and communications department.
A Beijing government daily newspaper, Wen Wei Po, said Liu had been put under shuanggui [a form of Communist Party internal disciplinary investigation] on Friday, although his dismissal was only announced two days later in a statement published by Xinhua. The newspaper said Liu had been involved in a series of scandals linked not only to corruption but also to his lifestyle: the politician allegedly kept a series of mistresses in luxury villas in the suburbs of Beijing.
The deputy mayor's dismissal from public life came about when a group of foreign investors, who have remained anonymous for security reasons, reported him to his superiors for bribes requested in exchange for land deals.
Beijing Communist Party secretary, Liu Qi, described the scandal as a sign that "the Party's fight against corruption will be arduous and long-lasting". He added: "We deeply regret that the case concerns a high-ranking politician. It is a profound lesson for all of us.
CHINA
Shadow of corruption hangs over Olympics
Beijing's vice-mayor, charged with the construction of new venues for the Olympics, has been arrested on corruption charges. China's Olympic committee: "He had no links with us."
Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Organizers of the Beijing Olympic Games have distanced themselves from the vice-mayor of the city, Liu Zhihua, arrested on 11 June on charges of corruption and a "decadent lifestyle".
The arrest of Liu, who was in charge of construction of new venues for the Olympics, has given rise to speculation about possible corruption cases in the lead-up to the Games.
The Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Bocog) – which has repeatedly pledged to make the event "free of corruption" – has rejected any such links with the disgraced politician. "Liu Zhihua was not a member of Bocog, nor did he hold any position in the organising committee," said Sun Weide, deputy director of Bocog's media and communications department.
A Beijing government daily newspaper, Wen Wei Po, said Liu had been put under shuanggui [a form of Communist Party internal disciplinary investigation] on Friday, although his dismissal was only announced two days later in a statement published by Xinhua. The newspaper said Liu had been involved in a series of scandals linked not only to corruption but also to his lifestyle: the politician allegedly kept a series of mistresses in luxury villas in the suburbs of Beijing.
The deputy mayor's dismissal from public life came about when a group of foreign investors, who have remained anonymous for security reasons, reported him to his superiors for bribes requested in exchange for land deals.
Beijing Communist Party secretary, Liu Qi, described the scandal as a sign that "the Party's fight against corruption will be arduous and long-lasting". He added: "We deeply regret that the case concerns a high-ranking politician. It is a profound lesson for all of us.
Olympics in the 21st Century: Is Corruption the Name of the Game?
Olympics in the 21st Century: Is Corruption the Name of the Game?by Barbara McCuenTuesday, January 9, 2001
Just as the games' governing body, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) thought things were settled down, they fired back up again the week before the start of the Sydney Olympics. The government of Indonesia sharply criticized the body for lobbying for the release of IOC member Mohamad Hasan so he could attend the summer games. Hasan, a track and field official, is an associate of former Indonesian President Suharto and is in jail awaiting trial on charges that he embezzled $87 million in state funds. In addition to leaning on the Indonesian government for the release of a Suharto crony, two IOC members were denied entry into Australia for their alleged ties with organized crime.
A White House report released just before the games got underway charged that up to 80 percent of Olympians in some sports used performance-enhancing drugs, an atmosphere tolerated, not regulated, by the IOC. The new round of allegations has only fueled charges that the IOC is corrupt and out of control.
To top it all off, the Salt Lake City organizing committee for the 2002 games is preparing to release a "geld" document, a list compiled by Salt Lake City organizers of personal habits and family needs of IOC members. Any notions of innocence the public may have held about the games were tarnished by accusations of widespread bribery by IOC members in the selection of Salt Lake City as the host of the 2002 Olympics. Local officials reportedly spent more than $1 million on gifts and favors for IOC members in their quest to win the 2002 games.
The IOC has pledged to reform itself, but to many, the promises look like old tricks. IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch has ruled the organization with an iron fist for two decades. In March 1999, after the scandal broke, he overwhelmingly won a vote of confidence from his mostly hand-picked board, 86-2.
On One Hand...
It's time for a complete overhaul of the IOC with a new board and president. Juan Antonio Samaranch's pledges to reform the organization from within have as much credibility as a used-car salesman's pitch. IOC members have had their snouts in the money trough so long they don't know what color the sky is. The behavior of IOC members has tainted the games and will certainly still be an issue at the 2002 Winter Olympics. How can the IOC possibly enact reforms when its newly created ethics panel is made up of current members, not an independent board as was recommended? The real solution is a purging of the current corrupt committee replaced by fresh faces with principles.
On the Other Hand...
Since Samaranch has led the IOC, the popularity of the Olympics has soared. The governing body has agreed to several important reforms and is on the road to recovery. Among those reforms are lowering the limit of members from 80 to 70, financial records and meetings will be public, and a drug testing program will be instituted. The games are a symbol of international cooperation and sportsmanship. The IOC deserves a chance to prove it can live up to the games' promise of integrity.
Ten members have left the IOC since 1998 after being accused of accepting gifts from Salt Lake City Olympic organizers bidding on the games.
The IOC stands to receive more than $3.5 billion in TV-rights fees from NBC for games through 2008.
Corporations pay at least $40 million each to be official Olympic sponsors over a four-year period.
Just as the games' governing body, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) thought things were settled down, they fired back up again the week before the start of the Sydney Olympics. The government of Indonesia sharply criticized the body for lobbying for the release of IOC member Mohamad Hasan so he could attend the summer games. Hasan, a track and field official, is an associate of former Indonesian President Suharto and is in jail awaiting trial on charges that he embezzled $87 million in state funds. In addition to leaning on the Indonesian government for the release of a Suharto crony, two IOC members were denied entry into Australia for their alleged ties with organized crime.
A White House report released just before the games got underway charged that up to 80 percent of Olympians in some sports used performance-enhancing drugs, an atmosphere tolerated, not regulated, by the IOC. The new round of allegations has only fueled charges that the IOC is corrupt and out of control.
To top it all off, the Salt Lake City organizing committee for the 2002 games is preparing to release a "geld" document, a list compiled by Salt Lake City organizers of personal habits and family needs of IOC members. Any notions of innocence the public may have held about the games were tarnished by accusations of widespread bribery by IOC members in the selection of Salt Lake City as the host of the 2002 Olympics. Local officials reportedly spent more than $1 million on gifts and favors for IOC members in their quest to win the 2002 games.
The IOC has pledged to reform itself, but to many, the promises look like old tricks. IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch has ruled the organization with an iron fist for two decades. In March 1999, after the scandal broke, he overwhelmingly won a vote of confidence from his mostly hand-picked board, 86-2.
On One Hand...
It's time for a complete overhaul of the IOC with a new board and president. Juan Antonio Samaranch's pledges to reform the organization from within have as much credibility as a used-car salesman's pitch. IOC members have had their snouts in the money trough so long they don't know what color the sky is. The behavior of IOC members has tainted the games and will certainly still be an issue at the 2002 Winter Olympics. How can the IOC possibly enact reforms when its newly created ethics panel is made up of current members, not an independent board as was recommended? The real solution is a purging of the current corrupt committee replaced by fresh faces with principles.
On the Other Hand...
Since Samaranch has led the IOC, the popularity of the Olympics has soared. The governing body has agreed to several important reforms and is on the road to recovery. Among those reforms are lowering the limit of members from 80 to 70, financial records and meetings will be public, and a drug testing program will be instituted. The games are a symbol of international cooperation and sportsmanship. The IOC deserves a chance to prove it can live up to the games' promise of integrity.
Ten members have left the IOC since 1998 after being accused of accepting gifts from Salt Lake City Olympic organizers bidding on the games.
The IOC stands to receive more than $3.5 billion in TV-rights fees from NBC for games through 2008.
Corporations pay at least $40 million each to be official Olympic sponsors over a four-year period.
Organized Crime and IOC Corruption Undermine the Olympic Games Integrity
Organized Crime and IOC Corruption Undermine the Olympic Games Integrity
September 15, 2000, 3:29 PM (GMT+02:00)
The miasma of organized crime hangs over the Olympics Games that open Sept 15 in Sidney, Australia, with the apparent connivance of the increasingly corrupt International Olympic Committee, the IOC, under the presidency of Antonio Samaranch. Grave allegations to this effect appear in a new book The Great Olympic Swindle (Simon & Schuster) by Andrew Jennings and Clare Sambrook, long-time crusaders for a radical cleanup of the Olympic stables. The book also reads like a who’s who of the world’s most corrupt rulers in the last twenty years.
The Australian authorities’ refusal of entry to two men named in the book, Gafur Rakhimov, an International Amateur Boxing Association official from Uzbekistan, and Carl Ching, a vice president for the International Basketball Federation from Hong Kong, was protested by IOC officials and the Uzbek government and defended by the Australian prime minister as “the right decision”. Indeed, the Australian immigration office revealed Tuesday that between 20 and 40 Olympic officials had been allowed in, although they figured on Australia’s “alert list” of 140,000 people barred from the country on such grounds as war crimes, possessing criminal histories or being under UN sanction. However, the Australian government stood by its refusal to admit jailed Olympic Committee member Mohamad “Bob” Hasan of Indonesia, despite the IOC’s pressing demands. Hasan is in jail in Jakarta, under investigation for corruption under the Suharto regime.
Eight years ago, a judge in Lausanne imposed a five day suspended sentence in absentia on Jennings for writing that some IOC members had solicited bribes from Olympic bidding cities and that their leader Samaranch was a former Franco fascist. Allegations that Salt Lake City bid committee members tried to bribe IOC members with cash, gifts and vacations spurred a US justice Department investigation last year and led to an appearance by Samaranch before a congressional hearing in December 1999. This week, IOC members discussed legal action against the Salt Lake City Committee for what they called libelous slurs in dossiers compiled on IOC members before the 2002 Games were awarded in 1995.
As for the Rakhimov, Jennings charged this week that the IOC had known for at least 18 months about his alleged mafia activities and can name IOC members who tried unsuccessfully to get action.
“They were ignored by Samaranch,” Jennings says. “A year ago I told the AIBA’s new general secretary Loring Baker from Australia that the FBI held a file on his friend Rakhimov. Mr Baker told me the FBI often gets its facts wrong.”
According to a more recent Jennings anecdote, “In the lobby of Sydney’s Regent Hotel on Friday, IOC member Major-General Francis Nyangweso, once Idi Amin’s army chief, assured me Rakhimov was a fine man…”
Jennings wonders why Samaranch demanded of Prime Minister John Howard a full explanaton for the banning order on Rakhimov and also an alleged Chinese gangster, Carl Ching. “Why stick up for a man the Australian government says is a threat to public safety? Why has not the ‘Olympic family’ not rid itself of Rakhimov?
His answer: “Linking them is the notorious French money mover Andre Guelfi, an associate of Samaranch and Russian IOC member Vitaly Smirnov from the 1970s. Guelfi has admitted channeling $US40 million in illicit payments from a French oil company to associates of the now disgraced former German chancellor Helmut Kohl. Since he was jailed in France a couple of years ago, Guelfi is no longer referred to as a member of the ‘Olympic family’ although he was the driving force behind the bids to stage the summer Olympics in Tashkent or St Petersburg in the hope of hefty commissions. Guelfi admits to flying with Samaranch to Beijing and trading on Olympic connections to secure a meeting with Premier Li Peng to push a business proposition.
“‘When I’m with Samaranch and I request an audience,,, I get it…’ Guelfi is quoted as boasting. ‘We are the masters of the universe’”.
Under the leadership of Pakistan’s Anwar Chowdhry, a longtime associate of Samaranch, the image of boxing has crumbled. Fights at the Olympics and their world championships have been fixed in the interests of the rich powerbrokers in the shadows of the sport. One of the worst examples was the robbing of America’s Roy Jones at the Seoul Games of his gold by bribing the judges. The same thing happened to the Cuban boxer, Juan Hernandez, in Houston, Texas a year ago. In the end the Cubans walked out of the contest.
When legendary, three-time Olympic champion Teofilo Stevenson joined the protest against the corruption in Houston, the AIBA banned him from boxing competitions for two years. This means that one of the greatest Olympic champions is banned from Sydney by a federation, which according to Jennings is “riddled with crooks and mafia”.
Jennings ridicules the announcement that at the Sidney Games, “spy cameras” will video judges as they score bouts. What use is that when the tapes are to be checked by the same AIBA jury that robbed Hernandez of his victory. Jennings has no doubt that the Cubans will again be victimized at Sydney, along with many other talented athletes.
He declares: “The IOC, supreme sports authority has abdicated its responsibility to the athletes and so the civil power must step in if the integrity of these games is to survive.” Jennings calls on Sidney’s police commissioner to dispatch officers to the Darling Harbour Exhibition Center with instructions to watch every Olympic bout and arrests judges suspected of fraud.
“Only the thin blue line of police officers can protect the athletes.”
September 15, 2000, 3:29 PM (GMT+02:00)
The miasma of organized crime hangs over the Olympics Games that open Sept 15 in Sidney, Australia, with the apparent connivance of the increasingly corrupt International Olympic Committee, the IOC, under the presidency of Antonio Samaranch. Grave allegations to this effect appear in a new book The Great Olympic Swindle (Simon & Schuster) by Andrew Jennings and Clare Sambrook, long-time crusaders for a radical cleanup of the Olympic stables. The book also reads like a who’s who of the world’s most corrupt rulers in the last twenty years.
The Australian authorities’ refusal of entry to two men named in the book, Gafur Rakhimov, an International Amateur Boxing Association official from Uzbekistan, and Carl Ching, a vice president for the International Basketball Federation from Hong Kong, was protested by IOC officials and the Uzbek government and defended by the Australian prime minister as “the right decision”. Indeed, the Australian immigration office revealed Tuesday that between 20 and 40 Olympic officials had been allowed in, although they figured on Australia’s “alert list” of 140,000 people barred from the country on such grounds as war crimes, possessing criminal histories or being under UN sanction. However, the Australian government stood by its refusal to admit jailed Olympic Committee member Mohamad “Bob” Hasan of Indonesia, despite the IOC’s pressing demands. Hasan is in jail in Jakarta, under investigation for corruption under the Suharto regime.
Eight years ago, a judge in Lausanne imposed a five day suspended sentence in absentia on Jennings for writing that some IOC members had solicited bribes from Olympic bidding cities and that their leader Samaranch was a former Franco fascist. Allegations that Salt Lake City bid committee members tried to bribe IOC members with cash, gifts and vacations spurred a US justice Department investigation last year and led to an appearance by Samaranch before a congressional hearing in December 1999. This week, IOC members discussed legal action against the Salt Lake City Committee for what they called libelous slurs in dossiers compiled on IOC members before the 2002 Games were awarded in 1995.
As for the Rakhimov, Jennings charged this week that the IOC had known for at least 18 months about his alleged mafia activities and can name IOC members who tried unsuccessfully to get action.
“They were ignored by Samaranch,” Jennings says. “A year ago I told the AIBA’s new general secretary Loring Baker from Australia that the FBI held a file on his friend Rakhimov. Mr Baker told me the FBI often gets its facts wrong.”
According to a more recent Jennings anecdote, “In the lobby of Sydney’s Regent Hotel on Friday, IOC member Major-General Francis Nyangweso, once Idi Amin’s army chief, assured me Rakhimov was a fine man…”
Jennings wonders why Samaranch demanded of Prime Minister John Howard a full explanaton for the banning order on Rakhimov and also an alleged Chinese gangster, Carl Ching. “Why stick up for a man the Australian government says is a threat to public safety? Why has not the ‘Olympic family’ not rid itself of Rakhimov?
His answer: “Linking them is the notorious French money mover Andre Guelfi, an associate of Samaranch and Russian IOC member Vitaly Smirnov from the 1970s. Guelfi has admitted channeling $US40 million in illicit payments from a French oil company to associates of the now disgraced former German chancellor Helmut Kohl. Since he was jailed in France a couple of years ago, Guelfi is no longer referred to as a member of the ‘Olympic family’ although he was the driving force behind the bids to stage the summer Olympics in Tashkent or St Petersburg in the hope of hefty commissions. Guelfi admits to flying with Samaranch to Beijing and trading on Olympic connections to secure a meeting with Premier Li Peng to push a business proposition.
“‘When I’m with Samaranch and I request an audience,,, I get it…’ Guelfi is quoted as boasting. ‘We are the masters of the universe’”.
Under the leadership of Pakistan’s Anwar Chowdhry, a longtime associate of Samaranch, the image of boxing has crumbled. Fights at the Olympics and their world championships have been fixed in the interests of the rich powerbrokers in the shadows of the sport. One of the worst examples was the robbing of America’s Roy Jones at the Seoul Games of his gold by bribing the judges. The same thing happened to the Cuban boxer, Juan Hernandez, in Houston, Texas a year ago. In the end the Cubans walked out of the contest.
When legendary, three-time Olympic champion Teofilo Stevenson joined the protest against the corruption in Houston, the AIBA banned him from boxing competitions for two years. This means that one of the greatest Olympic champions is banned from Sydney by a federation, which according to Jennings is “riddled with crooks and mafia”.
Jennings ridicules the announcement that at the Sidney Games, “spy cameras” will video judges as they score bouts. What use is that when the tapes are to be checked by the same AIBA jury that robbed Hernandez of his victory. Jennings has no doubt that the Cubans will again be victimized at Sydney, along with many other talented athletes.
He declares: “The IOC, supreme sports authority has abdicated its responsibility to the athletes and so the civil power must step in if the integrity of these games is to survive.” Jennings calls on Sidney’s police commissioner to dispatch officers to the Darling Harbour Exhibition Center with instructions to watch every Olympic bout and arrests judges suspected of fraud.
“Only the thin blue line of police officers can protect the athletes.”
Some thoughts about the 1998 Winter Olympics
Some thoughts about the 1998 Winter Olympics
28 February 1998By David Walsh
In writing about an event such as the Winter Games, one comes up against real contradictions.
Does one begin with the extraordinary skill, ingenuity and perseverance demonstrated in Nagano—or with the crass chauvinism of at least the North American media and the commercialism and greed of the corporate sponsors?
One remembers the performance of Norway’s Thomas Alsgaard, striding with awesome grace and strength, toward the finish in the men’s 4x10 kilometer cross-country relay; the show put on by Austria’s Hermann Maier who, after a spectacular airborne crash in the downhill event, came back to win both the super-G and giant slaloms; the brilliant effort of ice hockey goalie Dominik Hasek of the Czech Republic, in shutting down the powerful US, Canadian and Russian teams. But one also recalls all too well the miserable coverage provided by CBS, the US television network, whose combination of ineptitude, national narrowness and desperation for ratings ensured that the games were viewed by the smallest American audience in 30 years.
One would like to retain in one’s memory only the inspiring performances of cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina (five medals, including three gold), short track speed skater Chun Lee-kyung of South Korea (two gold medals and one bronze), Alpine skier Katja Seizinger of Germany (two gold and one bronze), cross-country skier Bjorn Dahlie (three gold medals and one silver) and many others. But then there is the matter of the $1.4 billion in cars and cash given to the International Olympic Committee and NBC, another US television network, by General Motors, so that it could go on calling itself the official US auto company of the Olympic Games through 2008.
How does the "Olympic spirit" best manifest itself?
In Japanese speed skater Tomomi Okazaki (the eventual bronze medal winner) quieting the cheering crowd after she had temporarily jumped into first place in the women’s 500 meter competition and pointing to Canadians Catriona LeMay Doan and Susan Auch (the gold and silver medal winners), waiting at the start line, as if to say, "Watch them, they’re the best"?
Or in members of the US men’s ice hockey team, made up of highly-paid professionals, trashing their apartments after a sound defeat at the hands of the Czech team?
No sporting event, much less one as widely followed and highly publicized as the Olympics, can isolate itself from the society in which it takes place.
All the elements that go into the preparation of an athlete to compete successfully at these levels are enormously time- and, above all, money-consuming. How many families could afford the financial sacrifices that permitted Tara Lipinski, for example, that remarkably composed 15 year old, or her 17-year-old rival, Michelle Kwan, to perform at such heights in Nagano? The present organization of society ensures that only a tiny percentage of the population, even in the countries where the trained personnel and facilities exist, ever has the opportunity to cultivate its intellectual, aesthetic or athletic potential.
The division of the world into competing nation-states hinders the genuine flourishing of sport. Its objective development, as well as those of technology, science, art and the productive forces of mankind as a whole, has rendered national boundaries obsolete. Equipment and training techniques are international, in theory and practice. The American Picabo Street is coached by an Austrian; a Canadian former skater choreographed Lipinski’s routines; eastern European and Russian émigrés now dominate coaching in such sports as gymnastics. It is safe to say that Australia would not have won its first medal in Alpine skiing had not Zali Steggall grown up in Morzine, France.
Any competitor or team that stuck to hallowed "national traditions" in any event would quickly be left behind. Athletes travel great distances to train at the most advanced facilities. The fast ice at Calgary’s Olympic Oval, built for the 1988 Games, is given credit for much of the success of the Canadian speed skaters; it has become an international Mecca for performers in the discipline.
The obvious fact that nationality has no meaning in terms of excellence in sports or any other field does not mean that its political significance disappears. It intrudes all too often. There are the obvious cases of stupidity and national blindness. How absurd it was, for example, that hockey player Ulf Samuelsson of the New York Rangers was barred from playing for Sweden because it was learned in the midst of the Games that he had dual citizenship with the US.
The greatest and most arbitrary intrusion of the national element into the Games comes at the medal awards ceremony that follows each event. Here one rapidly descends, it would seem, several stages in social evolution: from the most advanced—represented in the sublime performance of the athlete, expressing the capacity of human beings to accept virtually any intellectual or physical challenge—to the most backward: the reactionary and wasteful confrontation of competing national entities. The national flag is raised. The national anthem is played. It never seems to occur to any commentator, or athlete apparently, that this wretched little ceremony is entirely extraneous, and has no relationship to the quality of the performance that preceded it.
Nationalism and chauvinism do not play quite the same role in the Winter Games as they do in the summer event. For one thing, the medals are distributed more evenly and are shared by a greater number of smaller countries. Norway, for example, a country of slightly more than four million people, has won more medals than any other single political entity (the totals for Germany and East Germany are counted separately, as are those for the Soviet Union, Russia and the "Unified Team"). In addition, aside from figure skating, ice hockey and perhaps Alpine skiing, none of the events are a central focus for the international marketing and advertising machines.
Perhaps these facts, and the apparently genuinely warm and gracious reception given the athletes by the Japanese public, gave the Games in Nagano their relatively civilized character, particularly in contrast to the vulgar, profit-driven affair in Atlanta two years ago. But it would be naive to believe that such events, no matter how devoutly it may be wished for by athletes and organizers alike, lessen tensions or the dangers of nationalist and militarist eruptions. One only has to bear in mind the site of the 1984 Winter Olympics: Sarajevo, in the former Yugoslavia.
The Nagano Games, of course, were held under the shadow of the threat of a massive military assault by the United States against Iraq. The possibility of bombs dropping on Baghdad during the Olympics, Clinton administration officials made clear, would not cause them to alter their war plans.
Advances in technique in any field provide no guarantee in and of themselves of the further progress of human social organization. Sports technique has its own laws, involving the athletes’ mastery of the laws of nature and their own bodies. But sports, like every other activity, develop within class society. Who plays them and under what conditions, and the general character of their organization are highly dependent on the nature of the society and, specifically, its ruling class. Where that class is militaristic, sport will have that quality.
However, would the ultimate elimination of national rivalries, following the demise of capitalism, mean the end of the competitive spirit, as some assert?
This would be a very wrongheaded conclusion. Socialism does not mean that competition disappears, Leon Trotsky noted, but that, "to use the language of psychoanalysis, it will be sublimated, that is, will assume a higher and more fertile form…. It will have no running after profits, it will have nothing mean, no betrayals, no bribery, none of the things that form the soul of ‘competition’ in a society divided into classes. But this will in no way hinder the struggle from being absorbing, dramatic and passionate."
Would sport, deprived of its association with nationalism and the drive for profit, suffer a decline? We think not. On the contrary, freed from these constraints and more closely and consciously assisted by scientific knowledge and aesthetic sensibility, athletes would attain new heights of speed, strength and beauty. Athletic ability would for the first time become what it ought to be: one aspect of an all-rounded human personality, which has, as Trotsky put it, the "invaluable basic trait of continual discontent."
28 February 1998By David Walsh
In writing about an event such as the Winter Games, one comes up against real contradictions.
Does one begin with the extraordinary skill, ingenuity and perseverance demonstrated in Nagano—or with the crass chauvinism of at least the North American media and the commercialism and greed of the corporate sponsors?
One remembers the performance of Norway’s Thomas Alsgaard, striding with awesome grace and strength, toward the finish in the men’s 4x10 kilometer cross-country relay; the show put on by Austria’s Hermann Maier who, after a spectacular airborne crash in the downhill event, came back to win both the super-G and giant slaloms; the brilliant effort of ice hockey goalie Dominik Hasek of the Czech Republic, in shutting down the powerful US, Canadian and Russian teams. But one also recalls all too well the miserable coverage provided by CBS, the US television network, whose combination of ineptitude, national narrowness and desperation for ratings ensured that the games were viewed by the smallest American audience in 30 years.
One would like to retain in one’s memory only the inspiring performances of cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina (five medals, including three gold), short track speed skater Chun Lee-kyung of South Korea (two gold medals and one bronze), Alpine skier Katja Seizinger of Germany (two gold and one bronze), cross-country skier Bjorn Dahlie (three gold medals and one silver) and many others. But then there is the matter of the $1.4 billion in cars and cash given to the International Olympic Committee and NBC, another US television network, by General Motors, so that it could go on calling itself the official US auto company of the Olympic Games through 2008.
How does the "Olympic spirit" best manifest itself?
In Japanese speed skater Tomomi Okazaki (the eventual bronze medal winner) quieting the cheering crowd after she had temporarily jumped into first place in the women’s 500 meter competition and pointing to Canadians Catriona LeMay Doan and Susan Auch (the gold and silver medal winners), waiting at the start line, as if to say, "Watch them, they’re the best"?
Or in members of the US men’s ice hockey team, made up of highly-paid professionals, trashing their apartments after a sound defeat at the hands of the Czech team?
No sporting event, much less one as widely followed and highly publicized as the Olympics, can isolate itself from the society in which it takes place.
All the elements that go into the preparation of an athlete to compete successfully at these levels are enormously time- and, above all, money-consuming. How many families could afford the financial sacrifices that permitted Tara Lipinski, for example, that remarkably composed 15 year old, or her 17-year-old rival, Michelle Kwan, to perform at such heights in Nagano? The present organization of society ensures that only a tiny percentage of the population, even in the countries where the trained personnel and facilities exist, ever has the opportunity to cultivate its intellectual, aesthetic or athletic potential.
The division of the world into competing nation-states hinders the genuine flourishing of sport. Its objective development, as well as those of technology, science, art and the productive forces of mankind as a whole, has rendered national boundaries obsolete. Equipment and training techniques are international, in theory and practice. The American Picabo Street is coached by an Austrian; a Canadian former skater choreographed Lipinski’s routines; eastern European and Russian émigrés now dominate coaching in such sports as gymnastics. It is safe to say that Australia would not have won its first medal in Alpine skiing had not Zali Steggall grown up in Morzine, France.
Any competitor or team that stuck to hallowed "national traditions" in any event would quickly be left behind. Athletes travel great distances to train at the most advanced facilities. The fast ice at Calgary’s Olympic Oval, built for the 1988 Games, is given credit for much of the success of the Canadian speed skaters; it has become an international Mecca for performers in the discipline.
The obvious fact that nationality has no meaning in terms of excellence in sports or any other field does not mean that its political significance disappears. It intrudes all too often. There are the obvious cases of stupidity and national blindness. How absurd it was, for example, that hockey player Ulf Samuelsson of the New York Rangers was barred from playing for Sweden because it was learned in the midst of the Games that he had dual citizenship with the US.
The greatest and most arbitrary intrusion of the national element into the Games comes at the medal awards ceremony that follows each event. Here one rapidly descends, it would seem, several stages in social evolution: from the most advanced—represented in the sublime performance of the athlete, expressing the capacity of human beings to accept virtually any intellectual or physical challenge—to the most backward: the reactionary and wasteful confrontation of competing national entities. The national flag is raised. The national anthem is played. It never seems to occur to any commentator, or athlete apparently, that this wretched little ceremony is entirely extraneous, and has no relationship to the quality of the performance that preceded it.
Nationalism and chauvinism do not play quite the same role in the Winter Games as they do in the summer event. For one thing, the medals are distributed more evenly and are shared by a greater number of smaller countries. Norway, for example, a country of slightly more than four million people, has won more medals than any other single political entity (the totals for Germany and East Germany are counted separately, as are those for the Soviet Union, Russia and the "Unified Team"). In addition, aside from figure skating, ice hockey and perhaps Alpine skiing, none of the events are a central focus for the international marketing and advertising machines.
Perhaps these facts, and the apparently genuinely warm and gracious reception given the athletes by the Japanese public, gave the Games in Nagano their relatively civilized character, particularly in contrast to the vulgar, profit-driven affair in Atlanta two years ago. But it would be naive to believe that such events, no matter how devoutly it may be wished for by athletes and organizers alike, lessen tensions or the dangers of nationalist and militarist eruptions. One only has to bear in mind the site of the 1984 Winter Olympics: Sarajevo, in the former Yugoslavia.
The Nagano Games, of course, were held under the shadow of the threat of a massive military assault by the United States against Iraq. The possibility of bombs dropping on Baghdad during the Olympics, Clinton administration officials made clear, would not cause them to alter their war plans.
Advances in technique in any field provide no guarantee in and of themselves of the further progress of human social organization. Sports technique has its own laws, involving the athletes’ mastery of the laws of nature and their own bodies. But sports, like every other activity, develop within class society. Who plays them and under what conditions, and the general character of their organization are highly dependent on the nature of the society and, specifically, its ruling class. Where that class is militaristic, sport will have that quality.
However, would the ultimate elimination of national rivalries, following the demise of capitalism, mean the end of the competitive spirit, as some assert?
This would be a very wrongheaded conclusion. Socialism does not mean that competition disappears, Leon Trotsky noted, but that, "to use the language of psychoanalysis, it will be sublimated, that is, will assume a higher and more fertile form…. It will have no running after profits, it will have nothing mean, no betrayals, no bribery, none of the things that form the soul of ‘competition’ in a society divided into classes. But this will in no way hinder the struggle from being absorbing, dramatic and passionate."
Would sport, deprived of its association with nationalism and the drive for profit, suffer a decline? We think not. On the contrary, freed from these constraints and more closely and consciously assisted by scientific knowledge and aesthetic sensibility, athletes would attain new heights of speed, strength and beauty. Athletic ability would for the first time become what it ought to be: one aspect of an all-rounded human personality, which has, as Trotsky put it, the "invaluable basic trait of continual discontent."
Sydney revelations deepen Olympics corruption scandal
Sydney revelations deepen Olympics corruption scandal
By Richard Phillips30 January 1999
Attempts by international and Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) officials to maintain a "squeaky-clean" image for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games collapsed dramatically last week when AOC president John Coates released documents revealing that he, and other officials, had been involved in extensive votebuying in 1993 to secure Sydney's Games' bid.
The announcement came just one day before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met to discuss an internal report into lavish cash payments and other gifts made to IOC delegates by the organising committee for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
Olympic officials previously claimed that Sydney was corruption free and that the 2000 Games would rehabilitate the IOC's badly-tarnished reputation. However, ongoing reports in the Australian media alleging improper dealings cast a deepening shadow over these claims and eventually forced Coates on January 22 to make public hundreds of pages of internal documents relating to the Sydney bid.
Coates admitted that the night before Sydney won the 2000 Games, he offered more than $A50,000 each to the national Olympic committees of Kenya and Uganda and provided their delegates--Charles Mukora and Major General Frances Nyangweso--with expensive hotel accommodation in London and other gifts. Mukora, an IOC member since 1990 and vice-chairman of the Commonwealth Games, was one of six IOC delegates named last weekend for expulsion. Coates also organised a place for Swaziland IOC delegate, David Sibandze's daughter at Sydney's International Catering Institute.
The documents released by Coates also revealed that three consultants were hired, at $A35,000 each, to make contact with IOC delegates from Africa, the Middle East and South America. Their task was to find out what was needed to secure votes.
African IOC delegates were later promised that $A2 million worth of sports training would be provided for African athletes at the Australian Institute for Sport in Canberra, if Sydney won.
In a frank admission of how IOC bidding works, Coates told the press: "Well, we didn't win it (the Games) on the beauty of the city and the sporting facilities we had to offer on their own, and we were never going to."
Coates claimed the bribes were necessary to counteract votes being organised in Africa by the Chinese government. "We were mindful of the support that was being directed in Africa; we knew through the Chinese Government. We were also mindful of Germany's long tradition of support through the German Sports Foundation for developing countries in Africa," he said.
Later, in an article published in Sydney's Daily Telegraph on January 27, Coates said Australian officials had at first been "terribly naive" about the bidding process but soon "refined" their efforts. Based on the lessons of two recent failed Games bids--Brisbane and Melbourne--Coates produced a 16-page strategy document. With government support, the votebuying budget was increased from $A6 million for the Brisbane bid to $A28 million for Sydney.
As he explained: "Over the course of my involvement with three Australian Olympic bids, I watched this bidding process get out of hand. After a relatively benign process delivered the 1988 Games to Seoul, the 1992 bid took the process to a new level of professionalism and competition. That escalation continued for the 1996 and 2000 bids, with each successive bidder seeking an edge."
Before travelling to Africa, Coates organised an-hour-long television satellite conference with Andrew Young, the Atlanta mayor, to secure his knowledge and advice on securing the votes of African IOC delegates. Coates then toured Africa with former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam and other AOC officials for face-to-face meetings with IOC officials and African heads of state.
Referring to the Salt Lake City scandal, IOC vice-president Dick Pound claimed on January 10 that votebuying was caused by a "few bad apples and we will get rid of them." In fact, as the Sydney revelations show, this corruption is part and parcel of the everyday operations of the IOC and extends to the highest levels within the organisation.
Additional details on the Sydney bid, some prior to Coates' admissions, make this clear:
* Bruce Baird, former NSW state government Olympics Minister was asked for bribes in exchange for votes during the bidding process. On January 13, he told the press that the IOC had failed to act when he contacted them over the bribe requests. Baird had previously admitted that he assisted Nick Voinov, the son-in-law of Alexandru Siperco, Romania's IOC delegate, gain employment as an engineer with NSW State Rail 10 months before Sydney secured the 2000 Games. NSW's Independent Commission Against Corruption is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the rail job.
* Shane Maloney from the Melbourne Committee that bid for the 1996 Games revealed on January 21 that his organisation, on IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch's request, donated an expensive Aboriginal painting to the Olympic Museum in Switzerland. They also arranged for the daughter of a South Korean delegate to play with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Six African IOC delegates are reported to have requested new Holden cars and the services of local prostitutes from Melbourne officials.
* Leo Wallner, Austrian Olympic Committee president and head of Casinos Austria, joined with the Australian Olympic Committee, under Coates' leadership, to invest in the establishment of Cairns Casino, in north-east Australia. The casino deal was organised at the same time as the Australian Olympic Committee decided to purchase a $A2.4 million Austrian ski-lodge as a training base for Australia's winter athletes. All these arrangements preceded voting for the 2000 Olympic Games.
* Australian officials also found a job for Corinne Blatter, daughter of Sepp Blatter, a leading FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) official. Sepp Blatter, now FIFA president, is a close friend of Brazil's IOC delegate, Joao Havelange. It is believed that Blatter was well positioned to influence football's IOC delegates during the Sydney bid. Six months after Sydney won the 2000 Olympics, Mathias Tallberg, the son of Peter Tallberg, a Finnish IOC delegate, was provided a job at George Paterson Bates, a Sydney advertising agency.
Last weekend the IOC executive, in an effort to salvage its image, announced it would expel six members of the organisation, change its city-bidding process and introduce an "ethics committee". It named 13 lower-level officials for receiving cash payments, lavish gifts and other inducements. Four IOC delegates--Finland's Pirjo Haeggman and Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi from Libya, as well as Sibandze of Swaziland and Kenya's Mukora--resigned after admitting that they had received extensive gifts and payments for their votes. Three others--Kim Un-Young from South Korea, Vitaly Smirnov from Russia and Louis Guirrandou-N'Diaye from Africa's Ivory Coast--are still under investigation.
The 78-year-old Samaranch told the media that the Olympics would go ahead in Sydney and Salt Lake City. While this produced a sigh of relief from AOC officials, who reassured sponsors they had nothing to fear over any future IOC scrutiny, dark clouds still hang over the 2000 Olympics.
The Sydney Games face a $A220 million funding shortfall, with the latest scandal coming only weeks before the organising committee launches its $A600 million ticket marketing program. Advance ticket sales to the major Olympic ceremonies are reported to be very low.
And last month, Texaco, a major sponsor, withdrew. Other sponsors--Westpac, Coca-Cola and Westfield Holdings--have issued qualified and cautious statements reaffirming their support. Westfield Holdings, one of the largest sponsors, said it was "concerned at the potential that these developments have to undermine the Games".
Media corporations around the world have rejected the cosmetic changes proposed by Samaranch and demanded he resign. Samaranch, a former minister in the Spanish fascist regime of General Franco, has rejected the suggestion and declared that the IOC's March 30-31 meeting will take a vote of confidence in his leadership.
The concerns raised by the media and corporate sponsors about Samaranch and the IOC have nothing to do with rooting out corruption but are directed towards protecting the Olympic Games as a "brand name"--a product and image that can provide multi-million dollar advertising and profits.
A rule of thumb for all those following the crisis now enveloping the IOC: "honesty", "ethics", "integrity" and similar lofty phrases should be translated into "market credibility", "advertising demand" and "profit".
As a senior executive officer with the United Parcel Service of America, a major sponsor of the Salt Lake City Games, recently explained: "Ethics and integrity are everything to us. For the protection of the Olympic brand, this is a critical issue."
By Richard Phillips30 January 1999
Attempts by international and Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) officials to maintain a "squeaky-clean" image for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games collapsed dramatically last week when AOC president John Coates released documents revealing that he, and other officials, had been involved in extensive votebuying in 1993 to secure Sydney's Games' bid.
The announcement came just one day before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met to discuss an internal report into lavish cash payments and other gifts made to IOC delegates by the organising committee for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
Olympic officials previously claimed that Sydney was corruption free and that the 2000 Games would rehabilitate the IOC's badly-tarnished reputation. However, ongoing reports in the Australian media alleging improper dealings cast a deepening shadow over these claims and eventually forced Coates on January 22 to make public hundreds of pages of internal documents relating to the Sydney bid.
Coates admitted that the night before Sydney won the 2000 Games, he offered more than $A50,000 each to the national Olympic committees of Kenya and Uganda and provided their delegates--Charles Mukora and Major General Frances Nyangweso--with expensive hotel accommodation in London and other gifts. Mukora, an IOC member since 1990 and vice-chairman of the Commonwealth Games, was one of six IOC delegates named last weekend for expulsion. Coates also organised a place for Swaziland IOC delegate, David Sibandze's daughter at Sydney's International Catering Institute.
The documents released by Coates also revealed that three consultants were hired, at $A35,000 each, to make contact with IOC delegates from Africa, the Middle East and South America. Their task was to find out what was needed to secure votes.
African IOC delegates were later promised that $A2 million worth of sports training would be provided for African athletes at the Australian Institute for Sport in Canberra, if Sydney won.
In a frank admission of how IOC bidding works, Coates told the press: "Well, we didn't win it (the Games) on the beauty of the city and the sporting facilities we had to offer on their own, and we were never going to."
Coates claimed the bribes were necessary to counteract votes being organised in Africa by the Chinese government. "We were mindful of the support that was being directed in Africa; we knew through the Chinese Government. We were also mindful of Germany's long tradition of support through the German Sports Foundation for developing countries in Africa," he said.
Later, in an article published in Sydney's Daily Telegraph on January 27, Coates said Australian officials had at first been "terribly naive" about the bidding process but soon "refined" their efforts. Based on the lessons of two recent failed Games bids--Brisbane and Melbourne--Coates produced a 16-page strategy document. With government support, the votebuying budget was increased from $A6 million for the Brisbane bid to $A28 million for Sydney.
As he explained: "Over the course of my involvement with three Australian Olympic bids, I watched this bidding process get out of hand. After a relatively benign process delivered the 1988 Games to Seoul, the 1992 bid took the process to a new level of professionalism and competition. That escalation continued for the 1996 and 2000 bids, with each successive bidder seeking an edge."
Before travelling to Africa, Coates organised an-hour-long television satellite conference with Andrew Young, the Atlanta mayor, to secure his knowledge and advice on securing the votes of African IOC delegates. Coates then toured Africa with former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam and other AOC officials for face-to-face meetings with IOC officials and African heads of state.
Referring to the Salt Lake City scandal, IOC vice-president Dick Pound claimed on January 10 that votebuying was caused by a "few bad apples and we will get rid of them." In fact, as the Sydney revelations show, this corruption is part and parcel of the everyday operations of the IOC and extends to the highest levels within the organisation.
Additional details on the Sydney bid, some prior to Coates' admissions, make this clear:
* Bruce Baird, former NSW state government Olympics Minister was asked for bribes in exchange for votes during the bidding process. On January 13, he told the press that the IOC had failed to act when he contacted them over the bribe requests. Baird had previously admitted that he assisted Nick Voinov, the son-in-law of Alexandru Siperco, Romania's IOC delegate, gain employment as an engineer with NSW State Rail 10 months before Sydney secured the 2000 Games. NSW's Independent Commission Against Corruption is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the rail job.
* Shane Maloney from the Melbourne Committee that bid for the 1996 Games revealed on January 21 that his organisation, on IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch's request, donated an expensive Aboriginal painting to the Olympic Museum in Switzerland. They also arranged for the daughter of a South Korean delegate to play with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Six African IOC delegates are reported to have requested new Holden cars and the services of local prostitutes from Melbourne officials.
* Leo Wallner, Austrian Olympic Committee president and head of Casinos Austria, joined with the Australian Olympic Committee, under Coates' leadership, to invest in the establishment of Cairns Casino, in north-east Australia. The casino deal was organised at the same time as the Australian Olympic Committee decided to purchase a $A2.4 million Austrian ski-lodge as a training base for Australia's winter athletes. All these arrangements preceded voting for the 2000 Olympic Games.
* Australian officials also found a job for Corinne Blatter, daughter of Sepp Blatter, a leading FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) official. Sepp Blatter, now FIFA president, is a close friend of Brazil's IOC delegate, Joao Havelange. It is believed that Blatter was well positioned to influence football's IOC delegates during the Sydney bid. Six months after Sydney won the 2000 Olympics, Mathias Tallberg, the son of Peter Tallberg, a Finnish IOC delegate, was provided a job at George Paterson Bates, a Sydney advertising agency.
Last weekend the IOC executive, in an effort to salvage its image, announced it would expel six members of the organisation, change its city-bidding process and introduce an "ethics committee". It named 13 lower-level officials for receiving cash payments, lavish gifts and other inducements. Four IOC delegates--Finland's Pirjo Haeggman and Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi from Libya, as well as Sibandze of Swaziland and Kenya's Mukora--resigned after admitting that they had received extensive gifts and payments for their votes. Three others--Kim Un-Young from South Korea, Vitaly Smirnov from Russia and Louis Guirrandou-N'Diaye from Africa's Ivory Coast--are still under investigation.
The 78-year-old Samaranch told the media that the Olympics would go ahead in Sydney and Salt Lake City. While this produced a sigh of relief from AOC officials, who reassured sponsors they had nothing to fear over any future IOC scrutiny, dark clouds still hang over the 2000 Olympics.
The Sydney Games face a $A220 million funding shortfall, with the latest scandal coming only weeks before the organising committee launches its $A600 million ticket marketing program. Advance ticket sales to the major Olympic ceremonies are reported to be very low.
And last month, Texaco, a major sponsor, withdrew. Other sponsors--Westpac, Coca-Cola and Westfield Holdings--have issued qualified and cautious statements reaffirming their support. Westfield Holdings, one of the largest sponsors, said it was "concerned at the potential that these developments have to undermine the Games".
Media corporations around the world have rejected the cosmetic changes proposed by Samaranch and demanded he resign. Samaranch, a former minister in the Spanish fascist regime of General Franco, has rejected the suggestion and declared that the IOC's March 30-31 meeting will take a vote of confidence in his leadership.
The concerns raised by the media and corporate sponsors about Samaranch and the IOC have nothing to do with rooting out corruption but are directed towards protecting the Olympic Games as a "brand name"--a product and image that can provide multi-million dollar advertising and profits.
A rule of thumb for all those following the crisis now enveloping the IOC: "honesty", "ethics", "integrity" and similar lofty phrases should be translated into "market credibility", "advertising demand" and "profit".
As a senior executive officer with the United Parcel Service of America, a major sponsor of the Salt Lake City Games, recently explained: "Ethics and integrity are everything to us. For the protection of the Olympic brand, this is a critical issue."
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