London bid hit by backlash

Adrian Warner|Evening Standard|In Athens

14 April 2012

London's bid for the 2012 Olympics has been "brought to its knees" by last week's BBC Panorama probe into alleged corruption in the International Olympic Committee.

According to IOC members here, the programme has caused huge damage to London 2012, with Olympic leaders now deeply wary of future contact with British officials.

The investigation secretly filmed four Olympic agents who claimed they could secure the votes of IOC members for cash. The sting, which involved BBC reporters posing as a bogus East London business consortium, led to the suspension of Bulgarian IOC member Ivan Slavkov at the weekend.

Although IOC president Jacques Rogge has spoken of his determination to tackle the "darker side" of the Olympic movement, it is clear the BBC's undercover operation has led to a backlash against London.

One IOC member told Standard Sport: "It is a knockout punch in the first round for London and it is going to take a massive PR effort to get the bid off the floor.

"For London officials trying to make contact with IOC members, it is going to be like having the plague. If there was a vote tomorrow, London would not get past the first round of voting."

The programme is a huge talking point among IOC members gathering here for the start of the Olympics on Friday.

Ten members were forced to leave the organisation in 1999 after a corruption scandal around Salt Lake City, the host of the 2002 Winter Games. Some of the wounds have not yet healed.

IOC vice-president Thomas Bach insisted it was too early to say how the affair would affect the IOC vote on the 2012 venue in July next year. But favourite Paris appears to be in a much stronger position. Bach said: "The one thing you can say is that it hasn't got easier for London but we will have to see how much impact it will have."

The British Olympic Association are furious that the programme went back over past scandals before the IOC introduced new strict rules on bidding.

London 2012 chief executive, Keith Mills, and Britain's IOC member, Craig Reedie, are certain to feel the backlash in Athens. Mills said: "It was unhelpful and hasn't done the BBC many favours. For a company that has just bought the rights for the Olympics for the next eight years, many in the IOC find it difficult to understand how you can be critical in this way.

But former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch told Standard Sport: "The BBC and the bid are two different things. London has no more, or no less chance now."

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