London incentives probed

London's Olympic bid chiefs face a potentially damaging ethics investigation into their £15million package of incentives being offered to bring the 2012 Games to the capital, it was announced today.

The International Olympic Committee announced their ethics commission, who police the way cities run their bids, were investigating the proposals, which include free flights for all competitors at the Games and subsidised training camps.

Standard Sport has also learned that London's series of "charters", launched at a conference of international sports leaders in Berlin yesterday, was also investigated by IOC president Jacques Rogge and his executive board at a meeting this morning.

The IOC introduced strict rules on bidding cities after a major corruption scandal in 1999 when 10 IOC members were forced out of the organisation for accepting gifts and favours from Salt Lake City when it was bidding for the 2002 Winter Games.

A warning for London from the IOC's main watchdog would be hugely damaging, just as Britain is making huge strides in the 2012 campaign ahead of July's vote in Singapore.

New York could also face problems after it announced plans to provide free marketing advice to all sports if the Big Apple is awarded the Games on 6 July.