London to be spared Slavkov IOC circus

14 April 2012

London's bid for the 2012 Olympics received a huge lift today when it emerged that the man at the centre of a damaging BBC Panorama corruption expose will not attend next month's vote.

London's campaign went through its darkest days in August last year after the Panorama programme made allegations of "cash-for-votes" deals in the 2012 race and pointed the finger at Bulgaria's International Olympic Committee member Ivan Slavkov.

Many IOC members objected to the way the BBC used hidden cameras and microphones to record Slavkov, who now faces an expulsion vote at the same IOC meeting in Singapore where the 2012 vote will take place on 6 July.

London 2012 chiefs, who spent months persuading members that the scandal had nothing to do with the bid, were very concerned that the damaging affair would be resurrected in Singapore if Slavkov turned up to fight his case during the meeting and gave several highprofile media interviews.

But sources in Bulgaria said today that the Olympic and senior football official had changed his mind about travelling and would only be defending himself in writing through a document which has already been presented to the IOC.

Bid leader Seb Coe is unlikely to make any public comment about the affair today but privately the former double Olympic champion will be breathing a huge sigh of relief.

The affair was hugely damaging to London's bid because it brought back memories of the IOC's 1999 corruption scandal that led to 10 members being forced to quit the body for taking gifts during a previous bidding process.

Several members said the BBC 'undercover' sting would make them wary of having contact with British officials, making London's lobbying campaign for the Games much harder.

Meanwhile, New York's troubled bid also received a lift today when the city announced they will help build a stadium in the eastern borough-of Queens - also to be used by the New York Mets baseball team - as part of their overhauled bid to land the 2012 Games.

"New Yorkers aren't quitters," said mayor Michael Bloomberg. "We just don't walk away from our future."

Bloomberg said the Mets will build the stadium for the 2009 Major League Baseball season on land owned by the city next to Shea Stadium, the current home of the team, and it will be privately funded. New York's bid committee worked through the weekend to finalise the revised plan, which could be presented to the IOC next week.

The new plan comes after state leaders refused to approve funding for a proposed stadium on the west side of Manhattan.

Besides the Olympics, the stadium was to have been used primarily as the home of the New York Jets pro gridiron football team.

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