Bribery charges rock IOC

LAUSANNE, Dec 14 (Reuters) — The words "boycott" and "Ben Johnson" send a shiver down the spines of most Olympic leaders because they provoke memories of dark days in sporting history. Now add the term "bribe".

New accusations of major corruption in the votes which decide the venues of Olympic Games are potentially as damaging to the Olympic movement as the political boycotts of the late 1970s and early 1980s and Johnson’s drug scandal at the 1988 Seoul games.

There have often been rumours in the past of bidding cities buying votes from members with bribes.

But allegations from leading International Olympic Council (IOC) official Marc Hodler at the weekend that agents have been trying to run cash-for-vote deals for a decade have given IOC President Juan-Antonio Samaranch his biggest problem since the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles games and Johnson’s positive test for steroids.

"Those were difficult moments. Now we face difficult moments," Mr Samaranch said. "But after the black day, the sun will come again."

Mr Hodler has sparked off a debate that is likely to rumble on for months. It is certain to dominate the build-up to next year’s vote on the venue of the 2006 winter Olympics.

Mr Hodler forced the IOC to admit that they had been concerned for some time about the emergence of professional agents who have been accused of doing deals for votes en bloc worth up to $ 5 million.

The allegations may turn out to be the most meaningful moments of the 80-year-old Hodler’s long career in the IOC, even though at one point yesterday he feared he might be expelled from the organisation for going public with his accusations.

The IOC is likely to go hunting for the agents and any members who have been involved in vote-rigging.

"The cities are the victims, not the villains," Mr Hodler said.

Mr Samaranch has talked about changing the way the venues for the games are decided, perhaps adopting methods used to choose hosts of the soccer World Cup finals.

A committee at FIFA, soccer’s world body, makes that decision in comparison to the much larger votes of the IOC members.

But the IOC president will have to persuade members to vote to give up one of their biggest powers in order to push the change through — and only a vote of the members could change the rules. The next opportunity to do so will come at the IOC session in the middle of next year.

But the integrity of the whole Olympic movement has been endangered by some of the most turbulent few days in Olympic history in Lausanne.

"We ask the athletes to compete with integrity. The members must do the same," IOC Vice-President Anita Defrantz of the USA said.

A special ad hoc Olympic committee will first study the accusations of payments made in Salt Lake City’s successful bid to stage the 2002 winter games.

Salt Lake officials said last week that, during the bidding process, officials had organised tuition assistants and athlete-training programmes for 13 persons — six of whom were direct relatives of IOC members.

The programmes cost nearly 400,000 dollars and the IOC must decide whether Salt Lake broke Olympic rules which ban them from offering gifts to members or their relatives worth more than $ 150.

But the review is likely to go further than Salt Lake — bearing in mind Mr Hodler’s accusations.

"I am full of confidence that the ad hoc committee will bring a result as soon as possible." Mr Samaranch said. "And I think, after the proposals of the committee, maybe the IOC will be stronger than before."

TOKYO (AFP): Officials in the Japanese city of Nagano today denied accusations they bribed Olympic officials in their successful bid to host the 1998 winter games.

"We succeeded in inviting the Olympics with fair activity, and we believe nothing dirty happened in the course of the selection of the city," an official at Nagano’s Olympic Committee said.

The denial followed allegations by IOC member Marc Hodler in Lausanne over the weekend alleging that agents demanded up to $ 1 million to deliver votes in the selection of host cities.

Mr Hodler, the Swiss member of the IOC executive board, told reporters that he believed 5 to 7 per cent of IOC members, had been involved in promising votes for payment, although he declined to identify them.

The Nagano official said the city "has never heard of the existence of such agents."

"We have never talked about or dreamed of such people ... we realised there might be such a way (to win the games) after seeing news reports on this matter," he said.