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Bribery charges leveled at IOC meetings

Top IOC official claims selection process is corrrupt

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Posted: Saturday December 12, 1998 06:51 PM

IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch immediately disassociated himself from the allegations Ross Kinnaird/Allsport

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- Whispers and rumors about corruption within the International Olympic Committee have existed for years.

On Saturday, one of the IOC's own senior leaders came forward with startling bribery allegations that shook the agency to the core and could have widespread repercussions on the entire Olympics movement.

Switzerland's Marc Hodler -- a longtime member of the organization's ruling inner circle -- detailed what he described as the systematic buying and selling of the Olympic Games.

"To my knowledge, there has always, always, been a certain part of the vote given to corruption," he said, in setting off the biggest ethics scandal in the history of the 104-year-old organization.

Hodler specifically cited a pattern of bribery and other ethical malpractice in the bidding and selection of at least four Olympic host cities -- Atlanta; Nagano, Japan; Sydney, Australia; and Salt Lake City.

He also cited bribes of up to $1 million and payoffs of up to $5 million.

The IOC quickly "disassociated" itself from Hodler's allegations, saying he was voicing his personal opinions. However, it did not deny his charges.

Those charges came not from a maverick or discredited official, but from one of the IOC's elder statesmen and close confidant of IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Hodler, a Swiss lawyer who recently turned 80, has been on the IOC since 1963, making him and Brazil's Joao Havelange the organization's longest-serving members. Earlier this year, Hodler stepped down after 47 years as president of the International Ski Federation.

Hodler said he chose to go public with his corruption allegations because he hopes they lead to a radical reform of the Olympic selection process.

His allegations came as the IOC investigated alleged financial misconduct by the Salt Lake City group which won the bid for the 2002 games.

Hodler used the word "bribe" to describe the $500,000 scholarship fund set up by Salt Lake that benefited the relatives of six IOC members. A high-level IOC panel is investigating the charges.

Asked whether Atlanta's victory in the vote for the 1996 games was clean, Hodler said, "Certainly not."

However, John Krimsky, deputy secretary general of the U.S. Olympic Committee, disputed Hodler's assertion.

"There is no basis for the charges against Atlanta at this point," Krimsky said. "All these issues should be put to the IOC review commission."

Billy Payne, head of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, said: "No payments, direct or indirect. No scholarships, direct or indirect. ... I have never heard of that and will state positively, unequivocally Atlanta did not do that."

Hodler said Olympic cities should be selected by a small group, including members of the IOC executive board, rather than the full IOC membership in order to remove the possibilities of vote buying.

He said members -- whose principal role is to vote for Olympic cities -- should have no problems agreeing to the change.

"If he doesn't sign, he admits he's a crook," Hodler said.

In an extraordinary scene at the IOC headquarters, where the agency was conducting a routine, yearend executive board meeting, Hodler repeated one bombshell accusation after another. Groups of reporters huddled around him in the lobby while Olympic officials listed and looked on in stunned amazement.

Hodler said he believed 5 to 7 percent of IOC members -- currently numbering 115 -- have solicited bribes from cities bidding to host the games.

Hodler's principal allegation was that a network of four "agents" -- including one IOC member -- have been seeking bribes to secure votes for Olympic bids. He gave no names.

Hodler said he believed the agents had been buying and selling votes for the past 10 years.

"The four agents try to make a living out of this," Hodler said. "I missed a chance to be a rich man. Some of the agents do the following: They say, 'I can offer this or that number of votes.' The price would be between $500,000 and $1 million for a number of votes, a bloc."

Hodler added that the agents then charge the city winning the bid "something like $3 million to $5 million."

Hodler said there is one agent who boasts "that no city has ever won the Olympic Games without his help."

"No one can prove that," Hodler said. "It could be possible."

Asked whether all Olympic votes are tainted, Hodler said, "I know of so many times. There is a good chance it is always the case."

Hodler said losing cities have told him there is a list of IOC members who can be bought.

Hodler said he hasn't seen the list, but "what I got is the number of people that clearly, regularly asked for financial support."

Samaranch, who has been IOC president since 1980, has always denied allegations of corruption in the organization, saying he trusts his members "100 percent."

On Saturday, he said, "The only official spokesman for the IOC executive board is Francois Carrard," the director general.

"All the other comments are personal comments. They are not official comments," Samaranch said.

Said Carrard: "These allegations come as a surprise to us. He is a highly respected IOC member who expresses his personal views."

Later, the IOC issued a written statement saying the "executive board disassociated itself from allegations made by one of its members with the Olympic bid process."

Hodler also leveled charges against the head of the Athens bid, which lost to Atlanta in the 1996 vote. However, he said he didn't know of any misconduct in Athens' successful bid for the 2004 games.

Asked whether Sydney's election for the 2000 games was clean, Hodler said, "I would be surprised. I know what happened, but I don't want to disclose it."

"I can't imagine that Sydney is different from the others," he said. "Sydney pretends it is completely clean, clean, clean."

The former minister in charge of Sydney's 2000 Olympic bid revealed he was asked to offer bribes in exchange for votes. But Bruce Baird, the former New South Wales minister, said he refused.

"I'm pretty angry with Marc Hodler where he implied about Sydney," said Australian IOC member Phil Coles, an official with the Sydney bidding and organizing committees. "That's outrageous -- firing scatter guns in all directions. Generalizations like that are scandalous.

"I'm sure (corruption) is not widespread. The rumor mill has been rife for many years. He can say what he likes, but don't generalize. It's not fair."

As for Nagano, Hodler said the committee that won the 1998 games for the Japanese city "certainly had to do things which are not legitimate."

Hodler also alleged: