Rome mayor demands new vote
Posted: Tuesday January 26, 1999 07:33 PM
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Athens (above) beat Rome 66-41 in September 1997 in the final round of voting for the 2004 Olympics Allsport UK/Allsport |
ROME (AP) -- The mayor demands a recount.
A new vote to assign the 2004 Summer Games is needed, Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli said Tuesday, contending the choice of Athens, Greece, is now tainted by the Olympic bribery scandal.
"I'm very angry," Rutelli said. "A panel of IOC experts and athletes gave Rome the No. 1 spot on the list of candidates. Until 24 hours before the vote we were in the lead. And then -- who knows what happened?"
Two days after the International Olympic Committee ousted six members following revelations of corruption in the bidding process, Rutelli called for a committee of experts to carry out a new poll.
Athens beat Rome 66-41 in September 1997 in the final round of voting for the 2004 Olympics.
"The most important thing is to remove every shadow of doubt about the decision," he said. "That would be a move to make clear what now is not clear."
The IOC said Salt Lake City's 2002 bid committee spent $800,000 on 14 IOC members, including travel expenses, scholarships for their children and cash payments. In addition to the expulsions, three IOC members quit.
IOC officials have said Salt Lake City will not be stripped of the 2002 Games.
Though Athens has not been specifically targeted by the corruption inquiries, the IOC has said it will examine the selection process for the games from 1996 to 2006.
"Athens won, and I hope Athens won by fair play, but ... if there is an independent committee, perhaps the decision could be changed and shifted to another city," Rutelli said.
He added that Italian members of the IOC told him at the time of the 1997 vote that "many African and Latin American delegates changed their votes in the very last hours."
The head of Rome's failed bid, Raffaele Ranucci, told the ANSA news agency he didn't think the 2004 decision was affected by what he called "those little games."
"I have always figured that the Greek capital was being paid back for not getting the 1996 Olympics," Ranucci said.
Italy is now trying to land the 2006 Winter Games, with Turin considered a notch behind Swiss front-runner Sion.
In Greece, the president of Hellenic Olympic Committee, Lambis Nikolaou, defended his city's 2004 triumph.
"The vote is closed," Nikolaou said. "The games were given cleanly. The doors are open, the dogs are tied up and they can come and examine whatever they want."
Added Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos: "Nothing can reverse the vote taken by the International Olympic Committee. The things said by the otherwise thoroughly likable mayor of Rome, I must say, are groundless."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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