London Olympic Kick-back

By london_euan Last edited 234 months ago

Last Updated 21 April 2005

London Olympic Kick-back
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London received a slap on the wrists yesterday by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge for a possible ethics violation of the bid process by offering "£25m of inducements to athletes, national Olympic committees and international sporting federations".

Not so says London as all of the offers are covered by the bidding rule book, and they helpfully handed over a nicely cross referenced clarification of the offers, stopping just short of repeatedly jabbing at the appropriate paragraphs going "See, see, it's in the rule book, see, see, we haven't done anything wrong!"

It's more about the spirit of, than the actual letter of the law though believes Rogge as he expressed a reluctance to see a return to "the bad old days" and was worried that "all of a sudden people start throwing money through the windows".

In the same way that there's always the suggestion of a separate drug enhanced Olympics, Londonist would like to see it also have a bribe enhanced selection process, or at least an It's A Knockout style competition with 500m backhander, and freestyle kick-back events.

The selection for the host city of the 2012 Olympic Games is due to be finalised in July.