IOC

Evening Standard

Brown and Cameron: illustration by Paul Dallimore. Image coutesy of Evening Standard

David Cameron has little reason to say a good word about Gordon Brown. But, next year, as he takes his seat for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, he may reflect that the former Prime Minister has been responsible, albeit unwittingly, for an unexpected success story. London, the only city to host the Olympics three times, will also be the first in modern times to come in under budget. Not quite a golden legacy but at least, in this area, Labour has left Cameron some money – the Government will be getting back more than £800 million from its Olympic budget.

To appreciate how unexpected this is, consider the spat between the chairman of arguably the most powerful Commons committee and the highest civil servant in the department responsible for the Olympics. It came in 2008, just a year after Brown’s government had finally announced that the budget for the Games had risen almost four times, from its original estimate of £2.375 billion to £9.3 billion.

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Evening Standard

Damning report: select committee chairman Whittingdale and their scathing criticism of FIFA. Image courtesy of Evening Standard

John Whittingdale accepts that England could be seen as bad losers. We are discussing today’s report by the Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport on the failed 2018 World Cup bid, which says it is “appalling” how FIFA have swept aside “allegations of corruption” against members of its executive. To make matters worse, say the MPs, FIFA are treating those making the allegations with “contempt”.

“There is a danger that, having got a derisory two votes, one of them English, we will be accused of sour grapes,” says Whittingdale, chairman of the committee. “But it is not. The evidence of corruption is overwhelming.

“We have some criticism about the England bid. But there was substantial corruption in the process and that was an additional hurdle and put a huge question mark over the entire bid.”

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Insideworldfootball.biz

Can Sepp Blatter turn round the fortunes of FIFA like Juan Antonio Samaranch once did the International Olympic (IOC)?

To even pose this question shows how far we have come from the dark days of the Olympic Movement back in 1998.

Also, it shows how much we now need to re-evaluate the role of the Spaniard.

Indeed, we need to move away from the caricature of Samaranch being just a lackey of Franco, the Spanish dictator, who only looked after himself and had no vision of sports and left no legacy behind.

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Evening Standard

Taking a stand: Jacques Rogge says the IOC only tackled corruption within their organisation after they faced up to the fact that they had a problem. Image courtesy of Evening Standard

Next July, as Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, opens the London Games, he will have one eye firmly on the cricket.

The Olympics have only had one cricket match, Great Britain beating France in the 1900 Paris Games, but for Rogge, the leader of world sport, this is still the greatest of games.

We are in his offices in Lausanne and he is telling me how he combines his love of cricket with work. “Whenever I can, I catch up with some cricket.

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Insideworldfootball.biz

Lord Triesman’s testimony in Parliament may not prove to be quite the defining moment for FIFA that the media coverage suggests. Triesman’s statements have been seen as FIFA’s equivalent of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Salt Lake City moment. That ended with the IOC cleaning up its act and expelling 10 members.

My worry is that the Triesman intervention could be great theatre but not lead to any real change.

I say this based on having witnessed an even more explosive drama at the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne back in December 1998. Then a Swiss lawyer who was in his 80s and one of the most senior IOC members, sensationally alleged that the entire Olympic Movement was corrupt.

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