Did the city of Sydney pay bribes to afford the organization of the 2000 Olympics? This is what the British newspaper The Guardian suggests, which unearthed the interview given in 2008 by John Coates, Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and outgoing President of the Australian National Olympic Committee (NOC). In this interview, Coates reveals that he had offered payments to two African National Olympic Committees, represented on the IOC panel, in exchange for their votes in 1993.
Coates acknowledges pledging 33,000 euros in conditional grants and sports assistance to NOCs represented by Charles Mukora, IOC member of Kenya, and Francis Nyangweso, IOC member of Uganda, at a dinner held on last night before the IOC vote in Monte-Carlo. “Clearly the Ugandan and Kenyan members were, I think, very nervous about dealing with me, because I was sitting at their table at a big banquet,” Coates said in 2008. so went to see them and I told them: Listen‘if you vote for us and we are elected, you will receive 47,000 euros for each of your two National Olympic Committees and you will tell them that this money must be spent on sports’. »
But it must be recognized that in 1999, these grants did not constitute a violation of the application rules. They were then banned due to the corruption scandal that surrounded Salt Lake City’s bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Sydney 2000 bid, the financial support of an NOC bidding for an NOC for the development of sport was not included in the rules in force at that time. »
Asked to comment on this unearthed 2008 interview, Coates’ lawyers said he had a long and distinguished reputation in the Olympic movement and the sports world and explained that the excerpts had been “taken out of context”. . And they added that: “The IOC has publicly confirmed that Mr. Coates did not break its rules at the time. »