Scandal-hit Tokyo seeks crumbs of comfort from IOC

JOC sets up 3-man team to investigate illegal payments

TOKYO, May 25, (AFP): Beleaguered Tokyo 2020 Olympic organisers will be hoping for some warm words of comfort from the International Olympic Committee when senior officials arrive for talks on Wednesday.

Controversy has once again cast a shadow over Japan’s preparations for the 2020 Games after French prosecutors launched an investigation into $2 million in payments allegedly paid to help Tokyo secure the Olympics.

John Coates, chairman of the IOC’s Tokyo 2020 coordination commission, attempted to deflect attention away from potentially sticky issues on previous visits, such as last year’s row over the cost of the main stadium.

As scandal-hit Tokyo organisers sweat over the French probe into cash funnelled into a Singapore bank account, said to have been paid to the son of disgraced former athletics chief Lamine Diack, Japanese officials will be more grateful than ever for the usual IOC platitudes.

However, Coates and his team are likely to face tough questions over the alleged bribery suspicions despite strong denials of any wrongdoing by Tokyo 2020 bid leaders, who acknowledge the money was paid but stress it was a legitimate consultancy fee.

Allegations the payments were improper, first reported by Britain’s Guardian newspaper two weeks ago, sent shockwaves through Japan.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered full cooperation with French authorities after being grilled by opposition leaders in Japan’s parliament.

“For Japan, as a democratic country, the use of bribes and dirty money brings dishonour to the country,” said Katsuya Okada, president of Japan’s Democratic Party. “We need to clarify all the facts.”

The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) — headed by Tsunekazu Takeda, the same man who fronted the Tokyo bid team — has ordered its own probe.

JOC officials said Wednesday its probe team, comprising two lawyers and a certified accountant, will hold its first meeting on Thursday on the sidelines of the IOC visit.

Questioned by opposition lawmakers in parliament, JOC board member Eisuke Hiraoka said they have no intention of seeking the whereabouts of Singapore-based consultant Ian Tan Tong Han, allegedly the initial recipient

Takeda

of the payments.

“We don’t think it’s appropriate for us to contact the suspect under French and Singaporean investigations,” Hiraoka said, provoking criticism from opposition lawmakers that the JOC probe may unearth few facts to prove Tokyo’s bid activities were “clean.”

Takeda has refused to disclose details of the consultancy contract to lawmakers, citing a “confidentiality obligation”.

He told lawmakers on Tuesday that the payments “were compensations for a consultancy contract, and we’d never thought that the money would be sent to Mr Diack”. With the Rio Olympics less than three months away, regular coordination activities have been postponed to later in the year and replaced by an executive meeting, although Coates is expected to inspect the Tokyo 2020 sailing venue.

Tokyo has been hit by a series of controversies since beating Istanbul and Madrid in September 2013 in the race to host the coveted Summer Games.

Prime Minister Abe pulled the plug on the original plan for the new Olympic stadium last year amid public anger over its $2 billion price tag.

Further embarrassment followed when Tokyo organisers ditched their 2020 Games logo after allegations of plagiarism and the threat of legal action from a Belgian designer who claimed it too closely resembled the emblem of a theatre in Liege, Belgium.

However, those fiascos pale in comparison to accusations of murky payments made to Tan of Singapore firm Black Tidings, who said to be an associate of Diack’s son Papa Massata Diack. is clearer just months after a new sewage system was installed to stop brown, untreated sludge from being poured into the small harbor.

“The water is cleaner, and there isn’t a smell,” Hunt said.

At a test event a year ago, sailors complained about the stench, and shot videos of open sewage flows just meters (yards) from where boats were launched.

“We’re going in the right direction,” Hunt added. “We remain cautiously optimistic. It doesn’t mean we’re going to take off the pressure.”

World Sailing, backed by the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee, is not testing the water for viruses. World Sailing says the bacterial levels are below what would be considered dangerous for athletes.

The WHO and IOC argue that viral testing lacks a clear standard for measuring risk, and therefore is not needed.

World Sailing is attacking the problems it can see: spotting and collecting floating rubbish during the Olympic sailing events. Hunt said a helicopter would go up at 6 am every morning and direct 11 rubbish collection boats below where to deploy.

In addition, he said 17 so-called ecobarriers — fences across trash-filled streams that flow into Guanabara — will keep dead animals, bags, and household rubbish from entering the bay.

“Those eco-barriers have got be completed before the end of June, so there’s enough time to track the rubbish and then make sure it’s collected effectively for games time,” Hunt said.

Though World Sailing says the water will be safe for hundreds of sailors, Hunt said teams are being briefed about how to stay healthy in Rio.

“There are briefings for the teams to make sure they prepare in terms of hygiene,” Hunt said. He added that there would be “facilities to wash down clothing when they come off the boats, alcohol gels, anti-viral gels and so on that can help ensure that the athletes keep well through the competition.”

Three Spanish sailors were robbed at gunpoint last week while they were training in Rio, including 2008 Olympic gold-medalist Fernando Echavarri. Hunt acknowledged that several other sailing teams had also been robbed in Rio in the last several years.

Hunt called it a “very, very scary experience.”

The former head of the British Olympic Association, Hunt urged national Olympic committees to watch their athletes in Rio.

“The National Olympic committees need to issue clear instructions and guidance, and protocols around what athletes and support staff can do during games times,” he said.

Australia, for one, has told its athletes to stay out of Rio’s favelas — or slums.

Many sailors will be staying in hotels near the sailing venue, rather than at the better-protected Athletes Village more than an hour away.

“Like any city in a country like this,” Hunt said, “you need to be very aware of the environment you are operating in, and take every precaution yourself to prevent yourself from getting mugged. It’s doesn’t mean it’s right or acceptable, but it’s the reality.”