British IOC member Craig Reedie has denied reports of a deal between London, Madrid and New York ahead of the 2012 host city vote.
The BBC says it has been suggested each city might advise its backers to vote for one of the other two – at the expense of Paris – if it is eliminated early on.
Reedie said, “I can assure you that we are not under any circumstances involved in that kind of exercise. You simply cannot have people ‘ganging up’ on someone else”.
“It is difficult enough to get a member to vote for you, and it’s absolutely impossible to get a member who wanted to vote for you and couldn’t to vote for someone else. It’s no on”.
The IOC is to consider New York’s revised 2012 Olympic bid Monday in Singapore. The bid is expected to be approved.
Meanwhile, Princess Anne in Singapore supporting London’s bid said she would be “hugely disappointed” if London was not awarded the 2012 Games. The Princess is president of the British Olympic Association and first became involved in discussions about a London bid in 1997.
She told a press conference, “there is a lot of pent-up interest in the result”, but refused to speculate about victory.
“I certainly don’t like counting chickens before they have hatched – I have got some chickens and they hardly ever hatch”, she said.
She added that London’s commitment to the Olympic movement should be recognized.
And if London is awarded the 2012 Games it could fact two legal challenges.
Mark Stephens, a lawyer who represents more than a third of the businesses that occupy land in the Lea Valley intended for the Olympic site, said Saturday that his clients would sue the London Development Agency (LDA) if Britain wins the bid. He said the majority of the 300 businesses, which will be moved out, were furious at the low level of compensation they were offered, reports the Telegraph.
The businesses argue that the LDA’s valuation of their land was made before news of the bid inflated property prices in the area.
Some businesses have written a letter to the IOC protesting London’s 2012 bid.
