Under fire: Tokyo says 2020 bid ‘clean’
Organisers deny bribery allegations of transferring $1.4m to secret account
French authorities are probing payments totalling about $1.4 million made to an account linked to Papa Massata Diack. PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO:
Japan insisted its successful bid for the 2020 Olympics was clean after a new report alleged clandestine payments surrounding the campaign for the Tokyo Games.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday that French authorities are probing payments totalling about $1.4 million made to an account linked to Papa Massata Diack — the son of Lamine Diack, the disgraced former president of world athletics governing body IAAF.
The Guardian said that it is “now understood that among transactions under suspicion are payments totalling about $1.4 million apparently sent from the Tokyo 2020 bid, or those acting on their behalf” to a secret bank account in Singapore.
No country for sportsmen
The report comes as French authorities have confirmed that an enquiry into corruption allegations against the former IAAF head has been expanded to examine bidding for the 2016 Olympics, hosted later this year in Rio de Janeiro, and for the 2020 Games, to be held in Tokyo.
The enquiry is part of a wider investigation into Lamine Diack, who was a member of the International Olympic Committee until 2013 when Tokyo beat fellow bidders Istanbul and Madrid.
From waterless village to rowing in Rio Olympics
“My understanding is that the bid process of the Tokyo 2020 Games was done in a clean way,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government’s top spokesperson, told a press conference when asked about the report.
He said: “Japan will take appropriate measures if the French justice authorities make any request, but has no intention to question the Tokyo 2020 team based on the report.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 13th, 2016.
Japan insisted its successful bid for the 2020 Olympics was clean after a new report alleged clandestine payments surrounding the campaign for the Tokyo Games.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday that French authorities are probing payments totalling about $1.4 million made to an account linked to Papa Massata Diack — the son of Lamine Diack, the disgraced former president of world athletics governing body IAAF.
The Guardian said that it is “now understood that among transactions under suspicion are payments totalling about $1.4 million apparently sent from the Tokyo 2020 bid, or those acting on their behalf” to a secret bank account in Singapore.
No country for sportsmen
The report comes as French authorities have confirmed that an enquiry into corruption allegations against the former IAAF head has been expanded to examine bidding for the 2016 Olympics, hosted later this year in Rio de Janeiro, and for the 2020 Games, to be held in Tokyo.
The enquiry is part of a wider investigation into Lamine Diack, who was a member of the International Olympic Committee until 2013 when Tokyo beat fellow bidders Istanbul and Madrid.
From waterless village to rowing in Rio Olympics
“My understanding is that the bid process of the Tokyo 2020 Games was done in a clean way,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government’s top spokesperson, told a press conference when asked about the report.
He said: “Japan will take appropriate measures if the French justice authorities make any request, but has no intention to question the Tokyo 2020 team based on the report.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 13th, 2016.