Meet the International Olympic Committee, Ideal Candidates for a Perp Walk
Remember that publicity shot from the Usual Suspects with Kevin Spacey in the lineup? The photo above is an update, snapped late last year in the boardroom of the International Olympic Committee, in a marble palace on the banks of Lake Geneva. This lineup has thirteen men, most past middle age, in business suits and ties, and two womenthe big cheeses expecting the best seats in Sochi. Dead center is the new IOC president, Germanys Thomas Bach. Well come back to him, but for now, know that Bach, 60, was a protégé of Horst Dassler, the German businessman who bribed more sports officials than most of us ever heard of. Dasslers family owned Adidas and a marketing company that laid out $100 million in kickbacks to acquire TV and marketing rights to the soccer World Cup, the world track and field championshipsand the Olympics.
At Bachs right shoulder is the Swiss boss of world soccer, Sepp Blatter. For decades, Blatter didnt notice hefty bribes being trousered by his colleagues in return for giving World Cup contracts to Dassler companies. Accused of handling a $1 million bribe intended for Joao Havelange, former president of FIFA (the international soccer federation) and doyen of the IOC, Blatter hired investigators who reported that there was a misunderstanding and that he was no more than clumsy.
Havelange resigned in disgrace from the IOC in December 2011. Blatter surviveddespite losing eight of FIFAs twenty-three executive committee members to scandals in the past three years. An FBI-organized crime squad, now digging into FIFAs embedded corruption, has a cooperating witness in Miami and probably another in New York. Blatter, scheduled to be played by Tim Roth on the big screen later this year, might not make it to Sochi.
At Bachs other shoulder is Lamine Diack from Senegal, president of the IAAF (the International Association of Athletics Federations) and also on the Dassler gift list. I disclosed these bribes for the BBC program Panorama in 2010, and a year later the IOC rebuked Diack. But the Lords of Lausanne forgive and forget, so hes back at the heart of Olympic idealism.
http://www.thenation.com/article/178049/meet-ioc-ideal-candidates-perp-walk