The BBC does it again – filth and corruption at the Olympics

The BBC alleges that Azerbaijan was asked to invest millions of dollars in the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) and in return it would be guaranteed medals at the London 2012 Games.

As FIFA did when the BBC exposed the endemic corruption there, AIBA ‘hotly denies’ this. Faced with such charges at a high level, which could bring the International Olympic Committee as a whole into disrepute, you’d rather think they would, wouldn’t you?

I remember watching the news on 9/11. One guy said he was following the events on the BBC from Manhattan because ‘they are the only news company I can trust’. This, a man in fear of his life from an attack on the free world, in one of the ‘freest’ of all countries in the world. When the BBC announces it has something on someone it is not a light rumour.

Add to this the UK has some of the tightest defamation laws in the world. From a journalist’s point of view, we are some of the most easily muzzled journalists in the free world. If an organisation wanted to take the BBC to court to challenge their investigation line by line, our courts would love it. As a result, the BBC doesn’t make idle comments. If it is to announce something as earth shaking as this, lawyers will have been over the investigation line by line. Cheaper to pay a lawyer before court action than while being sued. If AIBA’s lawyers say they have a chance then they will sue. Funnily enough, FIFA didn’t despite being shaken to the core!

The international soccer federation FIFA has been at the centre of controversy at the hands of the BBC in the last 2 years. Key members of its management committee were shown as being able to be bought. Consequently decisions have been made at FIFA that were opaque at best. To define the word ‘opaque’ in this context, think ‘ripe as rotten egg’.

The result was a shake up at FIFA. Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA survived after backroom dealing before the elections. It helped his own campaign that his only rival was himself being investigated by FIFA for corruption. My own view is that if Blatter didn’t know what was going on among his colleagues he wasn’t managing the organisation very well, and it wouldn’t have been the most successful single sport body in the world. If Murdoch didn’t know what was going on at the UK division of News International I am a monkey’s uncle but that’s a different story…   

Journalists the world over are always looking for the smell of rotten egg in bodies such as the IOC. I am one of them, working on abuse of local democracy in one of the towns where the Olympics will be held. Getting a shot on Gold on an organisation like the IOC is something that makes reputations! They must be either ‘above repute’ or good at concealing their tracks.

It seems likely that the BBC started its paper trail in Azerbaijan. People at the highest level are certainly willing to talk and show the paper trail to AIBA. AIBA is investigating itself (as did FIFA). If, unlike FIFA, it sues then Auntie may have got it wrong. You will only know if the BBC got it wrong if AIBA’s lawyers think there’s any chance of success in court.