Olympics: Bulgarian International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Ivan Slavkov vowed yesterday to fight to clear his name and that of his country over allegations made in a BBC documentary that he had inappropriately tried to influence the Olympic bidding process.
Slavkov and Serbian sports agent Goran Takatch were shown in Wednesday night's Panorama programme on the bidding for the 2012 Games discussing ways to secure votes for choosing the site of that Games with undercover journalists posing as business agents.
The cost of any help by Slavkov was included in figures previously given by Takatch to the BBC reporters - a total of up to 3.4 million for influencing up to 20 IOC members.
IOC president Jacques Rogge has also promised the committee would take any necessary action over allegations made in the one-hour programme.
At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) yesterday, Slavkov, who is also BFU president, said he had hired lawyers and would defend himself, BFU spokesman Atanas Karaivanov said.
He said Slavkov would still travel to the Games in Athens, as originally intended.
"He does not intend to change his programme in the nearest future because of what is happening," Karaivanov said.
Slavkov pushed through a scrum of reporters at the football union and refused to react to questions about the BBC show.
The 64-year-old president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee was accused in the 1998 Salt Lake scandal that shook the Olympic community, but he was later cleared.
He has said he and Takatch had tried to pull a reverse-sting operation to catch what they thought were "corrupters" of the Games bidding process.
Takatch told the Belgrade tabloid Blic on Wednesday he suspected immediately the people he met purporting to represent British businessmen were crooks.
Four sports agents were also shown on the BBC programme claiming they could secure, for a fee, nearly half the votes needed to win the Games when voting takes place in July next year.
London, Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow are on the shortlist for the 2012 Games. The host city will be named in July 2005 after a vote by IOC members.
The IOC said last week their Ethics Commission would be examining claims of "inappropriate conduct" into the 2012 bidding process.
The programme also showed Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) director general Muttaleb Ahmad explaining how he could influence IOC votes.
The programme stirred memories of the Salt Lake City corruption scandal that shook the movement six years ago.
An investigation into Salt Lake led to 10 IOC members resigning or being expelled over bribery and to a tightening of the rules governing contact between IOC members and bidding cities.
