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Sports: Lobbying concerns IOC - Gusenbauer

By Staff

Guatemala City, July 4: Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said on Tuesday that IOC members had voiced concerns the 2014 Winter Olympics bidding process had become more about money and political lobbying than sport.

Gusenbauer is here to promote Salzburg, a traditional winter sports haven, in the bidding race with Pyeongchang of South Korea and Russia's Black Sea resort town of Sochi which will be decided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today.

''The (IOC) members told me they have the impression this is not a bidding but an auction and they are very much concerned about that,'' Gusenbauer told a news conference.

He is not the only head of state who has travelled to tropical Guatemala to try to gain support from the IOC, having been joined by Russian President Vladimir Putin and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

It has not been the cleanest of campaigns with complaints that one bidder has been slipping negative press clippings about a rival under the doors of IOC members' rooms.

''There is a very fundamental decision to be taken tomorrow which will determine which direction the Olympic movement takes,'' said Gusenbauer.

Salzburg officials have said their bid, based on five decades of sports history and experience, could not compete with major commercial interests associated with other bids.

''It is best if the Olympic Games take place in a city of real life where all the sites are part of the environment,'' said Gusenbauer.

''We do not need more Olympic ruins in the world that are only used for Olympic Games and then nobody has any use for them.'' Austria prides itself on organising international winter sports events and it previously hosted Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976.

Salzburg already has seven of the 11 required venues in place.

Pyeongchang and Sochi still need to build the majority of the arenas needed.

Reuters>

Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 15:55 [IST]
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