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Rio Olympics: No reports of misbehaviour against me, says Vijay Goel

By PTI

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 12: India's sports minister Vijay Goel today (August 12) rejected the allegations of misbehaviour levelled against his entourage by the Organising Committee of Rio Olympics, stating that nothing of that sort has happened.

Photo gallery

Yesterday (August 11), Sarah Peterson, who is Continental Manager for Rio 2016 Organising Committee, in a letter to Indian Chef-de-Mission Rakesh Gupta threatened to cancel Goel's accreditation on grounds of misbehaviour and trying to enter venues with his entourage who don't have valid passes.

Vijay Goel (standing 3rd from right) with the Indian women's hockey team at Rio Olympics

"I don't know who wrote the letter and what are his capacities and post. The letter written to Chef-de-Mission (Rakesh Gupta) states that they have some issue from our staff members, regarding misbehaviour or access. I don't know any such things and they have not written against me, the letter also does not have anything against the sports minister," Goel said in his defence.

When asked about trying to forcibly enter the hockey arena, Goel said:"The volunteers had taken him to the field of play because otherwise how is he allowed to go? I couldn't have gone on my own. Next time, I had an upgraded pass with me provided by Organising Committee (OC).

"I went to the hockey pitch to cheer up our team only, and it is not a crime. We are here to cheer up our teams only. first they asked to have a pass, so the next time i went there with my pass."

Goel said that he expected certain things to be communicated verbally before taking the matter straightaway to the Chef-de-Mission.

"They should have told things orally, we are not informed anything and they wrote straight away to Chef-de-Mission. Language is also a main problem here, may be there is a misunderstanding because of that.

"There is nothing against the Sports Minister and if it is because of staff, then I don't have any knowledge about it. If they bring things to me than only I can do anything," he said.

PTI

Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 17:39 [IST]
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