Payments made to IOC members in Melbourne

Cash payments of thousands of dollars were made to International Olympic Committee members during Melbourne's unsuccessful bid for the 1996 Olympics, it was revealed yesterday.

The Australian newspaper quoted senior members of Melbourne's bid committee as admitting payments of between 5,000 and 10,000 Australian dollars (£2,000 and £4,000) were made to individual IOC members, but denying they were in exchange for votes.

The latest revelations came as an IOC committee begins investigating alleged payments made in Salt Lake City's successful bid to stage the 2002 Winter Games.

The Australian said that about three of the 70 IOC members who visited Melbourne during the 1996 Games bidding process had dropped strong hints that they would like to be given a car.

"It was said in jest, but you could tell they were hoping you'd think it was a request," one senior Melbourne official told the paper.

Cars were not provided but one committee member, who refused to be named, said he was present when the cash payments were being organised for IOC members. However, he said he did not see money exchanged and doubted it would have been to buy votes.

The newspaper said a staff member of the Melbourne bid team confirmed the story.

The official said about six IOC members refused the committee's Qantas tickets as transport to Australia, opting instead to use their national airline.

"Then they'd say: 'I want US dollars to pay for the return trip'," the official was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile Billy Payne, who headed up Atlanta's bid for the 1996 Olympics and became chief of its organising committee, rejected any suggestion that Atlanta paid for votes in its campaign to stage the Games.

Senior International Olympic Committee official Marc Hodler rocked the Olympic movement last weekend with claims that agents had been trying for a decade to make cash-for-bloc votes deals with cities bidding to host the Games.

"We bid under the rules that were in force," Payne, now a businessmen in Atlanta, told Reuters in a telephone interview from his office.

"We are certainly totally unaware of these `agents' that tried to cut deals with cities that upon agreements to pay millions of dollars they would influence votes. We know nothing about that."

Added Payne: "We don't know what he (Hodler) is talking about with agents. We didn't pay them, we didn't pay IOC members to influence their votes (or) family members of IOC members. We did not do it."

Payne said the IOC was doing some soul searching since revelations made last week by Salt Lake City officials who won the right to host the 2002 Winter Games.

Salt Lake officials said that during the bidding process, officials had organised tuition assistance and athlete-training programmes for 13 people - six of whom were direct relatives of IOC members.

"We had their (Salt Lake City's) admission that in fact they had done wrong. It was an opportunity for the IOC to be introspective about their own procedures, to see perhaps if reform would be in order," speculated Payne.

"Why Mr Hodler chose to put some cities on a list of wrongdoers and say what he did about us . . . I just have no idea.

"I was surprised as the next person. The Olympic movement in Atlanta was an incredibly wonderful experience. We are proud of the way we won the Games."

Payne said he supported any efforts the IOC might take to tighten up the process, stressing that fairness was the key.

"What is really critical, and what every city deserves is an absolute level playing field," said Payne. "When you commit every fabric in your being to win these Games, you deserve a right to know that everybody is playing by the same set of rules."