Samaranch again under fire after Turin decision

A meeting supposed to demonstrate that the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Juan Antonio Samaranch, had regained control after the Salt Lake City bribery scandal has instead plunged the organisation back into crisis.

The IOC's decision in Seoul at the weekend to award the 2006 Winter Olympics to Turin provoked fury in Switzerland, where confidence had run high that the Alpine city of Sion would triumph on the third occasion it had bid.

The IOC was forced to step up security at its headquarters in Lausanne, less than an hour's drive from Sion, after vandals sprayed the word "Mafia" on a statue outside the Olympic museum.

At the town square in Sion, where the decision was broadcast live on a giant screen, a crowd of 12,000 were stunned into silence by the announcement. Later, whenever Samaranch's image appeared on the screen, they booed him.

The IOC's evaluation commission had praised Sion's plans, marking it higher than Turin on virtually every count.

Its plan to have most of the major venues within 30 minutes of the city centre was considered preferable to Turin's, where athletes and officials face a four-hour round trip each day to reach the ski course.

Sion made the shortlist of two finalists, but the 17-vote margin by which it lost exposed a widespread anti-Swiss sentiment among IOC members.

Swiss bid leaders were convinced they had fallen victim to a backlash against the decision last year by the veteran Swiss IOC member Marc Hodler to expose corruption and the Salt Lake City vote-buying scam, over which 10 IOC members lost their seat.

The Swiss economics minister, Pascal Couchepin, said the decision proved that Hodler was right and the IOC was still a corrupt organisation. "Considering the quality of our dossier, the difference in votes was grotesque," Couchepin said.

The decision could make life difficult for the IOC in Lausanne, which has given them a sympathetic tax-free haven for decades. Also, unlike the rest of the world, the Swiss media remained supportive of the IOC throughout the Salt Lake affair.

That will almost certainly change now, placing extra pressure on Samaranch, who is already facing calls to step down from senior executives within the IOC.

"The IOC understands the disappointment of the people of Sion and Switzerland," said Samaranch yesterday. "However, the IOC chose freely and democratically between two finalists, both of whose bids were excellent."