Here’s the Bagman!
By Andrew Jennings
Thursday 8 October, 2009
Well look who’s here. Official plastic, complete with the 5 Olympic rings, hanging around his neck, an honoured guest of the IOC here in the darker shadows of the Bella Center, the man who paid the bribes.
Some of us call him The Bagman. For three decades Swiss businessman Jean-Marie Weber, an executive with the now bankrupt ISL sports marketing company, was always welcome at the private meetings of the world’s top sports officials. The deal was simple; the officials gave Jean-Marie the TV and marketing rights to their sports – he have them a big bag of money.
We can be sure of this because last year I sat on the press benches in a Swiss court and heard Weber admit that he had paid around $100 million (one hundred millions dollars) in kickbacks to top sports officials.
‘Who got the money?’ asked one of the three judges. ‘On the advice of my lawyer I have no statement to make,’ replied Jean-Marie. ‘These payments were confidential and I must respect that confidentiality.’
This week Jean-Marie has been having more ‘confidential’ conversations. Today we spotted him deep in conversation with Issa Hayatou from Cameroon, president of African football, FIFA vice-president and an IOC member. They are old friends.
IOC president Rogge and his friends in town this week don’t think they need to take any action to combat corruption in sport. They say they have done enough.
So why have they welcomed Jean-Marie to their meeting? I wandered over and asked him. ‘Who gave you accreditation?’
His answer shocked me. ‘I work with a lot of sports federations.’
Can this be true? The shamed bribe-payer is still part of their – not ours – Olympic Family. Can we believe the IOC is now scandal-free?
I tried again, ‘Who let you in?’ No answer.
‘How many people here have you paid bribes to?’
‘Please leave me in peace.’