Olympic Games: Bid cities `mistake'

THE PRESIDENT of the International Olympic International Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, yesterday admitted that he should have acted earlier to curb corruption in Olympic bidding.

Samaranch still claims that the Salt Lake City bribery scandal has been overblown and that the IOC shares only part of the blame. However, he added: "I don't deny it's serious, despicable in certain aspects, but it all amounts to a total of around $1m in gifts, scholarships, trips for wives. Look at the European Union scandal. That involves around $1 billion.

"I'm guilty of one mistake: underestimating everything that was going on around all the bid cities. I should have realised earlier that the system for selecting host cities had to be changed."