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IOC and DOSB argue about bidding for the Olympic Games: an ultimatum and its consequences

2021-04-02T16:17:25.487Z


North Rhine-Westphalia's application for the 2032 Olympics has failed. The IOC accuses DOSB President Hörmann of “misinformation” - and threatens with consequences. The Olympic plans simply continue in the background.


Enlarge image

DOSB President Alfons Hörmann

Photo: 

Guido Kirchner / dpa

The farce about the German Olympic bid in NRW 2032 is endless.

On February 24th, the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) clearly decided on Brisbane as the favorite - and the big

blame game

began in Germany

.

North Rhine-Westphalia

Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) and NRW 2032 initiator Michael Mronz (FDP) accused the DOSB officials on February 26 of not knowing what was happening in the IOC.

DOSB President Alfons Hörmann (CSU) and CEO Veronika Rücker countered on March 1 with a video press conference in which they in turn chalked Mronz and the IOC false statements.

At the center of the DOSB attacks was not IOC President Thomas Bach (FDP), but Kristin Kloster Aasen: The Norwegian, newcomer to the IOC, heads the commission that negotiates with interested parties for the Summer Olympics on Bach's behalf.

In January, the committee had spoken several times with NRW and the DOSB - and in February came out in favor of Brisbane as the host.

This was the seventh German Olympic application in a row that failed without ever becoming an official application.

The IOC's most recent application approach made it possible to negotiate with those interested in the Olympics even before the respective National Olympic Committee (in Germany the DOSB) had made a formal decision.

IOC commission chief accuses Hörmann of "incorrect statements"

At a certain point, however, a corresponding declaration by the DOSB was inevitable.

In the negotiations with the IOC, the DOSB representatives adhered to the previous postulates and to the agreements with the Ministry of Sports (BMI), with which they had been working on a "national strategy for major sporting events" at the same time.

Four prerequisites were required for the hot phase of an Olympic application and targeted discussions with the IOC: a citizen's vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, a viable financial concept, the resolution of a DOSB general meeting, plus the submission of the national strategy.

None of these were fulfilled by February.

Formally, the DOSB leadership is on the safe side.

At the same time, however, the mutual accusations and numerous allegations of false statements mark a low point in the German application failures.

In essence, it is about the question of why the Germans were surprised by the IOC vote for Brisbane.

Kristin Kloster Aasen, head of the IOC commission for future summer games, made her point of view clear in a remarkable letter to Hörmann.

In Dreiseiter of March 26th, about which the ARD doping editorial team first reported, it accuses the DOSB president of "various incorrect statements".

Aasen Abbey points out several appointments, including with Thomas Bach, during which the processes were explained to Hörmann.

She calls on the DOSB boss to correct his allegations.

Basically it is an ultimatum, albeit without a deadline: only if Hörmann stops spreading "misinformation", only if the "incorrect statements" about the procedure are corrected, will the IOC continue to negotiate an Olympic project with NRW and the DOSB.

Enlarge image

NRW 2032 initiator Michael Mronz and Prime Minister Armin Laschet

Photo: Horst Galuschka / imago images

Kristin Kloster Aasen has only been an IOC member since September 2017 - and the thought that she did not coordinate the letter with the IOC President is unimaginable.

The details are important: the letter went to the entire DOSB presidium, to Mronz and to Bach.

The three-page letter is marked as "unclassified", that is, expressly not as confidential or even secret.

Apparently the IOC was interested in making this paper public.

In addition, the telephone wires between the IOC headquarters in Lausanne and Germany have been glowing for many weeks.

People from Bach's environment therefore explain top German officials that the IOC president is extremely dissatisfied with the DOSB president's performance.

The DOSB, however, describes the letter from Aasen Monastery as "confidential".

When asked whether Hörmann would make the required corrections and how the DOSB commented on the IOC's allegations, Christian Sachs, head of the DOSB capital city office, replied: »We generally do not comment on confidential communication with third parties.

We presented all the essential facts and assessments from the DOSB's point of view at the press conference on March 1st.

The IOC then made it publicly clear that there was no meeting with the DOSB and RRC 2032 in February. "

"RRC 2032" stands for Rhein Ruhr City, in other words North Rhine-Westphalia's Olympic project.

The mention of the IOC correction does not help to clarify the fundamental questions.

Apparently, Kloster Aasen had only made a mistake at the IOC press conference on February 24th when she mentioned a meeting with the IOC in February, which had taken place in January.

NRW sticks to Olympic plans

The Olympic plans in North Rhine-Westphalia will continue to operate.

For 2032 or 2036, as CDU chairman Laschet said.

That would be exactly 100 years after the Games in Berlin, in Nazi Germany in 1936. Or 2040. Andrea Milz (CDU), State Secretary for Sports in North Rhine-Westphalia, said in mid-March: The “visionary project” Olympia in North Rhine-Westphalia will be pursued further.

Suddenly there was no longer any talk of criticism of the DOSB and IOC.

Negotiations are underway behind closed doors with the Federal Ministry of the Interior, from which pots of tax funds could be diverted for an Olympic bid in North Rhine-Westphalia and accompanying infrastructure measures.

BMI lawyers are currently refusing to inspect the files on the 2032 event. An Olympic application that did not formally exist and for which there is no longer any basis after the IOC preliminary decision for Brisbane is suddenly described by the ministry as an »ongoing process, currently in addition to the private initiative RR 2032 also include regional authorities, the state and municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia and the DOSB «.

Of course, the DOSB does not allow itself to be looked into the files and at the same time claims that its archive is open to journalists.

A media attorney commissioned by the DOSB stated in response to an application for inspection of files: "Our clients generally do not allow third parties to inspect confidential documents." Mind you: It's about highly public processes such as Olympic applications, about major projects that devour huge sums of tax revenue.

On March 21, Hörmann declared that the DOSB had not found any errors in its analysis of Causa 2032.

The CSU local politician announced via the dpa news agency: “In the Presidium, we discussed the entire career and the status quo and self-critically reflected on how things went.

We still came to the conclusion that we would choose the path again. «Such postulates of» self-critical reflection «in the same circles, without public and independent control, are another elementary feature of seven failed German applications in series.

Five days after this "self-critical reflection" Kristin Kloster Aasen sent her ultimatum.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-04-02

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