Two Olympic Members Get Warnings in Ethics Probe Into Broadcast Contract

Two International Olympic Committee members from Africa got warnings after an ethics probe. Former FIFA President Joao Havelange, who was also being investigated, resigned three days ago.

Lamine Diack of Senegal received a warning and Issa Hayatou of Cameroon was given a reprimand following the investigation by the IOC’s ethics commission, President Jacques Rogge said today at a press conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“It’s always sad when you have to discipline colleagues, but we have to take care of the needs of the organization,” Rogge said after the IOC’s executive board meeting.

A British Broadcasting Corp. program last year said Diack, head of track and field’s governing body, and Hayatou, president of the African soccer federation, received money from ISL, the former marketing agency of soccer ruling body FIFA. Both men, who were not IOC members at the time, denied the allegations.

Havelange was the longest-serving member of the IOC before resigning. The BBC program said the Brazilian, who had been an IOC member since 1963, received $1 million from ISL, which owned television rights to soccer’s World Cup and collapsed with debts of $300 million in 2001, prompting the IOC ethics investigation.

Rogge refused to comment on Havelange today because the 95- year-old is no longer an IOC member. Havelange has denied the allegations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Bensch in London at bbensch@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net.