Seoul brings the opportunity for the Olympics to cleanse its own soul

Seoul brings the opportunity for the Olympics to cleanse its own soul. The stench of the Salt Lake City scandal – which caused six on-the-take IOC members to be axed, four to resign and nine others to be formally censured (roughly one-fifth of its contingent) lingers and the future of the whole Games concept remains in jeopardy.Consequently, the Seoul scenario will be much different from the freebie- for-all bun fights that have besmirched the bidding process in the past. Interim rules have been introduced while the fundamentals of how the Games are awarded are examined by a commission including luminaries ranging from Henry Kissinger to Sebastian Coe.Access to the IOC headquarters at Seoul’s Shiller Hotel will be banned to those lobbying on behalf of Sion (Switzerland), Klagenfurt (Austria), Turin (Italy), Helsinki (Finland), Proprad-Tatry (Slovakia) and Zakopane (Poland) until Friday morning when the rival venues will be allowed to make an hour-long presentation apiece to the full IOC. Subsequently, the jury of 15 will be selected and empowered to examine the bids and whittle the contestants down to two. They will comprise eight IOC members, a representative each of the National Olympic Committees and Winter Sports Federations, three athletes, the Japanese chairman of the Evaluation Commission, which has prepared a detailed 288-page report on all cities and, curiously one Joao Havelange, the octegenerian former Fifa president who is the “doyen” of the IOC (what, one wonders does the old boy from Brazil know about slaloms and stem christies?).This electoral college will be chaired by the IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who does not vote – though one suspects his wink is as good as a nod. Then follows an immediate secret ballot between the two nominated front-runners by the full IOC, at present numbering 98, though this is likely to be reduced by one should Phil Coles, of Australia, be expelled, as expected, after investigations into his own irregularities.First past the post wins – and the current reckoning is that it is a two- horse sleigh race between the favourites, Sion, and the enterprising outsiders Klagenfurt.Says Britain’s Reedie, who has expressed his willingness to sit on the jury if asked: “It is really important that this new selection process is seen to be transparently fair, open and done properly.

After the horrors of Salt Lake, there’s no way the IOC can go back to the so-called good old days of having members trailing around the bidding cities – though I suspect some of my colleagues might like to. We in Britain have certainly made it clear there is no question of us bidding for a summer Games until we are satisfied that the process is honest and above suspicion.”As it happens the Salt Lake shenanigans do not seem to have given potential candidate cities cold feet for either summer or winter Games. Ten have already thrown their hats into the Olympic rings for the summer Games of 2008.But at the moment the $350m question (that’s what the Games are worth to the winners) is who will be celebrating in Seoul It looks like shoo- in for Sion. The Swiss candidate has the best technical facilities, but more important is close to the heart of the Olympic movement in every sense, being a snowball’s throw away from Lausanne, the IOC HQ.And the country so steeped in winter sports is overdue a Games – they were last held there in 1948. The bids from Slovakia and Poland can more or less be discounted while Finland’s, which would also utilise the alpine facilities of Lillehammer in Norway, could be tainted by the fact that one of their IOC representatives was swept up – and out – in the corruption exposures.Turin, favoured, I believe, alongside Sion by the British, is better known for Fiat and football than the snowy stuff, though Sestriere, a world championship skiing venue, is close by. But it is the bid from Klagenfurt which may well tickle the fancy of some of the more progressive IOC members. The Austrians have linked with two bordering nations, Italy and Slovenia, to present what they believe is the way ahead for the Olympics They call it a bid beyond borders.

In effect it is a sort of Jeux Sans Frontiers on snow.Although Klagenfurt, a lovely lakeside resort, would officially be the host city, events would be held in northern Italy and a slice of Slovenia. The women’s downhill, for instance, would start in Slovenia, traverse Italy and finish in Austria at a point called Dreilandereck, a mile-high cosmopolitan corner of Europe which sees the convergence of three nations.Here is real Von Trapp country and the hills would be alive to the sound of cash registers in three currencies. Overall, the Austrian idea is not only deeply impressive but refreshingly novel. It is headed by 57-year- old Dr Dieter Kalt, a provincial governor and veteran of seven Olympics as an ice hockey player and manager.