BUYING THE GAMES

Salt Lake City has some of the best winter sports facilities in the world, but the 2002 Olympics are not remembered for the sport. What made these Winter Games memorable was that Tom Walsh, who led the Salt Lake bid committee, and his deputy Dave Johnson, ended up in court. Yet, Johnson was amazed that they were being prosecuted for corruption: as far as he was concerned, bribing IOC officials was an Olympic tradition.

After the Salt Lake City corruption scandal, the Athens Olympics were presented as a return to the Olympian ideals of integrity and fair play. The BBC documentary BUYING THE GAMES reveals that the votes of some members of the International Olympic Committee are still for sale.

Since 2002, the IOC claims to have cleaned up its act. Reporter Justin Rowlatt went undercover for a year, to find out whether they really had. Posing as a consultant acting for clients with business interests in East London, he set out to secure the 2012 Olympics for the English capital. He was told that four million Euros would buy him enough votes to win London the bid.

The men who say they can buy these votes are veteran Olympic insiders: professional agents who, in the past, have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to previous bid cities. All four of the agents interviewed claim that they have already been approached by cities bidding for the 2012 Games.

How do the agents secure IOC votes? At an illegal meeting, the undercover team is introduced to a member of the IOC who reveals all.

BUYING THE GAMES is a BBC Panorama Production.