elmundo.es escribió:GILADY TAMBIÉN PERTENECE A LA COMISIÓN DE LONDRES 2012
Un miembro de CIO reconoce el error que dejó a Madrid sin JJOO
MADRID | LONDRES.- Un miembro del Comité Internacional Olímpico (CIO) y miembro de la Comisión organizadora de Londres 2012 aseguró a la cadena BBC que la ciudad inglesa es sede de los JJOO 2012 debido a un error en una de las votaciones. El israelí Alex Gilady asegura que el fallo se produjo al emitirse un voto a favor de París que debería haber sido incluido en los de Madrid.
Si el voto hubiera ido a parar a la capital española, explica Gilady, se hubiera producido un empate a votos entre París y Madrid en la penúltima ronda, ambos países por detrás de Londres.
Gilady opina que Madrid hubiera ganado un cara a cara con Francia y más tarde también a Londres en la final. El error, ya publicado por la prensa española, provino del griego Lambis Nikolau, que presionó el botón equivocado y dio un voto a París en vez de a la capital española, lo que dejó a ésta ciudad fuera de la ronda final. Nikolau, que ahora prefiere guardar silencio, sí declaró entonces tener "la cabeza en otro lado" debido a problemas familiares.
"Si hubiera votado a favor de Madrid", dijo Gilady, "el resultado habría sido 32-32. Tendríamos que haber celebrado otra votación. En ese caso, los votos que apoyaban a Londres habrían ido a Madrid, porque el temor era que París tenía grandes posibilidades de ganar".
"Madrid", insistió Gilady, "habría vencido la capital francesa. Si hubiera llegado a la final contra Londres, todos los votos de París habrían ido a parar a Madrid, que habría ganado. Eso es lo que creemos que ocurrió. Esto es lo que llamamos buena fortuna o suerte". En la ronda final de votaciones, Londres se impuso a París por 54 votos a 50 y logró ser la sede de los Juegos de 2012.
Una portavoz de la organización de los Juegos de Londres comentó que "ha habido muchas historias sobre quién votó a quien". "Al final, la votación fue secreta. Es la opinión de un individuo. El resultado es lo que importa y no vamos a entrar en especulaciones", agregó la portavoz.
Juan Antonio Samaranch recordaba tras la votación, celebrada el pasado mes de julio, que de los dos votos que le faltaron a Madrid para superar o empatar con París, "uno de ellos fue una equivocación de un gran amigo de España, (el griego) Lambis Nikolau, y el otro de alguien que no votó". "No saben aún lo cerca que se han quedado", lamentó entonces.
Antes de llegar a Singapur, el de Gilady se consideraba un voto seguro en favor de Madrid, aunque en el último instante optó por la candidatura londinense, otra circunstancia que también jugó en contra de Madrid 2012.
BBC escribió: 'Voting error' gave London Games
BBC News 24's report on the matter can be seen on Sunday, 25 December
A senior Olympic figure has told the BBC that London only won the 2012 Olympics because of a misplaced vote.
Alex Gilady claims the mistake happened when a vote was cast for Paris instead of the intended recipient, Madrid.
Had the vote gone to Madrid, claims Gilady, they would have finished level with Paris on 32 votes apiece in the penultimate round, behind London.
Gilady suggests Madrid would have won a head-to-head vote with Paris and gone on to beat London in the final round.
Gilady, from Israel, is a senior member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a member of the IOC's London 2012 Co-ordination Commission.
He told BBC News 24 that the incident occurred in the third round of voting in Singapore in July.
Coming to the final against London, all the votes from Paris would have gone to support Madrid
IOC member Alex Gilady
"London was ahead, but Paris and Madrid were 33-31 in the votes," said Gilady.
"Let's say what we think now happened, that one member made a mistake and voted for Paris rather than Madrid.
"If he had voted for Madrid it would be 32-32. We would have to have had a vote-off.
"In the vote-off all the votes supporting London would go to Madrid, because the fear was that Paris had a big chance to win.
"Madrid would then have won against Paris.
"Coming to the final against London, all the votes from Paris would have gone to support Madrid.
"Madrid would have won.
"That is now what we think happened. This is what you call good fortune and good luck."
If you're looking for reasons for London's win I suspect you should probably look at the quality of the bidding effort
IOC member Craig Reedie
A News 24 investigation appears to support Gilady's suggestion.
However, Craig Reedie, a British member of the IOC and former British Olympic Association chairman, dismissed the claims.
"The story is totally irrelevant, the voting was conducted in a secret ballot under the rules of the IOC, absolutely properly, all votes were properly recorded," he told BBC Radio Four's Today programme.
"If Alex is claiming that an unnamed member 'might' have done something which 'might' have brought about something else which 'might' have brought about a different voting structure then I'm afraid that this is the kind of tittle-tattle that happens after many an IOC vote.
"London won the Games hands down. If you're looking for reasons for London's win I suspect you should probably look at the quality of the bidding effort that went in Singapore and the quality of the lobbying effort, and above all the quality of the presentation."
During the 2012 vote there was a long delay before the result of the third round was announced, which occurred because a Greek IOC member complained about his vote.
At the time it was assumed someone had failed to vote in time, but it is now clear that all members had voted.
In final round of voting, London beat Paris 54-50 to win the right to host the 2012 Olympics.
A London 2012 spokeswoman said: "There are a lot of folklore stories about who voted for whom.
"At the end of the day, it was a secret ballot. This is the opinion of one individual. The result is what matters and we are not going to be drawn into speculation."
Feliciano Maroyal, the chief executive officer for the Madrid 2012 bid, told the Times: "We were very close to winning.
"We can never know if the Greek vote would have been decisive, but it is lamentable for one human error to have ruined all our hard work which we put in trying to win the Games."
Con todo y con eso, comprar un "error" no debe ser muy complicado.