Bad business. For the Tokyo 2020 Games, for Japan, and by extension for the entire Olympic movement. According to Le Monde, the president of the Japanese Olympic committee, the highly respected Tsunekazu Takeda, is suspected by French justice of having authorized the payment of bribes as part of the Japanese capital's bid campaign for the Summer Games in 2020.
The facts, first. In its January 11 edition, Le Monde reveals that Tsunekazu Takeda, 71, a former rider and member of the IOC, was indicted by investigating judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke for “active corruption”. In 2013, in the middle of the campaign for the 2020 Games, he allegedly authorized two transfers from the Japanese Olympic committee, for a cumulative amount of 1,8 million euros, to the company Black Tidings.
Based in Singapore, Black Tidings is owned by Ian Tan Tong Han, a sinister character whose name has already been mentioned in the IAAF corruption case. He is very close to Papa Massata Diack, the son of Lamine Diack, former president of the IAAF.
French justice is trying to understand the reason for these transfers to Black Tidings. She is also investigating the link between the two transfers made by the Japanese Olympic committee, a few months before the vote for the host city of the 2020 Games, and the suspicions of corruption around Lamine Diack. The Senegalese leader told the French judge that he had organized, the day before the vote in Buenos Aires, “ a round of the table” with a dozen African members of the IOC.
The reactions now. Tsunekazu Takeda was quick to react. The Japanese did so on Friday January 11, in the form of a press release sent to the media. He acknowledges having been heard by an investigating judge in Paris regarding the Tokyo 2020 candidacy. But he denies any attempt at corruption. According to him, the payments made to the Black Tidings company account correspond to “consulting” work. There is nothing illegal about them.
Tsunekazu Takeda also explains having become aware, “ for the first time in the media » of a relationship between Papa Massata Diack and Ian Tan Tong Han. Clearly, the Japanese Olympic committee would have paid nearly 2 million euros to the Black Tidings company in exchange for “ valuable information » on the preferences of certain members of the IOC, completely ignoring that the said society was closely linked to Papa Massata Diack, and therefore by extension to his illustrious father. Hard to believe.
In Japan, the Takeda affair is causing a lot of noise. The national press devoted its headlines to him during the last weekend, sometimes to the point of relegating the Carlos Ghosn file a notch below.
Tsunekazu Takeda is scheduled to hold a press conference on Tuesday January 15 in Tokyo. It looks like it will be very popular.
No reaction, however, from the IOC side. The Olympic organization has remained silent on the Takeda case. This week she is bringing together all of her multiple commissions in Lausanne. The Japanese leader, chairman of the marketing commission, will certainly not be there.
