Agency denies Commonwealth Games allegations 05/08/2010 |
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Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM) has hit back at allegations of financial irregularities surrounding its involvement in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
The Australian-based agency and Swiss-based Event Knowledge Services (EKS) are reportedly being investigated over claims the Organising Committee (OC) allegedly paid them more than US$10m for their services without them fulfilling their obligations.
SMAM, headed by Mike Bushell, has been the Australian Olympic Committee's marketing arm for more than 20 years and has run the marketing programme for the Sydney Olympics, and the most recent Commonwealth Games in Manchester (2002) and Melbourne (2006).
EKS has provided consultancy services to every summer and winter Olympics in the past decade and was one of the architects of Brazil's winning bid for the 2016 Games.
Bushell said he was horrified by the claims and flatly denied the allegations.
"We have already beaten the record sponsorship revenue we gained for Melbourne [US$85m] and that's still going, but we have not received a single rupee [from Delhi] yet and there's money overdue," Bushell was quoted as saying by The Australian. "[The claims] are disgraceful. I'm not sure what the agenda is."
In a statement, SMAM added that the allegations were "unfounded, baseless and false", and that the company was not under investigation.
SMAM was criticised over its contract with the OC which apparently entitles it to commissions of up to 15 per cent for public sector sponsorship deals with state-owned companies, and up to 23 per cent for private sponsorship.
It emerged this week that Delhi 2010 lead sponsor, the state-owned Indian Railways, had withheld a payment of about $30m until the OC makes assurances that no commission will be paid to SMAM.
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