Were Daley's Comments a Breach of Ethics?

By Kevin Robinson in News on Sep 30, 2009 2:00PM

Brazil's Olympic promoters are fanning the flames of comments made last week by Mayor Daley regarding the competition between cities to host the 2016 Games. Daley minimized the odds of Tokyo and Madrid, based on geography, and dismissed Rio's bid chances in light of their hosting the World Cup in 2014. When asked last week if Rio hosting the World Cup would help it's bid for the 2016 Games, Daley said ``I don't think so. The World Cup is completely different than the Olympics,'' adding. ``that's all soccer stadiums, it's completely different. They don't have all the other events there that we have.'' The IOC prohibits bid cities from criticizing rivals.

Brazilian bid supporters initially seemed to downplay Daley's remarks, content to imply that Daley's comments were an attack on Rio. "It is not on myself to make any comment about the mayor of Chicago,'' Rio 2016 bid chairman Carlos Nuzman said through a translator, adding that the issue is "in the hands'' of the IOC ethics commission. And while Catherine St. Laurent, a spokesperson for the Rio bid, claimed that "there was no official complaint filed by the Rio 2016 bid committee to the [IOC] ethics commission regarding Mayor Daley's remarks," the Brisbane Times is reporting that Rio did lodge a formal complaint yesterday. Chicago 2016 officials were a little touchy about the situation, and Chicago bid chairman Pat Ryan said that Mayor Daley was "misinterpreted," and that he hadn't heard anything about the drama. "Every city has had grounds to file complaints during the campaign but we have decided not to file any and that's the bottom line...The Mayor is a very good and fair competitor. Obviously things can be said in the heat of the moment and of the battle."