Reports | Japan’s Olympic Committee head claims he had no idea about lobby firm’s link to middle man

01/20/2019

Japan’s Olympic Committee chief Tsunekazu Takeda has responded to the investigators stating that he didn’t know that a consultancy firm used by the Tokyo bid committee had links to a controversial Senegalese man. Takeda was charged earlier this month by French investigating magistrate.

The French investigating magistrates are probing two payments totalling $2.3 million (two million euros) made before and after Japan’s capital city - Tokyo was selected to host the Olympics in a vote in 2013 September. According to AFP reports, the head of Japan's Olympic Committee told French investigators he had not known that a consultancy firm used by the 2020 Tokyo bid committee had links to a controversial Senegalese man at the centre of corruption allegations.

Lamine Diack from Senegal was one of the IOC members who voted on the bid and then was the head of the world body of athletics – IAAF. His son Papa Massata Diack, who was then a marketing consultant for IAAF, is now facing allegations of receiving bribes to help Tokyo get to host the Games in 2020.

According to the documents with AFP, all the payments were made to a defunct consultancy firm of Singapore called Black Tidings. French investigating magistrates have described Black Tidings as a "shell company".

"At the time that the contracts were signed, neither the bid committee nor I knew of the existence of these links," Takeda told the investigating magistrates. I did not know Papa Massata Diack, I had never had a conversation with him, I did not know who he was."

Takeda told the investigators that he played no role in choosing the consultancy firm and Black Tidings had been recommended by the giant Japanese advertising firm Dentsu.

"Tan must have known a lot of people at the IAAF and supplied information to the (Tokyo) Olympic bid committee... about IOC members within the IAAF. I was never involved in any decision-making process," the Japanese sports administrator said.

"I'm very sorry that this trouble could possibly affect the Olympic movement."

In a statement, Tokyo 2020 said it had "no means of knowing the bid committee's activities", which occurred before the organising committee was set up.

"We believe that the Games were awarded to Tokyo because the city presented the best bid," the statement added.