Source: www.insidethegames.biz

By Duncan Mackay

April 20 - Visits to cities bidding for the Olympics and Paralympics by International Olympic Committee (IOC) members should be reintroduced, the son of former President Juan Antonio Samaranch claimed today.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior, whose father died a year ago tomorrow, has claimed that it is time to re-examine the controversial rule which prevents IOC members from travelling to cities campaign for the Games specifically to inspect their bid.

The rule was introduced by Samaranch's father in 2001 following the Salt Lake City bribery scandal in which ten IOC members were expelled or forced to resign after it emerged that they had accepted favours to vote for the American city.

It was believed that acceptance of expensive gifts by IOC members was morally dubious and it would be harder for them to receive anything that might sway their judgement if they were prevented from travelling to cities to meet bid officials.

A new system was introduced by the IOC which saw the creation of an Evaluation Commission, made up of a group of handpicked members and independent experts, who visit all the bidding cities and produce a report which is sent to the rest of the IOC to study.

But Samaranch Junior, a vice-president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union, claims that the system is unfair and outdated.

"By 2011, reform done in 2000 should be subjected to review," the 51-year-old Spaniard told the German news agency dpa in an interview published today.

"The issue of visits to cities is something that needs to be re-regulated."

IOC members now have an opportunity to hear the bidding city's presentations at a special meeting held in Lausanne in the build-up to the final vote.

This was introduced for the first time before the vote two years ago for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics, which was won by Rio de Janeiro.

The three cities bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics - Annecy, Munich and Pyeongchang - are due to give presentations in Lausanne on May 18.

Samaranch, who joined the IOC in 2001, admitted that this is "very big step forward" but that he still wants visits to be allowed, even if they are heavily regulated.

"In many cases it is still difficult to vote, to get an idea without having physically seen the facilities and the country," he told dpa.

"We are in a different world [to 1999], with a lot more information and transparency.

"There is a way to do it.

"Visits can be done in such a way that they are not personal, freely-chosen visits, so that there is every guarantee for it to be a normal process."