In order to host the 2024 Olympic Games, which were officially opened in Paris on Friday evening, the public authorities in France caved in to the demands of the International Olympic Committee. Yet, argues Mediapart's Antton Rouget in this op-ed article, the IOC is a clannish organisation that imposes its model and enriches itself without ever being accountable to anyone.
“Is“Is the IOC a mafia?” This cutting question was once posed by France Inter radio station. The response was equally scathing. “Yes,” according to a vast majority of the public broadcaster's listeners. This was in July 2008, on the eve of the Beijing Games, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had just managed, through the power of money alone, to crush all protests and calls for a boycott so that its business model could continue to thrive.
