Despite his high-profile involvement in international sports bodies, Prince Albert II of Monaco, a member of both the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and also of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has remained untarnished by the catalogue of corruption scandals that have over recent years engulfed the world of sport.
But according to information from the Football Leaks project, obtained by German news magazine Der Spiegel and analysed by Mediapart and its partners in the EIC, a consortium of European media, individuals close to the prince attempted to use his influence within the IAAF and IOC in pursuit of business interests that were separate to Albert’s mandated responsibilities within the two organisations.
Questioned by Mediapart, Prince Albert, whose has reigned over the tiny Riviera principality since April 2005, disassociated himself from such practices and insisted he had never committed any wrongdoing in his responsibilities with either organisation, notably regarding voting procedures for the attribution of games. “I gave no voting instructions […] I’m looking you straight in the eye; I never gave any instructions,” he said in an interview at Monaco’s embassy in Paris.
Separately, the prince’s office issued a statement underlining his position: “The sovereign Prince has always adopted a rule of behaviour that conforms to the ethics strongly affirmed during his accession speech, and this in all circumstances.”
By firmly distancing the prince from commitments made by individuals among his entourage, the statements draw a quarantine line between the palace and events that may yet prove more serious than boasts of access to influence. Above all in the case of the IAAF, whose decision to decision to award the 2021 World Athletics Championships to the US city of Eugene (Oregon), which is closely associated with sportswear giant Nike, is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the FBI.
Eugene, Nike's birthplace where the brand retains a strong presence, narrowly lost its bid to host the 2019 world athletics championships, which were handed to the Qatari capital Doha. The circumstances in which Doha was awarded those games is also the object of a US investigation after it was discovered that Qatari Sports Investments (QSI), the fund that owns French football club Paris Saint-Germain, paid 3.5 million dollars in 2011 to the son of the then IAAF president Lamine Diack, who was forced to step down from his post in 2015.
In April 2015, Eugene was to succeed with its bid for the 2021 world games in unusual circumstances when, for the first time in IAAF history, the host city for the international games was chosen directly and without any campaign or submission of candidatures.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
Kory Tarpenning is a former Olympic pole vault medallist who has been a resident of Monaco for more than 20 years. According to Vadim Vasilyev, vice president of AS Monaco football club and right-hand man of its president, the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, Tarpenning is a “friend” of Prince Albert.
Tarpenning is co-founder of a company called Tar.Ca, which is involved in establishing retail outlets in the principality. The company entered into a partnership with Starbucks to set up its first branch in Monaco in December 2013, when Prince Albert’s wife, Princess Charlene, cut the inaugural ribbon during the opening ceremony. With his other company, Sirius, he runs the Nike Monte Carlo franchise.
Nike became the official sportswear sponsor for football club AS Monaco in a contract signed on March 14th 2014, a deal which could bring the club revenue of 20 million euros over five years (remunerations that are conditional to the club’s performance). It was a welcome coup for the club, which had until then met with difficulty in attracting sponsors, essentially due to the relatively small population of local supporters. It represented a potential rise of 1 million euros on its previous sponsorship contract with an Italian sportswear company (which brought in 3.1 million euros in the 2012-2013 season, and 2.96 million euros in the 2013-2014 season).
Five months after the signature of the contract with Nike, Tarpenning, who presented himself as a “personal friend” of Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and also of the company’s chairman and CEO Mark Parker, approached AS Monaco in August 2014 to request the payment of a commission of 3 million euros for his role in the deal.
Initially the club was taken aback by Tarpenning’s claim. “Kory Tarpenning has demanded a commission for the Nike contract, a commission that was never discussed with me before,” Vasilyev wrote to his management colleagues. After checking back through the club's records, Henri Van der Aat, AS Monaco’s experienced sales and marketing director, reported that while the club had signed a deal with Tarpenning’s agency for the recruitment of sponsors in February 2014, it had nothing to do with relations with Nike.
AS Monaco’s international sales director Bruce Bundrant confirmed Van der Att’s analysis. Kory did not present us to Nike,” he wrote.
But while that might have ben the end of the matter, Vasilyev in fact finally accepted to change position and pay Tarpenning a commission of 9% of the total value of the contract. A first payment of 648,000 euros was made in December 2014. The reason for the sudden turnaround was that Tarpenning had shown Vasilyev his email correspondence with the personal secretary to Nike co-founder Phil Knight.
The correspondence shows how Tarpenning did indeed play a role in the Nike deal, but without the knowledge of Dmitry Rybolovlev’s team. “You can see from these emails and the copies of emails that I have left, that I am really at the origins of Nike’s integration with ASM and the only person who convinced Nike to invest in ASM,” Tarpenning wrote to Vasilyev, adding: “I have shared all these emails with Prince Albert, who replied saying that he was clear that I was the only person having made that possible.”
That was something which until then AS Monaco had been unaware of, and it was even less aware of the discussions behind it. Tarpenning’s email correspondence reveals that he attempted to link the deal with Nike with the influence wielded by Prince Albert within the IAAF.
In June 2012, Tarpenning accompanied Prince Albert to Eugene on the occasion of the US Olympic Trials, when, Tarpenning explained in an email the following month to Phil Knight’s personal secretary, they were at one point joined by the Nike co-founder. The first subject of discussion, he said, was about the possibility of Nike becoming a sponsor of AS Monaco. “I tried this three years ago but failed to get any results from this as AS Monaco signed with another apparel manufacturer,” wrote Tarpenning in the email dated July 13th, sent after his return to the principality. A new opportunity to seal a deal would eventually present itself in 2014 when the sponsorship contract with Italian sports apparel brand Macron came to an end.
At the end of his July 13th 2012 email to Knight’s secretary, Tarpenning wrote that he had learnt that Eugene was bidding for the 2019 world athletics championships: “The IAAF is based here in Monaco so together with H.S.H. Prince Albert II, I feel that we may be able to [help] in this pursuit.
Questioned by Mediapart, Prince Albert said: “I never spoke of a possible support for a candidature by Eugene for championships, nor for the pursuit of sponsoring at AS Monaco. Yes, it was brought up during the conversation but I never said to Mr Knight ‘listen, it should absolutely continue’.”
When AS Monaco board sought to barter Olympic votes
Why then did Tarpenning write of helping the city’s bid “together with” Prince Albert? Questioned by Mediapart, Tarpenning cited the “confidentiality” of the negotiations. He said only that his “contractual relationship” was “in accordance” with such practices (read the full text of Kory Tarpenning's response at the bottom of this page). The EIC made several attempts to contact Phil Knight, who since 2016 occupies the post of “chairman emeritus” at Nike, but he did not respond to the questions submitted to him.
On October 1st 2012, Tarpenning again emailed Knight’s personal secretary. “First of all, I can imagine that you can keep things confidential when needed!”, he began. “I’m sure you would not have been around as long as you have if you did [not] have, specifically, this quality among your other qualities.”
Tarpenning explained that “Phil” had been “very positive” that summer on the subject of a deal between AS Monaco and Nike, and that he had just met the previous week with a representative of “Nike France” to discuss the project, and promised to “keep you/Phil informed on the progress”.
In the same email, Tarpenning wrote that during his June visit to Eugene for the Trials, “I had several conversations with Vin Lananna [chair of the Eugene/Oregan bid for the athletics championships who stepped down in July this year ] and Paul Weinhold [president and CEO of the University of Oregon Foundation supporting the bid], as well as a short conversation with Phil about […] and the ambition to eventually bring the 2019 World Athletics Championships to Eugene. I spoke to Prince Albert about this and he was also very positive about this”.
Tarpenning underlined: “As Phil knows, the IAAF is based in Monaco and the Prince Albert is the Patron of the [Monegasque] Federation as well as the President of the International Athletics Foundation. I have asked Prince Albert to assist in this quest for Eugene and he has agreed to lend his support.”
He said that when he and the prince were in London for the Olympic Games, “I took Prince Albert over to the Nike Hospitality House for a visit, I invited Vin Lananna and Jim Shephard (UO alum and CEO AIG bank Europe, who has offered to assist with the World Championships bid) over to the Monaco Hospitality House to again meet with Prince Albert […] to discuss potential and future involvement of the Prince.”
Questioned about Tarpenning’s email, Prince Albert told Mediapart that, “In different major international championships, when one is in the salons and the VIP stand you meet everyone. But there was no promise of any kind”.
“One is there, you enjoy a pleasant time,” the prince continued. “I rub shoulders with the sports and Olympics world since such a long time that I know many people.”
Tarpenning’s account concerning Prince Albert prompts further speculation amid the FBI investigation into Nike’s role in the attribution of the 2021 athletics championships to Eugene, with which the sportswear brand is closely associated. The US investigators, whose inquiries are in cooperation with the financial crime branch (PNF) of France’s prosecution services, which opened the first probe into the IAAF, are notably trying to establish whether there is evidence that contracts with Nike may have incited top IAAF officials – who include current IAAF president Lord Sebastian Coe, who was given a role as “ambassador” for Nike – to support the Eugene bid.
Enlargement : Illustration 2
Other documents from Football Leaks concern the Paris bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. Members of the team behind the bid noted the presence of Prince Albert, an influential member of the IOC since 1985, at the evening ceremony in September 2017 at the IOC Session in Lima, Peru, when the choice of host cities for the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics was announced. Paris was awarded the 2024 games, and the prince was happy to let it be known that he had “helped” the French capital with its candidature.
Four years earlier, the possibility of the prince’s help for the Paris bid had been raised for reasons quite other than altruism.
According to the minutes of a board meeting of football club AS Monaco on May 14th 2013, Joël Bouzou, one of the club’s board members, suggested how Monaco’s influence within the IOC might be useful to French hopes that Paris would obtain the 2024 games, and could be used to help the club overcome a dispute that had nothing to do with the Olympics.
AS Monaco was locked in a conflict with the French football authorities over their questioning of the tax advantages it enjoyed over other clubs in the French divisions.
Bouzou, a former Olympics bronze medal-winner in modern pentathlon at the 1984 Los Angeles games, is well versed in the workings of the Olympics movement, having since 2011 presided the World Olympian Association, which represents former Olympic athletes and promotes the ideals of the games. According to the minutes of the May 14th 2013 board meeting, Bouzou, a “sports” advisor to Prince Albert, explained how “on a political level, France might need Monaco’s support regarding its [Paris] candidature for the Olympic Games”.
At the time, the plan for the Paris bid was facing strong competition from a number of cities, including Los Angeles.
Bouzou, according to the minutes, told the board that “in this election, Monaco can bring between 30 and 40 votes”, referring to those cast by CIO members.
Joël Bouzou declined to answer questions submitted to him by Mediapart, and notably which votes he was referring to, how they could be influenced and how the principality could wield such influence, and also whether such practice violated IOC rules.
Prince Albert, questioned about Bouzou’s claims, said he “fell from my chair” upon learning of them.
During the board meeting, Bouzou also suggested that “it could be interesting to pass this message to the Elysée [The French presidential office] and the [French] Olympic Committee”. That idea received the approbation of six other board members present, and the minutes show that the board mandated Bouzou to inform the relevant French authorities.
A statement from the Monegasque palace said: “If this type of totally inacceptable conduct could have been raised, even if it never became the object of a concrete move, it involves an individual initiative taken without consent of the prince.” The palace added that Prince Albert, “deplores it and rejects it with the greatest firmness, because it goes against the principles that guide his action on a daily basis.”
Four months after the May 2013 board meeting, Etienne Franzi, a board member and a former president of the club, read through the minutes. He wrote to Tetiana Bersheda, lawyer to the club’s Russian owner Dmitry Rybolovlev asking, “is it really opportune to keep” the quotes of what Bouzou, the prince’s advisor, said. “To be checked with M.J. Bouzou,” he advised.
The minutes were subsequently modified. The new version no longer mentioned the “between 30 and 40 votes” that Monaco supposedly controlled at the IOC. But they did retain that, “France could have need of Monaco’s support in the context of an eventual candidature for the Olympic Games and this element could be taken into account in the strategy to settle the current dispute”.
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Contacted by Mediapart, Kory Tarpenning sent us the following written reply to our questions on the issues raised in this report:
"I am following up on your email in which you asked a certain number of questions about my relationship with the Nike company.
This goes back several years, dating from my career as a high-level athlete, and which continued with the opening of a Nike store in Monaco.
Regarding the negotiations between the Monaco Football Club and Nike, they were staggered over several years, as is often the case for a contract of that nature, with a result that in the end satisfied the parties concerned.
You will understand that for reasons of confidentiality, I cannot detail the financial conditions of my contractual relationship, in accordance with the practices in such matters.”
Also contacted about the issues in this report, Football club AS Monaco sent us a reply in the form of a general statement, in which it said that regarding contracts it signs with sponsors, they “are all in accordance with applicable laws, notably labour laws and those of obligations, as well as federation rules”.
Joël Bouzou did not respond to our questions.
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- The French version of this report can be found here.