The Secret Dirty Deal Struck to Secure the 2012 Olympics

What we did not know is that London is, according to these contracts, required to provide the IOC and the ‘Olympic Family’ (including the Committee members, staff and officials) with 40,000 hotel-room bookings for the entire duration of the Games.

This includes 1,800 four and five-star hotel rooms for the IOC elite. Six Park Lane hotels have been booked out for the ­duration of the Games, including the Dorchester, the Grosvenor and the Hilton.

The 40,000-room booking does not, of course, include accommodation for the competitors themselves — they are having an Olympic Village built for them at a cost to taxpayer of £325 million.

Nor is any accommodation being reserved for spectators. On the evidence of the documents, visitors to the Games will probably find that any hotel within a 50-mile radius of London is already fully booked by the third assistant director of the Togolese handball federation and his extensive support staff.'

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