Voting 'mistake' gave London the 2012 Games

11:34am Friday 23rd December 2005

A senior official from the International Olympic Committee has said London may have won the right to host the 2012 Games because of a misplaced vote.

Alex Gilady, an Israeli who sits on the IOC's London 2012 Co-ordination Commission, claimed that a member of the IOC pushed the wrong button during voting for the host city in Singapore in July, when London was selected.

Mr Gilady said a delegate pushed a button to vote for Paris instead of Madrid, with the Spanish city eventually eliminated.

Paris won through to the final round, gaining 33 votes to Madrid's 31.

If Madrid had gone into the final round of voting, instead of Paris, against London, the result could have changed.

Madrid was considered a very strong competitor to London in a straight voting contest.

Mr Gilady told the BBC that Madrid would have taken more votes than London into the final round.

"Coming into the final against London, all the votes from Paris would have gone to support Madrid. Madrid would have won," he said on BBC News 24.

"That is now what we think happened. This is what you call good fortune and good luck."

There has been no official comment from within the IOC about Mr Gilady's claims.