Samaranch fascist salute threatens to overshadow IOC Berlin meeting

A BLACK and white photograph - taken 35 years ago - threatens to overshadow the International Olympic Committee's executive board meeting in Berlin this week.

CONTROVERSY: Juan Antonio Samaranch, pictured three from right, is photographed giving a fascist salute in 1974 (Sapiens Magazine)

In it former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch is pictured giving a fascist salute at a celebration to mark the 38th anniversary of General Franco's coup.

The image was published in the August edition of Sapiens magazine, a historical publication, and you can bet Samaranch's successor as IOC president, Jacques Rogge, will be asked about it during a scheduled press conference on Thursday.

Samaranch's links to the Franco regime are hardly a great secret - he served as his sports minister during the late 1960's.

But now there is art to underline them and campaigners have used the publication of the photograph to call for the 89-year old to tender his resignation as IOC life president - a call guaranteed to be ignored by the IOC and the man himself.

Rogge and his executive board will wrestle with some major issues this week in a packed agenda - including trimming a short list of seven aspiring 2016 sports down from seven to two and debating the inclusion of women's boxing in the London 2012 programme.

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