New Delhi, Aug. 11: Australian company Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM) on Wednesday termed the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee’s decision to terminate its services as ‘wrongful, vicious and abrupt’.
SMAM also said that the OC’s move was a step towards diverting attention from the ongoing corruption drama and to avoid paying the firm its due “commission”.
“The OC has wrongfully, viciously, abruptly and publicly terminated SMAM’s agreement in a manner that is not only counter to the agreement and inconsistent with the interests of staging a successful CWG in India, but also detrimental to the goodwill and reputation of the Commonwealth Games movement,” SMAM said in a statement.
“SMAM believes that the OC’s grounds for termination are imaginary and concocted and an attempt to deviate attention from the more serious issues and charges related to the upcoming Delhi Games. We also believe that the OC has served the alleged termination to SMAM as it does not intend to honour its financial commitments to SMAM,” it added.
The company was roped in to bring in sponsorships for the October 3 to 14 Games but its contract was terminated by OC on grounds of “non-performance”.
However, SMAM dismissed OC’s allegations saying: “Owing to the diligent and concerted efforts by SMAM a record breaking sponsorship income totalling over Rs 400 crore ($85 million) has been generated in respect of the Games so far. It has been the highest ever in the history of the CWG, surpassing the revenue achieved for the Melbourne Games.”
Meanwhile, OC spokesman Lalit Bhanot stuck to his stated stand saying: “The OC Executive Board had decided to terminate SMAM’s services and we will go ahead with it. Our decision in this regard is final and nobody has the powers to revert the decision of the Executive Board.”
OC denies Premier Brands’ pull out
The OC secretary general claimed that its merchandising partner Premier Brands would not quit and official apparel and accessories for the Games would be launched in the coming few days. “They (Premier Brands) are not going to leave us. We had to postpone the launch couple of times as we were busy. We will organise an official launch in 2-3 days,” Bhanot said.