Sports Minister Vijay Goel has made situation embarrassing for India as the organisers of the Rio games threatened to cancel Goel’s accreditation alleging the minister is trying to enter accredited areas at venues with unaccredited individuals.
Vijay Goel who has gone to Rio to monitor the requirements at the Games Village is going around taking plenty of selfies with Indian athletes who could be clearly seen tired after their play.
Sarah Peterson, Continental Manager for Rio 2016 Organising Committee has written a letter to India’s chef de mission, Rakesh Gupta saying that when the staff tries to explain that this is not allowed the people with the minister become aggressive and rude and sometimes push past the staff.
The manger added in the latter that this type of behaviour is not acceptable and despite previous warnings even today the same incident occurred at the Rio Olympic Arena (Gymnastics venue) and Carioca Arena 3. She has warned that Goel’s accreditation could be cancelled because of this.
The letter says, “Should our protocol team be made aware of further examples of this type of behaviour, the accreditation of your Minister for Sports will be cancelled and his privileges at the Olympic Games withdrawn. We trust you will pass on this message urgently.”
However on his part, Goel said that the management has some issue with his staff and the letter has not been written against him. Goel twitted, “To my knowledge, we have been following all rules & regulations. We are committed to the spirit of Olympics & back our Indian players. There seems to be some misunderstanding as we have followed all protocols as advised by the organizers.”