Andrew Jennings is being hailed around the world by colleagues for his tenacious journalism which helped expose corruption at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).
The journalist died on January 8 from what is reported to be a sudden illness. Born in 1943 in Scotland, Jennings spent the first years of his career in newspaper and radio journalism.
In 1992, his first book was published, The Lords of the Rings: Power, Money and Drugs in the Modern Olympics was followed by an updated sequel in 1996 and a 2000 work, The Great Olympic Swindle.
His reporting on the flow of gifts and favors to IOC members to win support for Olympic bid cities came years before the IOC took action in 1999 to reform the Olympic bid process.
“I remember the stink that it caused when it was released,” says Steve Wilson, former Olympics reporter with the Associated Press about Lords of the Rings. “The Salt Lake City vote-buying scandal was a vindication for Jennings,” Wilson told Around the Rings.
Jennings was a combative figure in IOC press conferences, often parrying with IOC director Francois Carrard. The Swiss lawyer, clever and quick-witted, never shied from ripostes with Jennings. A touch of irony that both would die hours apart the same January weekend.
“He loved to appear at press conferences with awkward, unpleasant questions. Not everyone agreed with his style or tactics, but you couldn’t ignore him,” Wilson said to Around The Rings.
Along with the IOC, Jennings took aim at a second favored target, world football’s governing body, FIFA and its former leaders Sepp Blatter and Joao Havelange. Jennings may forever be remembered for asking Blatter at a press conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich if he he had ever taken a bribe.
Jennings had a long association with Play the Game, an organization based in Denmark which encourages ethics and transparency in world sport.
The appreciation of Jennings written by Play the Game’s Jens Sejer Andersen is a comprehensive accounting of Jenning’s influence. https://www.playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2022/0685_andrew-jennings-1943-2022-the-incomparable/
Jennings was careful to avoid doubts about his integrity, even turning down the smallest of gifts. Appearing as a speaker at an Around the Rings newsmaker breakfast held during the Sydney Olympics, he held forth against the IOC, blasting the organization’s slow response to corruption charges.
Guest speakers at the breakfast were thanked with a package of products from the coffee company which sponsored the breakfast. Out of the dozen-plus speakers appearing on stage in Sydney across three weeks, Jennings was the only one to decline the offering. Politely, it should be noted.
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