Birch – India Should not be Allowed to Bid for 2020 Olympics

The executive producer of the Delhi Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, Ric Birch does not believe India should be allowed to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games. Birch claims that his company, Spectak Productions, is owed 15 per cent of its fees concerning the opening ceremony which the organisers have allegedly refused to pay.

Mr Birch believes that the organising committee still owe millions of dollars to foreign firms involved in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Spectak is just one of a number of companies still awaiting payments for the services they provided.

“Every single detail, every single word – its meaning, definition, its possible connotation – of every document and contract is being minutely examined, checked, double-checked and triple-checked to ensure that no one can be accused of a transgression,” said Birch. 

“People are scared that if they clear a bill, say, of an Australian contractor, they will be accused by the media of ‘siphoning’ money off to an Australian.

“The media have made such crazy and wild allegations that no one wants to take any chances.”

Birch believes that the longer the payments take to be made the less chance that India will have in their proposed bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The situation is also not helped by the severe criticism that the organising committee of the Commonwealth Games came under prior to its opening.