# Sports

Vijay Goel denies breaking rules as Rio panel threatens to cancel accreditation

thestatesman.com | August 12, 2016 5:12 am

After the Rio Olympic organisers threatened to cancel Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel’s accreditation if unaccredited people accompanying him do not end their "aggressive and rude" behaviour, the minister on Friday denied breaking rules and said that "there seems to be some misunderstanding".

Goel took to microblogging website Twitter to comment on the issue after the embarrassing news broke out.

"To my knowledge, we have been following all rules and regulations. We are committed to the spirit of Olympics and back our Indian players," he wrote

"There seems to be some misunderstanding as we have followed all protocols as advised by the organisers," the minister added.

Currently, Goel is in Rio to cheer for the Indian contingent.

In a letter, Sarah Peterson, who is Continental Manager for Rio 2016 Organising Committee told Indian Chef-de-Mission Rakesh Gupta that the minister’s accreditation might be cancelled.

"We have had multiple reports of your Minister for Sports trying to enter accredited areas at venues with unaccredited individuals. When the staff try to explain that this is not allowed, they report that the people with the Minister have become aggressive and rude and sometimes push past our staff," Peterson wrote.

"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of behaviour, the accreditation of your Minister for Sports will be cancelled and his privileges at the Olympic Games withdrawn.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," she added.