Background
During the Communist regime in Bulgaria, Slavkov married Lyudmila Zhivkova, daughter of Bulgaria"s Communist leader Todor Zhivkov.
During the Communist regime in Bulgaria, Slavkov married Lyudmila Zhivkova, daughter of Bulgaria"s Communist leader Todor Zhivkov.
Despite lack of qualifications, he was appointed head of the state-controlled Bulgarian Television in 1972, an example of the regime"s growing practice of corruption and nepotism. In 1982 Slavkov left Bulgarian television and became the President of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee. In 2000 Slavkov was investigated by the International Olympic Committee after it was alleged he offered support to a businessman who went on to try and solicit bribes from Cape Town when they were bidding to stage the 2004 Games.
According to Chris Ball, who led the Cape Town bid, the businessman had a letter signed by Slavkov in his capacity as President of the Bulgarian NOC and this man then went on to suggest that he could deliver International Olympic Committee votes in return for money.
Cape Town refused to pay bribes and reported the incident to the International Olympic Committee. In 2000 the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission decided "after an exhaustive examination of the facts and elements, not to pursue the examination of the Slavkov affair."
The programme was broadcast on British Broadcasting Corporation on 4 August 2004. The International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission immediately recommended that Ivan Slavkov is provisionally deprived "of all the rights, prerogatives and functions deriving from his membership of the International Olympic Committee" throughout their investigation and that the accreditations of Goran Takač, Gabor Komyathy, Mahmood El Farnawani and Muttaleb Ahmad are immediately withdrawn for the duration of the Olympic Games in Athens.
The International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission produced a full report on the incident on October 25, 2004, in which it concluded that Mr Slavkov"s actions were "contrary to the ethical principles derived from the Olympic Charter and the International Olympic Committee code of ethics and of an extremely serious nature", and recommended his expulsion from International Olympic Committee. On Thursday 7 July 2005 at the International Olympic Committee session in Singapore Slavkov was charged with bringing the International Olympic Committee into disrepute. 82 members voted in favour of expelling him, with only 12 voting against despite Slavkov making a 20-minute plea to the committee.
Slavkov was also barred from being chairman of the Bulgarian national Olympic committee, a post he held even after being suspended from the International Olympic Committee. After public outcry in Bulgaria, Slavkov was replaced as President of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee by retired Bulgarian olympic high jumper Stefka Kostadinova, and as President of the Bulgarian Football Union by Borislav Mikhailov, the former captain of the Bulgaria national football team
On 1 May 2011 Slavkov died in a government hospital following lung complications. He was 70.
After the collapse of Communism in Bulgaria, Slavkov (also known as "Bateto", meaning "the elder brother" in Bulgarian) was accused, but subsequently acquitted of several crimes including gross embezzlement of public funds from Sofia"s unsuccessful bid for the 1994 Winter Olympics. In 2001 he established a political party named Forward Bulgaria (modeled after Silvio Berlusconi"s Forza Italia) which failed to clear the 4% barrier in order to enter Parliament.
He served as the President of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) between 1982 and 2005 and was a member of the International Olympic Committee (International Olympic Committee) between 1987 and 2005.