A leading Olympic official has suggested that London may have won the right to stage the 2012 Games only because one of the 104 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pressed the wrong button in the third-round vote.

Alex Gilady, the Israeli who is one of the most influential members of the IOC, claimed that the mistake helped Paris, rather than Madrid, to reach the final round against London. Madrid had been widely regarded as the biggest threat to London in a straight fight.

It is believed that the blunder was committed by Lambis Nikolaou, of Greece, who protested publicly at the microphone after the secret ballot in Singapore on July 6 that he had not had time to register his vote. In fact, an examination of the poll showed that all the eligible IOC members had voted in that round.

In the third round, London received 39 votes, Paris 33 and Madrid 31, so eliminating the Spanish capital. Gilady, who is a vice-president of NBC Sports, the American broadcaster, said: "The way the vote went was that after the first round Moscow was out, after the second round New York was out and then came the third round. London was ahead but Paris and Madrid had 33 to 31 in the votes.

"What we think now happened (was) that one member made a mistake and voted for Paris rather than Madrid, because if he would vote for Madrid it would be 32-32 (and) we have to have a vote-off."

Gilady told BBC News 24, in a report to be broadcast on Sunday: "In the vote-off, all the votes supporting London would go to Madrid because the fear was that Paris had a big chance to win. Madrid would then have won against Paris. Coming into the final against London, all the votes from Paris would have gone to support Madrid. Madrid would have won. That is now what we think happened. This is what you call good fortune and good luck." There has been no official support for Gilady’s claim from the IOC itself.

All the IOC members in Singapore had rehearsed the voting procedure before the first round and were given about a minute to register their choice. The poll was carried out in specially constructed rectangular boxes, with members pressing numbered keys, slightly larger than those on a laptop. The keys designated the different cities, which had been drawn by lot. London was numbered seven and Paris eight.

After registering the vote, the member had either to confirm it or to cancel it by pressing a separate key.

Nikolaou, a civil engineer and president of the Greek Olympic Committee, complained after the third round that he had not had sufficient time to register his choice. Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, consulted Thomas Bach, a vice-president overseeing voting, and dismissed the objection. Nikolaou has subsequently declined to comment on the suggestion that he voted for the wrong city.

London may well have benefited not only from this incident but also from the absence, because of illness, of Nikos Filaretos, the other IOC member from Greece. He had been expected to support Paris.

Today, Craig Reedie, the former chairman of the British Olympic Committee and a member of the IOC, dismissed the speculation surrounding the vote.

"The story is totally irrelevant, the voting was conducted in a secret ballot under the rules of the IOC, absolutely properly, all votes were properly recorded," Mr Reedie told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"If Alex (Gilady) is claiming that an unnamed member ‘might’ have done something which ‘might’ have brought about something else which ‘might’ have brought about a different voting structure then I’m afraid that this is the kind of tittle-tattle that happens after many an IOC vote.

"London won the Games hands down," said Mr Reedie, a former president of the International Badminton Federation.

In the final, London snatched the Games from Paris — winning 54-50 — for three main reasons. Although Paris had been the favourites, the backroom staff of the London bid had impressed the IOC, as had the vision of the new facilities near Stratford. Second, Tony Blair spoke to about 60 IOC members in Singapore to assure them of the Government’s backing.

Finally, Lord Coe was the most recognisable figure of all the bid leaders and had competed alongside many of the voting members. He produced a mesmerising speech in the presentation.

However, this came into play only after Madrid had been eliminated. If it had been London versus Madrid in the final round, it might have been a different outcome.

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