Unaffiliated 'Vancouver 2030' group causing confusion for official Olympic bid team

Search online for information on the Canadian Olympic Committee's bid to host the 2030 Olympics and you'll likely find yourself on a site called Vancouver2030.org, an official looking site that has its own Twitter account, registration page and invites you to "Reignite the Passion."

But scroll way down to the bottom and you'll see a disclaimer that it is not actually affiliated with the COC or the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

For Canadian officials preparing their bid to host the 2030 Olympics and Paralympics in B.C., that's a problem. 

Under International Olympic Committee rules, the national Olympic committees determine a country's official bid. The COC has done that, aligning with a group of four First Nations in a historic Indigenous-led bid to explore the feasibility of bringing the Games back to B.C.

Emilio Rivero, who bills himself as the CEO of Vancouver 2030, said his group's original intention was to pursue a bid with the COC, but says his goal now to promote the bid. 

Rivero said "the notion of us misleading or getting people confused [is] hard to accept.

"There's a clear statement on our website that we are not the official [bid], that we do not form part or belong to the Canadian Olympic Committee," he said.

WATCH | What you should know about Vancouver's 2030 bid:

That exploration phase of the COC-led bid is in progress. The IOC visited B.C. earlier this week, while the involved Canadian groups hope to finalize what the bid itself looks like around June. The IOC is expected to open the official bid process in the fall.

Rivero appeared on CBC-TV during the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, misrepresenting himself as a leader of Canada's bid.

Rivero said that he included a disclaimer that his group