Representatives of the world’s two biggest sporting events are in London this week. IOC Olympic inspectors are in town to check on the progress or lack of it in the build up to the 2012 games and FIFA president Sepp Blatter has had a meeting with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.
The inspectors arrival coincides with the news that the cost of the games has now gone up to £10billion from the £2.3billion in the London winning bid and people are starting to wonder if hosting the Olympics means London taxpayers pouring money into a bottomless pit. The government are scrabbling to spin the costs and its no surprise they never included VAT tax (17.5%) that’s paid on just about everything, on any of their estimates.
Meanwhile Sepp Blatter has put a downer on England’s hopes of getting awarded the 2018 football World Cup. Most people here thought England had a great shot at getting the tournament. England hasn’t staged it since 1966, is the home of football, has great stadiums and facilities, is a football crazy country with probably the most watched league in the world and the next two World Cups are going to South Africa and most likely Brazil, so people expected it to return to Europe in 2018 and England had the best case.
Now Blatter’s saying maybe not, maybe it should go to North America again and the US has already said they want to bid for it. I can guarantee you that if you asked people in London and England what they wanted, either the World Cup or Olympics, it would be 90%+ for the World Cup. I think Tony Blair should step up to the plate now and do a deal while its not to late. Get FIFA and the IOC together and say London will give up the 2012 games to New York and the US will give up on the 2018 World Cup, that would really get sports fans in the UK excited.
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